Invoices

[Melly1]

Hi,
S attends a club run by an autism charity. He pays to attend and as the club is no longer subsidised and he needs 1 to 1, it is costly.

The charity send out invoices. This is done in an adhoc manner - sometimes a bill for one month, sometimes for two or three months on one invoice. Sometimes they don't send a bill at all and then send an email saying an invoice is ####OVERDUE FOR PAYMENT#### and it's the first time you have received the invoice or you have to request the invoice they are referring to is sent out. Sometimes the amount requested in the email doesn't match the invoice total.

A small team are responsible for billing and it seems they don't communicate with each other or have a system.

They reckon S owes them money. I have said I cannot pay anything without a valid invoice. They keep suggesting it's different invoices that haven't been paid and then I check our records and send them the authorisation code and date it was paid and then they suggest another one ... It is driving me mad as surely they should have records of which invoices have/ haven't been paid. I have paid all the invoices we have been sent, so it must be one they forgot to send.

I don't believe it is my job to work out which months they forgot to invoice. I have wasted enough time checking each suggested unpaid invoice and emailing the information re when it was paid.

They have sent me a copy of his 'service receipt' to work through and try and identify what hasn't been paid - I don't understand their system nor have time to do this - shouldn't that be their job?!

Thus is driving me crazy and wasting valuable time and energy.

Hopefully typing this will allow me to let go of my annoyance and get some sleep. I was far too late to bed yesterday checking their invoices ...

Melly1

[Maine]

Hi Melly, I think you've done enough yourself trying to sort this out. If they send no invoice, don't pay them. If they keep harassing you for payment without sending the invoice, then tell them they are demanding money with menaces.

[Pet66]

Melly
My Granddaughter works for a bank. She told me if you mention the word ombudsman to do with finance, it usually makes them sit up! Because, if the ombudsman do get involved, it costs the company from the very beginning.
As Maine states you have done enough. They need to sort out what and if you owe any payments.
As if you haven't enough on your plate.

[bowlingbun]

Kelly, when I ran the accounts for a hospital all paper based. No computers, not even calculators, just me and an adding machine!
Our system used a card. All invoices and receipts went on the card.
I would suggest that you did something similar for these clowns!
Write on the card each time S attends, do a running total, and record what you paid and when.
Then on one piece of card it's all there. Keep in a ring binder, together with their invoices.
Ask for a receipt to be issued for all payments.
This is the last complication your already overloaded workload needs!

[Melly1]

Hi BB,
I keep a record of everything (dates attended, invoices paid and I save receipts; but I don't think it's my job to chase invoices if they don't send them out. By going through S's accounts I now note two things - two months were never invoiced (and therefore not paid) and one of the invoices I have paid has a mistake - the total and the amount to pay aren't the same and I paid the amount to pay (which was less.) I think going forward I will duplicate the recording so I have it all in one place though.

Melly1

[bowlingbun]

Yes, you can easily copy all correspondence to store with a record card, just for this organisation. I can't imagine how they do their annual accounts!?!?!

[Melly1]

Nor me ; but I do wonder if it's a small charity 'thing' as when S went to an SEN after school club I had similiar problems and they often didn't get the hours and dates he attended right either.

Melly1

[bowlingbun]

I am often dismayed at the way various LD and care organisations work.
Often, someone who is a good care worker is "promoted" to the office as a manager, with no training, and often lacking even a basic understanding of mathematics. Social workers are not much better! I once had problems with M's travel invoices. He was sent invoices which should have been sent to SSD.

I explained to the SSD Manager that as all the journeys had the same cost, all he had to do was to count the number of journeys, and then multiply the number of journeys by the cost, to arrive at the total amount the journeys cost. He was not prepared even to count the journeys! Sent it all to Head Office to deal with.

M's staff had a choice of three calculators to add up a total of 10 purchase receipts each week. "Not my job" I was told, which was just a cover for complete ignorance of maths.

I've often been mistaken for a teacher, and a son with LD taught me how to explain things in short, simple sentences. I repeatedly offered to explain to any staff having problems what to do. The one member of staff who agreed to let me show her was amazed at just how simple and non challenging it was. "Petrified of maths" seems to sum up almost everyone involved with caring!!

Then I'm told that it's alright for me as I have a degree, but I did that much later, I ran the accounts at the hospital with nothing more than a maths O level.