Project Financial Closures
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.