Invoices raised and sent when due

cmaitland95

Hi all,

I'm working for an SME company and one of our suppliers have sent us a statement showing invoices outstanding from January-March, asking for payment despite never sending the invoices in the first place. We get this a lot and I just wondered whether we can demand that the invoice be dated as of when we were first made aware of them (eg today).

Norvydas

Dear cmaitland95,

The invoices will have to be dated by the issue date. If the supplier said that they have sent them then you have no leg to stand as you cannot be accusing them of not sending them. Various reasons why you haven't received them e.g. post lost the envelope, been delivered to wrong address etc.. Unless the supplier agrees to re-issue the invoices with the date of when the statement been issued. I would simply make a note on each invoice/statement when you've received them.

Other reason supplier wouldn't change the date due to credit terms, if they issued invoice on January 18 and they give you 60 days to pay it, comes to March 18 and if it hasn't been paid they will send out a statement, if you ask them to re-date it then how could they prove that your 60 day credit term had been expired? You could simply say, wait a minute invoice is dated as March 18, I have 60 days to pay it.

Speak with your management, explain the situation, if the supplier doesn't try to charge you extra then that's fine.

Cheesypeesy

Along with Norvydas' post, I would suggest discussing solutions with the supplier to ensure this doesn't happen again. Having invoices and statements sent via email would be a good solution if available to avoid them getting lost.

Whatever solutions you come up with, you're showing the supplier that you want to make both of your lives easier, which can only be a good thing.

badhombre

Supplier wont re-issue invoice for the reasons listed above re credit terms and (if VAT is involved) that would not be right for a supplier to re-issue invoices at a later date purely to appease a customer. I would ask them to be a bit more pro-active and email a soft copy when they post out the originals. Additionally they could email out a weekly statement to allow you to chase missing invoices much quicker.

cmaitland95

Thank you all for your advice. Following from badhombre I have now asked our supplier to email weekly statements so that we can confirm if any invoices hadn't been emailed across. Fingers crossed we won't have any further problems!