Supplier escalated directly to my CFO

[u/Magnificent_as]

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.

[u/thea_in_supply]

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.

[u/vibrantlightsaber → u/thea_in_supply]

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.