Turn The Page For Heaven’s Sake!!

Don’t you just hate when you go to ask a question and you already had the answer in your hands?  That kind of silliness is just what I’m talking about.  All too often, we like to ask questions instead of looking for the answers first.  Instant gratification is what they call it.  I like to refer to it as laziness. 

Many times, when a staff member, no matter where I am working at the time, asks me a question about an invoice (and credit memos, too), inevitably the answer is in the back up documentation attached to the invoice.  I am able to WOW my staff with quick and concise answers all the time because they don’t TURN THE PAGE!!!!  Chances are if you have a question regarding the invoice (or credit memo), then someone else along the invoice’s travels has already asked it. 

Now, I’ll stop here and say that there are a fair number of invoices that come to my department that have nothing and it is like trying to pull teeth to get any kind of information out of the submitting department and many, many questions have to be asked until you get the whole story, but……if there is paperwork attached to the invoice (or credit memo), then chances are the answers to all that you seek is in that back up you just need to….let’s say it together……..TURN THE PAGE.

So, the next time you have a question about something, make sure to look at all the information that you have gathered to verify that the answer is not already at your fingertips.

Until next time…

Vendor Master File - Naming Conventions - What do you use?

Naming Conventions.....not so conventional.

How many of you have a mess of naming conventions in your vendor master file?  Every place I have ever worked has had a problem with this issue and I find that I need to get all of the vendors into the same format before I can officially declare the vendor master file clean and up-to-date.  Everyone seems to have a different take on how to label 'street' or 'lane'.  Then there are problems with 'The', 'Mr', 'Dr', and then don't eve get me started on whether or not to use punctuations.

The key isn't what is or isn't popular, what is important is that your organization develops what will work for them, then stick to it.  That's the hard part....sticking to it, and make it a policy and then hold your vendor master file specialists to this policy.

It's okay to use punctuations if your organization is going to always use punctuations.  Same with spelling out the street or city name.  If your organization wants to spell out Fort Lauderdale instead of using abbreviations like Ft Lauderdale, then that's okay, but then that needs to be the way the entire vendor master file needs to be set up.  If not, the risk of making duplicate payments increases exponentially.  That's something we all want to avoid, right?

So, the moral of the story.....choose what conventions will work for you and your organization, then stick to it and make it policy.

Until next time....