Keep your business organized VI. - Assuring timely payments

CERTIFICATION OF COMPLetion AND partial deliveries

In most cases, proof of work is provided by a certificate of performance or worksheet to be approved by the client. Certificates of Completion are common in service industries, while worksheets tend to be usual in more manual labor oriented work - maintenance, construction, renovation, etc. Since the payment of part performance is more common in the latter industry types, we will look at these in more detail.

WORKSHEETS

Worksheets are forms that include the characteristics of the work done - that is, the partial deliverables - such as price, deadline, personal details of the person performing the work, and of course the tasks performed. Since the worksheet can only form the basis of financial accounting if it is approved by the client - that is, acknowledged that delivery has been timely and of good quality, as expected -  so that the contractual sum for that partial performance can be billed.

This makes it possible to issue worksheets as soon as possible, have them approved by the customer, and then sending out the resulting invoice. Timing however is still an important factor. When managing worksheets, it is extremely important to keep delays to a minimum so that the entrepreneur can earn money faster.

DIGITAL WORKsheet MANAGEMENT

In many cases, managing worksheets can be cumbersome and slow if done on paper. The turnaround time mentioned above can be reduced to a fraction if worksheets are digitally managed, meaning worksheets flow electronically between organizational units instead of having papers travel around the office or even premises. Of course, in this case too, customer approval is essential, but this can now be done electronically. However, there is a need to use a system that allows you to manage worksheets so that they can be quickly moved to the right place without the need for a heavy administrative burden on the contractor. But how can workflow management tasks be accomplished this way?

SYSTEMS SUPPORTING digital WORKsheet MANAGEMENT PROCESSes

This is where we got to the heart of our post today, as this blog is essentially about business processes and workflow management systems. Managing worksheets is also a business process (or part of a process) that is about getting things done faster and easier, but with all the approvals you need. Let's see an example of process-level digital worksheet management:

1. Deadlines, participants, partial deliverables, their acceptability criteria and prices are determined during the design of the service contract
2. Electronic worksheets can be generated for the partial deliverables thus defined, where you can specify the due date for each partial delivery, the activities to be performed and the financial value of given partial deliveries.
3. The pre-generated worksheets can be sent to the contractor electronically, and can be viewed and approved even on a smartphone. When work is done, the colleague can indicate in a suitable phone app that he is ready.
4. When the task is complete and the notification is entered into the system, it immediately submits the worksheet for approval, whether by e-mail or otherwise.
5. The customer can approve the worksheet or raise an objection. For the sake of this example, suppose they have not raised any objections, so in this case the system
6. Forwards the worksheet to the finance department or invoice management colleague for certification and transfer.

 
Conclusion

It should now be clear that proper digital management of worksheets can speed up invoicing and payments by facilitating quicker information routing. Combining this capability with other related processes, such as tracking billing deadlines or completing debt management processes, it can further increase efficiency and reduce administrative costs. Therefore, in addition to paying special attention to the proper management of worksheets, it is easy to see that digital worksheet management also opens up new perspectives for speeding up payments.