My statement doesn't state "Invoice"

[MoonCat]

Is it me? Or the customer?

Just had this call:

Customer: We're getting statements from you that say Past Due, but we need an invoice. We can't pay a statement.

Me: If it says Past Due, has an amount due and an account number on it, it is an invoice.

Customer: No, it says statement. Our accounts payable dept. won't pay a statement. They need an invoice.

Me: It's the same thing, ma'am.

Customer: A statement and an invoice are not the same thing, dear. (Now this is where she pushed the wrong button. Don't call me 'dear', 'honey' or anything that remotely sounds affectionate. In the words of Flip Wilson's Geraldine, "You don't know me that well!")

Me: It is the same thing here, ma'am. However, you can call customer service in the morning and speak to them about it. They close at 4 pm.

So she agreed to do that. She wasn't nasty or crabby. I just don't get what she wants. Like I said: If it has your account number on it, an amount due and is stamped "Past Due" then what difference does it make what word is printed at the top, Statement or Invoice? It still has the relevant information, including what you're being billed for.

Am I nuts?

[Raveni]

An invoice is an itemized list of work done for the client, and how much they owe you for it.

A statement is the status of the account at a particular point in time. Each line item on a statement represents either a bill or a payment. As such, it doesn’t offer as much detail as a bill.

Many companys will only pay an invoice, because they can see if the work has been done, and if the price is what was agreed on. Think of the invoice as supporting documentation to prove that the past due balance on the statement is valid.

I would say that 95% of the time that I get a past-due statement at work, it's because an invoice was never sent to us to be paid. Sometimes because they never did the work...

[Aethian]

I would say that 95% of the time that I get a past-due statement at work, it's because an invoice was never sent to us to be paid. Sometimes because they never did the work...

Or what happened at one place I worked, the invoice was sent and put into a pile for a away manager...who was away long enough for the statement to be on the top of the pile.

And mooncat, I don't think it was you. I would have gotten irked at the condescending 'dear' but the lady had a bit more suck added when she would differentiate the two for you. If you son't know the difference they can be the same thing.

[freeatlast]

Where I work, if an account becomes past due we will email a statement in addition to calling the customer. Often, we do not get an answer when calling a company's A/P department so we leave a voice mail. When they do get around to calling us back, they immediately go into the "we don't pay from a statement - send an invoice." We then ask the specific invoice number they need. 99% of the time, they have no clue what invoice they have not paid. If I can quickly scan the account and determine the unpaid invoice, I will send that one. More often, I tell them to figure out what they have not paid and call us back when they know which invoice they need. It's amazing how often they don't have a clue what they have paid and what they haven't.

[MoonCat]

Thanks, guys. So generally the two things are not the same. Well, you just know we have to be different here, right?

I checked with our A/R dept this morning and they tell me that in our case, they are the same thing. They actually have the words "invoice statement" printed on them. Probably goofy, but it is what it is.

I don't usually see the bills since we only take the ads here and most of them are prepaid. The bills go out from another dept. I know they usually include details like the date the ad started running, the number of lines in the ad, price per line, and total price. At the end of the statement it will show a total amount due and how many days it has gone unpaid (30, 60 or 90). Plus a lot of accounts get electronic tearsheets (a copy of the actual page the ad ran on) for each ad.

She said it was marked "past due." So even if we sent out invoices first and then statements, they already had gotten the original bill, which, if we did things her way, would have been an invoice. Which they didn't pay.

Ha! While I was typing this, guess who called back? I switched her to A/R. I wish I could have listened to that call.

[Darkforge]

wait, so the customer saw "invoice statement" and their brain went "invoice =/= statement, dur, i need one that just says Invoice" and then called you?!?

you'd think they would think these things through properly, but i suppose thats me expecting customer to think at all

[MoonCat]

wait, so the customer saw "invoice statement" and their brain went "invoice =/= statement, dur, i need one that just says Invoice" and then called you?!?

you'd think they would think these things through properly, but i suppose thats me expecting customer to think at all

Yeah, apparently having both words on there short-circuited their brains.

Our customer service dept also confirmed for me that at our company, they are the same thing. I guess it throws some people off because it's not what they're used to.

[Gerrinson]

Yeah, apparently having both words on there short-circuited their brains.

Our customer service dept also confirmed for me that at our company, they are the same thing. I guess it throws some people off because it's not what they're used to.

Actually, I work in A/P and that happened to my boss...

She didn't sign one of the checks I had cut and sent it back with a note stating that I had the statement but no invoice attached. Completely overlooking the fact that the top half of the statement IS our current invoice. Or is it that the bottom half of the current invoice is our statement?

Damnit! Now I'm confused!

[emax4]

"However you interpret it... ..dear.. it has to be paid. We say that it's an invoice whereas you believe you need a statement. You can discuss semantics later. Either way if it's not paid, you will be reported to collections and we will refuse further service with you"

[bhskittykatt]

wait, so the customer saw "invoice statement" and their brain went "invoice =/= statement, dur, i need one that just says Invoice" and then called you?!?

you'd think they would think these things through properly, but i suppose thats me expecting customer to think at all

Our AP has done this. They sent us an email saying "can't be paid, need an invoice, not a statement." I opened up the copy of the file, and it said INVOICE Statement.

It sucks for me working in management. I have to liaison between the vendor and our AP, and when Corporate gets bullheaded, I get yelled at by the vendor.

[fma_fanatic]

Our AP has done this. They sent us an email saying "can't be paid, need an invoice, not a statement." I opened up the copy of the file, and it said INVOICE Statement.

It sucks for me working in management. I have to liaison between the vendor and our AP, and when Corporate gets bullheaded, I get yelled at by the vendor.

Yeah, I get that too. I just send it back underlining the word Invoice and say "hey it says Invoice statement. Don't know how much clearer they can make it." That usually fixes the problem. It might also might help that I CC their manager too.

There are times where it doesn't work and I have to contact the vendor. I wish people would read before assuming that it's not what it seems to be, but then that would mean my co-workers would need to have some common sense.

[surreal20]

An invoice is an itemized list of work done for the client, and how much they owe you for it.

A statement is the status of the account at a particular point in time. Each line item on a statement represents either a bill or a payment. As such, it doesn’t offer as much detail as a bill.

Many companys will only pay an invoice, because they can see if the work has been done, and if the price is what was agreed on. Think of the invoice as supporting documentation to prove that the past due balance on the statement is valid.

I would say that 95% of the time that I get a past-due statement at work, it's because an invoice was never sent to us to be paid. Sometimes because they never did the work...

you have it completely right. I'm a newly graduated accountant and when it comes to legger interies and actually accounts payable and accounts receivables, an itemized invoiced is needed to warrent a correct transatcion.

[Moirae]

Is it me? Or the customer?

Just had this call:

Customer: We're getting statements from you that say Past Due, but we need an invoice. We can't pay a statement.

Me: If it says Past Due, has an amount due and an account number on it, it is an invoice.

Customer: No, it says statement. Our accounts payable dept. won't pay a statement. They need an invoice.

Me: It's the same thing, ma'am.

Customer: A statement and an invoice are not the same thing, dear. (Now this is where she pushed the wrong button. Don't call me 'dear', 'honey' or anything that remotely sounds affectionate. In the words of Flip Wilson's Geraldine, "You don't know me that well!")

Me: It is the same thing here, ma'am. However, you can call customer service in the morning and speak to them about it. They close at 4 pm.

So she agreed to do that. She wasn't nasty or crabby. I just don't get what she wants. Like I said: If it has your account number on it, an amount due and is stamped "Past Due" then what difference does it make what word is printed at the top, Statement or Invoice? It still has the relevant information, including what you're being billed for.

Am I nuts?

You didn't do anything wrong, she's just mentally retarded.

[Andara Bledin]

you have it completely right. I'm a newly graduated accountant and when it comes to legger interies and actually accounts payable and accounts receivables, an itemized invoiced is needed to warrent a correct transatcion.

Whether a statement is an invoice or not depends entirely upon the entity sending out the paperwork.

By the reasoning that a statement isn't an invoice, then I should never have to pay my phone bill, because they only send me a statement in the mail every month, even though it's laid out precisely like an invoice would be, on with more information, instead of less as was suggested.

Now, in the case of my company, if we send a statement, it's only a statement. It lists Invoice numbers, dates, and amounts due and/or paid.

In the case of the OP, however, it appears the work more like the phone company as regards paperwork. And the caller's difficulty wasn't that the information wasn't there, but that it didn't have the word "Invoice" on it anywhere.

^-.-^

[MoonCat]

Whether a statement is an invoice or not depends entirely upon the entity sending out the paperwork.

By the reasoning that a statement isn't an invoice, then I should never have to pay my phone bill, because they only send me a statement in the mail every month, even though it's laid out precisely like an invoice would be, on with more information, instead of less as was suggested.

Now, in the case of my company, if we send a statement, it's only a statement. It lists Invoice numbers, dates, and amounts due and/or paid.

In the case of the OP, however, it appears the work more like the phone company as regards paperwork. And the caller's difficulty wasn't that the information wasn't there, but that it didn't have the word "Invoice" on it anywhere.

^-.-^

Actually, our bills say "Invoice Statement" on the top...somewhere...so I'm told by customer service. I haven't seen one (they come from another dept) but I've been assured this is the case.

I think it's hilarious that some people insist they can't work with whatever we send them. We do it the way we do it; they're going to have to adapt to our system.