digital invoices no longer acceptable for large companies

[RicksAlfas]

I have no objections to receiving invoices by email, but we still print them out so we can match them to orders and delivery notes.
Likewise we send some invoices by post, some by email depending on the customer.
However I always send statements by posts so I can write messages of love/hate on them.

[Rovinghawk]

Simpo Two said:

I don't like getting invoices by PDF; it smacks of laziness to me.

90% of my invoices 'in' and 100% of them 'out' are PDF.
I can get them no matter where I am, they take pretty much zero storage space, they're simple to file, copy, etc.

Simpo Two said:

to me a PDF doesn't really 'exist' and unlike paper is easy to overlook/get forgotten.

They can always be printed but there's generally no need.

[Chrisgr31]

arcturus said:

Simpo Two said:

I don't like getting invoices by PDF; it smacks of laziness to me. I will send them if asked, as it saves me a stamp and I can print one out for the file, but to me a PDF doesn't really 'exist' and unlike paper is easy to overlook/get forgotten.

I don't like getting invoices in the post; it smacks of old fashionedness and inefficiency to me. I will post one if asked, but it costs me a stamp as well as the time and petrol for going to the postbox. Plus I can't save a paper invoice electronically without going to the trouble of scanning it and unlike pdf's, paper invoices are so easy to lose or get forgotten.

So you see, each to his own.

Working for part of a FTSE 100 company all our incoming invoices are sent to Poland for processing so if they arrive by PDF it saves scanning and sending them on! We also tend to send invoices out by email, although thats down to personal preference of those raising the invoice.

When it comes to paying invoices we pay within 28 days as long as the invoice is correct and has the relevant PO on it. The problem comes when the invoice isn't correct as they seem to vanish in to a black hole never to emerge again. We have recently had a couple of cases where we are acting as the middle man for a much smaller company, they invoice us and we invoice the eventual client, the terms of our supplier (the smaller company) are that we dont pay them until we are paid, however twice recently we have paid them before we have been paid and one of those was for a decent 6 figure sum.

So not all big companies are bad, although as mentioned I do accept if there is a problem with the invoice it can take ages to resolve.

[Countdown]

Ean218 said:

I've just had a really big multi national customer say they will no longer pay by BACS, it will be cheques in the post from here on in!

Strange. It will cost them far more to make payments by cheque rather than BACS. It's a pain printing/posting cheques, cancelling them if they go walkabout, and reconciling them.

[Ean218]

Countdown said:

Strange. It will cost them far more to make payments by cheque rather than BACS. It's a pain printing/posting cheques, cancelling them if they go walkabout, and reconciling them.

Not just them, it ought to cost us more too, except we have an FSB free banking account.