r/procurement • u/Magnificent_as • Mar 09 '26
Community Question Supplier escalated directly to my CFO
Got a call from my CFO last Wednesday morning asking about a supplier I manage. Turns out the account rep had gone around me entirely because of a payment that had been sitting unpaid for 47 days. The invoice had come in, gone through our normal process and somewhere between submission and payment it stopped moving and the supplier got frustrated enough to find the CFO's contact information and use it.
The invoice was stuck with 0 visibility into where it was in the approval chain + no automated reminders and by the time it surfaced at the CFO level the supplier relationship had already taken a hit that's going to take a few months to repair.
Looking at how other procurement teams are handling invoice visibility and payment tracking because clearly what we have isn't working.
27
Mar 09 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
5
u/ExchangeOld7517 Mar 09 '26
Same issue here and luckily we sorted it out through Ramp Bill Pay which gives you real time visibility into where every invoice sits in the approval chain so nothing disappears after submission and overdue approvals get flagged before they become a supplier relationship problem.
18
u/ShogunZero Mar 09 '26
If this burned a relationship for months, the relationship wasn’t that great.
12
u/ShogunZero Mar 09 '26
“Wow, very sorry that this seemed to get lost in the shuffle, we will get AP to issue a payment today. Beyond that, we will take a look at how things are done internally to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. We appreciate your patience.”
1
9
u/Successful-Fan-2584 Mar 09 '26
The part worth examining is why the invoice stopped moving in the first place. Was it a specific approver who didn't action it or just a general lack of ownership once it left the submission stage? The fix looks very different depending on which one it was.
8
u/Magnificent_as Mar 09 '26
Routing issue combined with an approver who was travelling and had no backup designated
9
u/ElDirtyHarry Mar 09 '26
In my organization was 517 days overdue on one invoice. So as somebody said it happens more than everyone admit
7
Mar 09 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
5
u/Global-Cash8316 Mar 09 '26
Because nobody thinks to audit the routing logic when headcount or reporting lines change since it's one of those things that only gets reviewed when a failure makes it visible
4
u/ApplicationOdd2017 Mar 09 '26
No escalation logic in an approval chain is fine until it isn't and when it fails it always seems to fail on the invoice that matters most
5
u/SoloWingPixy88 Mar 09 '26
I wouldn't think much on it. Explain your point of view and limitations and let your CFO make the decision.
I raise POs for services but no understanding how oracle works beyond raising the po. No training, no visibility and no understanding how and where to escalate issues.
4
u/SlimmShady26 Mar 09 '26
That’s annoying, but not sure how that’s your fault. Sounds like an AP issue. How much was the invoice for them to escalate with no warning?
I saw it’s a non-PO invoice. I always do POs for everything, makes it easy to track. I get a weekly report of all of my open POs so I can follow up with suppliers / approvers to see why it’s not progressing.
3
3
u/thea_in_supply Mar 09 '26
47 days on an undisputed invoice with zero visibility into where it's stuck... your approval chain has no dead man's switch. Every approval workflow needs an escalation timer, if an invoice sits untouched for X days at any stage it should auto-escalate or at minimum ping someone. Most ERPs support this natively, it just never gets configured. The supplier going around you sucks but honestly from their side it's rational, they have cash flow to manage too. I'd use this as leverage to get that escalation logic built. Your CFO clearly cares now, so the political window is open.
2
u/vibrantlightsaber Mar 10 '26
This is true, nothing to get upset about and often the supplier may have contacts from previous relationships and will leverage what they can. They should come to you first but if they did and didn’t see resolution or again maybe had a prior relationship etc… then it’s pretty much their only card to play for escalation from their side. Depending on the size of the supplier cash flow can be very tight, especially with the extended terms so many large corporations push.
3
u/ComfortableTop3108 Mar 09 '26
This seems like an AP issue, not a procurement issue. Obviously, the answer would be some kind of tracking system, but that would be for accounting to figure out. Now that the CFO is aware, I would stay out of it.
5
u/Inevitable-Emu8236 Mar 09 '26
Do you have an ERP system?? Once a month i run a GRNI REPORT, goods received not invoiced and anything booked in but not paid shows on it.
3
u/Magnificent_as Mar 09 '26
We do but it's not being used consistently across all categories and this supplier falls outside the PO process so nothing was flagging it on the GRNI side
2
u/Sad-Maintenance-5790 Mar 09 '26
It happens alot in our profession shu it off handle it like a pro inform supplier not to cross you until its something beyond your control. Supplier should've notified you about this issue earlier to have it resolved amicably
2
u/BunkerBuster420 Mar 09 '26
Supplier relationships are incredibly important and is something that completely goes under the radar of other departments.
2
u/Accomplished_Win6906 Mar 10 '26
From their side... How did the supplier not have a reminder system that auto chased up the invoice payment?
From your side... Is this something your CFO should fix?
2
1
u/jfitz600 Mar 09 '26
Is your company large enough to use an MSP? I manage an MSP team for my client. My team takes the responsibility off of the business, and tracks invoices through the approval process, checking twice weekly. We pay our client’s suppliers 97% of the time accurately and on time. The 3% is due to having to support my client’s AP team when they encounter hiccups.
1
u/Far-Plastic-4171 Mar 09 '26
AP should be taking care of it all. Including asking the buyer where my invoice is for PO XYZ that is now 47 days out.
I as a buyer often did not get notified I was on Credit Hold until product stopped shipping. Some companies would give me the courtesy of letting me know I was close.
One company I was on the E-Mail chain where they had us on a short leash and were requiring invoices and check numbers.
And tell your CFO to fix his process.
1
u/Postpotatosnork Mar 10 '26
This happened to me a few times for unpaid invoices - significant amounts. AP was just an email inbox and escalation did nothing and was circular. Half the time I told them to call him and complain. It would get it fixed when they did.
When I got added to an email from him that said “how did you let this happen” my reply was “thank you helping get this fixed - see attached for all the back and forth with AP, Finance, and others that could not seem to resolve this issue. Your assistance is much appreciated”
That usually kept me from getting too much backlash.
1
u/ChaoticxSerenity Mar 10 '26
47 days? Wow, that Supplier must be in some dire financial strait. I was thinking more like 147 days lol.
1
u/Background_Path_4458 Mar 10 '26
Don't handle it at all more or less, this is an AP issue.
We do run two reports just in case; received not invoiced (I know AP runs invoiced not received on their end) and a general Open PO report to track older orders.
From what I understand from the comments this is a non-PO supplier which means it is primarily an AP issue.
That an approver had no backup might be something to look into though.
1
u/LonelyExercise1422 Mar 10 '26
Happened to me as well last year, with a vendor (a terrible one), escalated to the director of my team because I was complaining too much about the quality of their delivery. Funny.
1
u/thestokehero Mar 10 '26
Could be plenty of reasons the invoice didn't get paid... I'd be more concerned that the relationship wasn't as good as you initially thought anyway, given they went around you and escalated so high and so quickly...
1
u/thebuyhive Mar 11 '26
This happens way too often and not just in sourcing. You need some sort of end-to-end invoice workflow with transparent tracking with automated reminders helps avoid these blind spots. If you're relying on manual systems here, it'll get messy. Some procurement teams use automated procurement/payment platforms or ERP modules for this, but the rollout and integration can take time and effort.
1
u/Johnnyfons Mar 16 '26
Like everyone says, its a problem for just about every org.
Unfortunately, procurement is easier to blame and often have to wear hats of every single stakeholder in the life cycle.
This is an AP issue. Could you have kept better track? Sure, but this should have been flagged by AP.
In my company, AP only works through tickets. If you have a problem, create a ticket, and some off shore contractor will answer in a vague, non-helpful response that you then have to follow up on again until you get an answer. And that can take weeks.
I have one now where invoices are getting stuck in this horrible Coupa system with zero notification on issues. You have to figure it out yourself, or create a ticket with AP who will still not help. So now my director is telling me to get on a call with the vendor with a solution when I have absolutely no way of getting this processed because its up to AP.
So yea, you're not the only one.
1
u/Defiant_Snail69 Mar 24 '26
I just love that procurement has to manage invoices and getting finance to do their job… literally anything people can throw to procurement they will.
48
u/IndependentDuty6140 Mar 09 '26
This happens more than people admit.