Dealing with unpaid invoices is something that more businesses than ever have been struggling with over the past few years. By educating yourself on the most common reasons for invoices being unpaid, you can work to understand invoice dispute UK law better. Let’s take a look at what to do with an invoice unpaid in the future to avoid putting your business in a tricky financial situation.
Poor Invoice Writing Skills
One of the biggest issues we see when dealing with unpaid invoices is that they were very poorly written in the first place. When you don’t make your invoice numbers and processes clear, it’s no surprise that a company might not pay up on time. Even if you work with someone regularly, you need to ensure you clearly break up invoices and share what they need to pay each time. Make your invoice terms very clear and easy to read. Ensure you are always sending invoices to the right team member, who will be able to deal with this in a timely manner. When companies send these invoices around a building, it’s no surprise that they often get lost, and you end up with an overdue invoice.
To resolve invoice dispute issues, you need to back yourself up with the paperwork to show when and where an invoice was sent. Make sure your invoice matches the quote you sent the company as well, or they will likely dispute an invoice as soon as it’s received. Companies are becoming more aware of how to dispute an invoice in the UK, especially as other businesses are trying to add fees that weren’t there before. Make sure the price and details are correct on the invoice so that you can easily chase an unpaid invoice and back yourself up in court if needed.
No Terms and Conditions
Terms and conditions need to be added to every invoice that your business sends. If you don’t add these on, you have absolutely no ground to back yourself up in the future. Make sure you have a clear timeframe that you expect payment by. If this isn’t present, then an invoice dispute will be hard to resolve. When you do make a genuine mistake, you’ll need to ensure you are honest about this and work with the company to resolve this issue. You don’t want to upset your clients with an invoice dispute, as they’ll soon turn to another business for your service or product. This is something that no one can afford with the recent pandemic, so make sure your invoicing process is very clear.
Dissatisfaction With Your Service or Goods
The top reason that a company is unlikely to receive payment for their goods or services is that they are of the quality that the consumer expected. When someone is unhappy with the goods or services, or you don’t deliver what you promised, they have every right to be upset and not want to pay. You need to do everything you can to fulfill your contracts and avoid this from happening in the first place. A company has every right to be upset with you if you don’t do this, which leads to endless disputes between businesses.
A Delivery Was Not Received On-Time
When we purchase a service or product from a company, we expect it to be delivered on the date that was quoted. If this doesn’t happen, it’s no surprise that someone might dispute your invoice. Especially within the B2B world, you’ll find that this type of delay could cost other businesses a fortune. You might delay their work and make them lose customers, which none of us can deal with at the current time.
Faulty Goods
Just as the product or service should be delivered on time, it should also do what it claims to do. If you promise a product that has certain benefits, you need to fulfil this promise. Make sure you are fully testing your service or product before launching it to the public. This can help to avoid delays in payment and ensure your customers are happy each and every time. We recommend always offering an immediate replacement should something get damaged in the mail, which can help to resolve this issue and ensure you don’t lose your money.
There are so many reasons that we see for invoice disputes in the UK. These are just a few of the top concerns that you may face, but they can often be easily resolved to avoid bad debt. If you are struggling to receive payments on time, make sure you review your invoices to ensure all the information is clear. Our team will be happy to help you resolve any unpaid invoices, so contact us on 0330 229 1991 or email your enquiry to memberbenefits@directroute.co.uk for further information now.
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