Delivered on the fifth, invoiced on the twenty eighth
An order for panels, brackets and frames is delivered in three drops over two weeks, because the frames needed galvanising. The delivery notes come back with the driver, some signed, some not. The office waits until the order is complete to invoice, then has to work out what was delivered when and at what price, because the PO had eight lines and the drops did not match them neatly.
The invoice goes out weeks after the first delivery. The customer's payment terms start from the invoice date, so the cash arrives weeks after that.
Why invoicing falls behind
Invoicing depends on information from several places: what was delivered, which PO lines it covered, the agreed prices and the customer's references. In a fabrication shop, that information is split between the driver, the job system and the PO, and the office has to piece it together.
- Invoices wait for signed delivery notes to come back.
- Part deliveries are not recorded against PO lines.
- Invoicing waits until the whole order is complete.
- PO references needed by the customer are missing.
- Prices on invoices are retyped from the quote or PO.
What late invoicing costs
Cash tied up in work you have already delivered, which matters in a business that buys sheet and pays wages weekly. Invoices rejected by customers' accounts teams for missing PO references or mismatched quantities, restarting the payment clock. And office time spent reconstructing deliveries.
The delivery driven invoicing we build
- Each delivery note lists items against PO lines, with quantities, created from the job or dispatch record.
- When a delivery is confirmed, by driver app signature, courier tracking or goods in confirmation, the quantities delivered are recorded against each PO line.
- An invoice is drafted for what was delivered, using the prices and references from the PO, in the customer's required format.
- The draft is created in your accounts system, such as Xero, Sage or QuickBooks, through its API, for someone to approve and send.
- Outstanding balances per PO line are tracked, so the final invoice for the order is simple.
- Customers who want one invoice per order, or per month, can have that instead, set per customer.
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| Delivery note created | Items tied to PO lines |
| Delivery confirmed | Quantities recorded as delivered |
| Invoice drafted | PO prices and references applied |
| Approved | Sent from your accounts system |
| Balances | Remaining quantities per PO line |
What changes for cash and the office
Invoices go out close to delivery, with the references the customer's accounts team needs, so they are paid on terms rather than bounced back. The office approves drafts instead of building invoices from paperwork. Part deliveries are invoiced as they happen, where the customer allows it. And the balance left on any order is clear at a glance.
Credit control gets simpler as well. With every invoice tied to a confirmed delivery and a signed proof, a customer who says they never received something can be sent the evidence straight away. Queries that used to take a week of back and forth are answered in one email.
And month end stops being a scramble. Work delivered but not yet invoiced is a report, not a hunt through the dispatch tray.
Is your invoicing behind your deliveries?
- Invoices wait for delivery notes to come back.
- Part deliveries are invoiced only when the order is complete.
- Invoices get rejected for missing PO references.
- Prices are retyped onto invoices.
- Nobody can quickly say what is left to deliver on an order.