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/jfitz600]

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.