Supplier Diversity and Getting Paid
Do you think about your supplier diversity? And do you think about how easy you make it to work with your suppliers?
This might include working with Black and Brown owned organisations, Indigenous organisations, women owned organisations and organizations that support people with disabilities, to name a few.
But there is a very long way to go for many organisations in being easy to work with.
I’m a woman owned organisation but one of the biggest problems I didn’t anticipate in running my own business, is getting paid.
You would think this is a straightforward task.
I do the agreed work. I give the company an invoice. They pay invoice by the date specified on the invoice. Done.
Now I get there are all sorts of regulations and checks big companies need to do to ensure all sorts of things aren’t happening. Things like money laundering, and modern slavery. Important things like that. I also get that I need to be “set up in their system” and “become an approved supplier”.
What I also understand is that big companies (in particular) have tried to make their accounts payable function as cheap, and also as difficult, for vendors as possible, because they often want to keep their cash in the bank.
How do they create this difficulty you ask?
It’s quite creative and is achieved by:
Creating a group email inbox so you don’t have a person’s name if you need help, which also means a different person every time you get in contact,
But you usually can’t get help anyway because said big company only teaches the accounts payable team the absolute basics in how to do their job, and only to use their part of the system, and not how it fits with other finance processes,
Not being clear about what is required on an invoice or the correct billing entity,
Putting the accounts payable team in a country that the organisation doesn’t even do business in….to create a shared service centre, and
When there is a problem not teaching the accounts payable team how to fix things.
Here’s what I have experienced so far.
Chasing up an overdue invoice to be told, oh don’t worry, you will get paid eventually. Did you get paid this month, I wondered of the employee who told me this?
Let’s get you set up because it’s complicated and we pay on 90 days. This is super common. BUT ever since a global organisation didn’t pay me for over 5 months last year, my terms are strictly 30 days, or I don’t do the work.
The invoice is overdue for payment. I chase payment of invoice. They tell me they need different information on invoice. When were they going to let me know this?? I redo the invoice and send it off. Still not paid.
My absolute favourite: I had the pleasure (not) of dealing with a very large company where I had agreed an amount of money for my time and work (and it was a very small amount of money given the level of heartache, and the hours dealing with them) and then I had to negotiate my already agreed (very small) fee with a bot. I told that bot where to go!
Meanwhile I can’t pay my suppliers, the mortgage, buy groceries, or dog food.
While organisations are wanting to make their culture inclusive, and their workforce diverse, I have found that there is little, very little, and often absolutely no consideration to not just having diverse suppliers, but also having a process for getting set up and paid without needing a PhD in filling out forms, and getting paid within a reasonable amount of time.
#RantOver
Lisa xx
P.S. Would you like an audit of your supplier set-up experience? I can do this as a stand alone service or as part of a comprehensive D&I audit ;)