In the process of collecting accounts receivable, there are many problems that often occur and result in payments not running. One of them is an invoice dispute that seems small, but can prevent your customers from paying.

Do you know? Mistakes in writing the total payment figures or the absence of PO attachments can actually make your customers pay invoices. For that, you need to make an invoice dispute to resolve it.
Invoice dispute is a problem solving step to check invoices that are problematic. Is your invoice data incomplete? Are there any attachments that have not been attached? These factors are very influential for your invoice payment.

Read more: The importance of neat account receivable management

What needs to be known about the invoice dispute?

In payment collection, collection officers often only send invoices without checking more closely. As a result, they don’t know whether their invoice is okay or it is still problematic. They only realized when their customers didn’t pay for them.

There are 2 basic reasons why your invoice has not been paid. One, this is purely your fault which affected the payment process. Second, your customer has encountered a problem, resulting in a delayed payment.

To minimize this problem, you need to invoice disputes from the start. That way, your invoices can be paid off on time and your business cash flow can run smoothly. What are the problems in the invoice dispute?

Invoice dispute problems and solutions for smoother collection of trade accounts receivable

B2B transaction processes are different from B2C. The slightest mistake can discourage your client from paying for it. You may have been careful to check what was missing in your invoice.
However, your invoice still doesn’t pay off. What’s missing from the invoice? For that, you can look into examples of problems that often occur in invoice disputes and solutions that you can do.

  1. Order information attachment

    In a study initiated by Kathy Hoffelder in Why Firms Don’t Pay Their Invoices, a company called TermSync conducted a scientific study of 100 finance executives. As a result, 49% of respondents said that a lack or error in the purchase order data can make your invoice unpaid.
    Of course, this problem can be solved easily. You can attach a PO to the invoice email you sent or use Paper.id. At Paper.id, you can attach POs directly to an existing invoice. That way, your customers can open invoices and POs directly in one place.

  2. “I haven’t received the invoice yet”

    As a collection officer, you are required to follow up if your invoice has not been paid. However, you are surprised when your customer tells you that they haven’t received the invoice, even though you already sent it. In an article on com, this problem was also experienced by 11% of respondents who made invoices not paid off. To solve this problem, there are 2 things to know. Are you still sending invoices via email or are you already using accounting software or ERP? Accounting or ERP software can only use single contact send, where invoices will be sent directly to one contact only. The Process is follow-up still done manually which takes time and energy. The invoice system at Paper.id helps you check the invoice status. You can see the invoice status easily. That way, you will know which invoices have been sent and which have not.

  3. Invoice was mistakenly sent

    There are times when you may be too tired and your alert level drops. Finally, you sent the wrong invoice. This often happens and causes invoice payments to be delayed or not paid at all.
    The solution is, you need to ask your customers directly for their email and address. In fact, many people rely solely on the internet by just googling to find addresses from customers. This solution is sometimes not very good, because it could be that the address listed has changed or your customer has moved.
    Another solution is, you can authorize sales to access your invoice system. That way, sales can provide customer information precisely.

  4. Sloppy invoice template

    Invoice template A good has a minimalist design and clear information columns, such as the name of the company and the name of the client, date, term of payment, the amount and total price of goods purchased, information and so on.
    Remember, complete information can make the transaction process smooth. On the other hand, your invoice is threatened not to pay off on time if the information on the invoice is incomplete. For that, you need to have an invoice template that can accommodate all the information you need.
    id has 7 invoice templates that you can use for free. Besides, you can choose it freely. The advantage is that, in addition to a complete information column, Paper.id also provides a signature column and a company logo. This can increase the professionalism of your company, especially for MSMEs.

  5. Other problems

    Sometimes, there are problems outside the invoice that also make the payment process take longer. The Term Sync study stated that 11% of respondents said there were problems with unsuitable items, unsuitable quality, service problems, and so on. For that, you need to implement intense communication with customers to increase the level of company integrity and customer loyalty. Paper Chain implements a system dispute in one portal so that you and customers can chat directly for transactions. This is a future solution to Supply Chain 4.0’s answer which emphasizes the internet of things and artificial intelligence in the supply chain process. How can PaperChain help my business? Click here to schedule a live consultation with our team!

Read more: 4 payment collections to get paid on time

Conclusion

Invoice disputes can cause the process to payment collection to slow down. In a study conducted in the UK in 2011, 50% of companies spent an average of 4 to 6 hours resolving invoice disputes. In addition, 4,000 companies had to go out of business in 2008 due to this problem.

Imagine, you have to waste 4 to 6 hours of time just taking care of the little things that can make you lose your income. The longer, your invoice is on hold, the greater the risk of not being paid off. For medium to large scale companies, this cannot be avoided. Moreover, they have to take care of invoices in large quantities, hundreds or even thousands.

At worst, your company will have to write off uncollectible accounts receivable. According to the data, a company with a profit rate of 10 million dollars per year must suffer a loss of 4% per year or about $ 400,000. If you can reduce the risk by just 20%, your company will get $ 80,000.

How? If you still manage invoices manually, you need to leave them and hand them over to the best supply chain platform, Paper.id.Paper.id has a Paper Trade solution to minimize the risk of unpaid accounts receivable. With a centralized system, you can monitor your trade receivables comprehensively with a feature reminder that you can adjust as well as facilities financing to ensure that your invoice is still paid.

Be part of the future by digitizing your business and feel the ease with Paper Trade! Interested in using it? Schedule a consultation with our best team by clicking the button above!

 

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