Is it common to complete supplier reconciliations. I receive the pile from a client for each period. Now the client (despite his belief to the contrary) is not too organised and on all occasions once all invoices have been inputted I print the aged creditors to have a look and see that I have negative balances (due to missing invoices) or larger than expected balances (duplicate invoices given). At this stage it may only be the second week in the month and supplier statements have not been received or have just been lost. Either way I dont have them and must request them. This takes time? Between calls and reconiling the suppliers it could be 20 minutes per supplier. What should I do in this case? Is this level of service expected by clients or does a bookkeeper just enter what is given and thats it? Is it practical to have all invoices sent directly to me a book-keeper. Should I only reconcile material suppliers to lessen the task. Any insight would be great.
For most of my clients I would look at the aged creditor listing and look for the obvious problem areas that you have highlighted and try to get them sorted by emailing a list of probable missing invoices. I don't tend to get too many duplicated invoices. With some clients I may well look at statements from time to time if the balances aren't reducing or there are payments on account that cannot be allocated to invoices. This usually meants that at the year end there is nothing too untoward that needs sorting out. For my largest clients I am happy to reconcile the ledgers and do a 'proper' job on them as I go along because I know I can charge the time out. But most of my clients are on the smaller side so it tends not to be much of a problem. Having said that I do have one or two untrainable clients and I feel their ledgers will always be in a mess and it becomes self perpetuating as after a while they are the last jobs you do because you just cannot face it, so with an hour to go before last post on the 30th of the month before the vat is due in, you have a crack!
I don't see why you can't arrange to have a copy of the supplier statements sent directly to you as you suggested, also can you not hold off on doing the work until the statements have arrived? This would reduce the time.
I think you do have a responsibility as a bookkeeper to make sure things are reconciled, all invoices are posted and there are no duplicates, especially at the year end before the books get sent in to the accountant. The accountant will not get a good impression of you as a bookkeeper if the supplier statements are not reconciled! It is also important that you are paid for this work though, you will need to decide whether you can charge more for this service and if it is worth your while.
I have had a complete nightmare when my client opened another company & invoices were being invoiced to the old company still & he wanted me to claim vat back on the new company, no way.. I exlained about money laundering etc. I did in fact sort all this out, hence its now his year end & Im just reconciling them still. I feel that it is our duty to ensure the trial balance, balance sheets and profit & loss accounts are all reconciled, including all control accounts etc. This is where the more experienced bookkeepers come into their own and some will fall along the wayside. The client has to be aware that if they want you to fully reconcile then its at their cost, you pay for what you get at the end of the day.
I would agree that the suppliers should be reconciled, especially for the year end. I suppose it comes down to the client, if they are giving all the information then there should be no problem. I do get duplicate invoices,none at all and have cheques stubs that are not marked clearly. This comes back to educating the client (see other thread) and explaining the beneifits to the client but of course confirming/reconciling material supplier balances. I suppose it would not be unreasonable to have statements sent for all material suppliers each month, this would save a lot of hassel. Actually in one case I have Musgraves central billing sending me all the invoices and and the statement in a period by email in pdf-it works great.
Unfortunately some clients can never be educated!!!!! I tried for a long time with one, he had no idea how to use a computer, his bill went up all the time, he didn't care! All the statements were missing the accountant told him off and told him to get on top of the paperwork, he did but only for a month then back to his old ways etc........ Cheque stubbs were permantly NOT filled out, even though he was told loads of times, he never paid creditors, just opened new accounts when he was on stop, the list is endless, loads of paperwork missing all the time, use to ask for it, never got it, VAT return never on time, some of the paperwork and bank statements arrived after the vat was due back, he wasn't bothered depsite being warned by me on several occassions, and the list goes on. The few occassions that I got the vat return back on time (with great difficulty), he then never paid it, I saw on the bank statement it took him 6 weeks to pay one of them, he had the money so there was no excuse. Hes a dodger!!!!!
Anyway he is no longer a client, and he should not be in business. People like that should have a normal job and be on PAYE.
I don't have a problem with the rest, for one of my clients I sometimes get an e-mail sent to me with the amounts that hes paid and which invoices, although he gives me the statements I only do him quarterly, and I like to keep on top the the statements so I asked if I could be in contact with the supplier themselves and he was only too grateful, he said it was something less for him to worry about. A
-- Edited by Amanda on Tuesday 23rd of March 2010 09:51:50 PM
