Project Financial Closures

Posted on 24 September, 2010 at 11:45 PM by with Leave a Comment

Ensure the supplier understands what the requirement is while making outstanding payment.

I got a Philippines I.T. supplier who supplies most of the I.T. equipment for the project.
It is a huge 6 million project consists of PC machines, servers, gadgets and other IT equipment.

At the end of the project, I had seek the supplier to provide the outstanding invoice balance.
I would like to pay the ALL the pending outstanding invoices and clear all the debts.

Had made several calls, communicate through mails. Yet the supplier is not aware of the actual requirement.

So I decided to have the last approach by giving them a visit together with their management.
Communicated the requirement that I would like to make the final payment face-to-face.
After which we would not like to see any financial matter for this project.

So the supplier had shared the outstanding invoices after we left.
My project financial advisor had also stated clearly that the outstanding invoices
will be final and should not have any more finance matter after this exercise. The supplier had also agreed.

After my financial advisor made the payment, the supplier then sent out a message stating that the payment we had made was the outstanding for the last quarter.
It was not the final invoice as yet.

I had specifically informed the supplier that I would like to clear all the outstanding payment for this project.

Thus the supplier should share all those outstanding invoices that had not been made.
This should be an delighted activity for any supplier.

Yet the supplier kept making the wrong assumptions.
It is not the project does not want to clear financial matter.
It is the supplier that cannot understands and enjoys the payment activity.

Lessons Learned: Be specifically clear with the supplier on financial matters.
State clearly on the terms and conditions. If the supplier is not aware of the situations.
Give simple understood language so that the supplier understands.

If need be, seek for a translator / interpreter.

Any feedback or suggestions, please add in your comment.

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Project Costing

Posted on 26 August, 2010 at 11:45 PM by with 4 Comments

When comes to price comparison on various vendors’ quotation. It’s good to collate all returned quotations into a single spreadsheet, put the respective items side by side.

Once the alignment is done, you are able to compare the final price no matter what discount rate the vendor provides. Do an apple to apple comparison.

Compare the quotation item by item with same exchange rate, category, discount structure, logistics charges, professional services etc.

In Asia, pricing is an unique item. There are many different countries in this region. Countries such as Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Korea, Japan and so forth. Thus there are many taxation, currencies exchange rate issues that not many locations have. Thus in a quotation, a proper cost comparison is required.

Ultimately, how much the project needs to pay is crucial. Which vendor is offering the best deal and can offer furthest cost reduction is important. However, low price quotations may or will come in with low quality. Thus project manager got to balance the constraints.
There is certain amount of margins that the vendor has to make. However, the margin should be justifiable and should not be letting the vendor had the lion’s share.

Once the project kick-starts, project managers needs to track the project expenditure. Ensure there is no over spent on the project budget.

There will be many explanations if the spending is higher than the budget. Project Manager will have to answer to the Business Sponsor for the additional investment.

Discussion and effective negotiations are VERY important to get the deal win with low cost at the very initial stage.

Business Sponsor is easier to invest after you had made the necessary price comparison and valid justification.

Money_Grasping

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Job vs Career

Posted on 17 July, 2009 at 10:00 AM by with

Do you know the difference between a “job” and a “career”?

According to the dictionary, a “job” is defined as “a paid position of employment and something one has to do, a responsibility.” Interestingly enough, the root word for “job” is, humorously, an Old English word that means “a lump.” The reference is to a quantity, a “lump” of work, so to speak. As it applies to our topic, it is one distinct and unrelated period of employment in a series of jobs one may have.

A “career,” on the other hand, comes from Middle French and stems from an earlier word for “car” — and then “street.” So, a career is a path. The dictionary defines it as “an occupation, a way of making a living, especially with opportunities for advancement or promotion, and progress through life.” It is a journey – a career pathway.

These definitions are nice and dandy – but what do they mean to you?


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