The invoiced price does not match the quote: seven checks in order
· Tämä sivu on saatavilla englanniksi.
Work from the cheapest check to the dearest: which document carried the promise, then the unit the price is quoted for, then the item code, then the rounding, then whether the invoice adds up to its own printed total, then whether a second version exists. Write to the supplier last.
Price Double Check runs those checks on documents a buyer forwards by email: an invoice, the price list it should have been billed against, and a reply naming the lines that disagree. A difference is not yet an overcharge, and the order matters because six of the seven cost nothing but attention. By hand it is a morning a month, and it finds the same things in the same order.
The seven checks, cheapest first
- Establish which document carried the promise. A quotation, an order confirmation and a price list are three different instruments, and only one of them was in force when the goods moved. In one real chain the order sheet was the supplier's own price list with quantities filled in, which is the best case there is: the price expectation was recorded line by line at the moment of ordering, and that is what makes setting the order beside the invoice worth the hour it takes.
- Take the date of supply rather than the newest file you hold. The list that applies is the one in force when the goods moved, and suppliers do not send a list every month. In the run behind this service the current year's list had never been sent at all, so the newest file on hand was a year out of date.
- Check the unit the price is quoted for. The European standard carries an item net price and, separately, the base quantity that price applies to, precisely because a price per case and a price per unit are both legitimate. Units are coded for the same reason, and one real invoice used three different unit tokens inside a single table. A price that is a whole multiple of the list price is usually a case price set beside a unit price.
- Compare on the item code and treat a changed code as its own finding. One item was substituted without notice from a 550cc pack at €2.07 to an 800ml pack at €2.59, €15.60 across the invoice. No arithmetic catches that, because both prices are correct for their own codes.
- Recompute the rounding before calling anything a difference. Price lists carry four decimals and invoices carry two, so a cent per unit is a tolerance rather than a finding, and the rule has to be half-up on both sides. Truncating instead produced three false alarms per invoice on one item.
- Check the invoice against itself. Add the line amounts and compare the sum with the printed total. In the acceptance run all eleven invoices reconciled to the cent, and that is what makes the rest of the comparison worth reading: a document that does not add up has been misread, or carries a discount applied somewhere you have not looked.
- Check whether more than one version of this invoice exists. One number in the set arrived as three files with a single date and three different totals, and another number arrived twice with a credit note settling only the second of them. Identity is the supplier, the document type and the number together.
What each shape of difference usually turns out to be
| What you are looking at | The usual cause | What settles it |
|---|---|---|
| A price several times the list price | A case billed against a unit price, or the reverse | The unit code on the line and the number of units to the case in the list |
| A price one or two cents out | A four-decimal list price rounded to two on the invoice | Recompute half-up on both sides and allow one cent per unit |
| The same goods under a new code | A substitution, made without notice | The last list that carried both codes and both prices |
| A line with no row in any price list | Freight, or an item that was never listed | Ask for a list row. Until there is one there is no basis for a verdict |
| A line total that does not equal quantity times price | A discount applied at line or document level, or a misreading | The printed total, which the lines must sum to |
| A quantity that looks like a short delivery | Units against boxes in the supplier's own template | The pack size in the list. Report the collision and do not call it a shortfall |
| Two invoices carrying one number | A version conflict | Ask the supplier which one stands before paying either |
Two rows there are deliberately not findings. A line with no price-list row and a unit-of-measure collision are both absences of basis, and a routine that reports them as overcharges is a routine that gets ignored inside a month.
Then write, once
By the time a check fails you have everything the letter needs: the invoice number, the line, the item code, the price on the list the supplier sent, the price they billed, the difference per unit and in total. That assembly is the whole of the letter that gets a credit note, and one line stated that way is harder to argue with than a general complaint about pricing.
There is time to do this properly. The late payment directive allows a procedure of acceptance or verification of up to thirty calendar days from receipt of the goods, unless the contract says otherwise, and the checks above take a fraction of it. Deciding which list was in force is the one step worth being strict about: take it from the date the goods moved, never from the date the invoice was raised.
Forward one invoice and the price list you believe it should have been billed against, and the reply comes back by email with the lines that disagree and the difference on each. The price and a sample reply are on the home page.