Wednesday 17th July, 2013

An invoice landed on my desk this week, and as I read the covering letter (Yes, really..) explaining that this was the second time they’d sent it and asking if I could pay it straight away, I viewed the £1.25 total with a mixture of amusement and irritation. Add to that the fact that it had already been paid, meaning that someone had to then pick up the phone – the situation offered up a microcosm of what can easily be an everyday occurrence in so many accounts payable departments. Issuing and dealing with an invoice where the amount being billed is significantly less than the processing costs is plain ridiculous – and is something which corporate P-Card schemes were developed to overcome.

Thursday 27th June, 2013

You might be forgiven for thinking that the main news today has been about the pros and cons of a certain Byron Burger, or whether "man of the people" George Osbourne would have been better off eating a quarter pounder with cheese from McDonalds........But anyway, other news today has been that we haven't been in a double-dip recession after all. And in fact, the triple dip fears which formed out of the long winter gloom appear to have quietly shuffled off. Yet, today's news is unlikely to have made much impact on organisations who've been struggling to balance the books over the last few years. With large corporates continuing to extend payment terms - sometimes to as much as 200 days, the pressure on SMEs remains. The fact that the economy hasn't been quite as bad as we thought is unlikely to be much comfort. And in fact, it probably just means we've been in one long, flat recession.