1. Do not pay your supplier from their statement
e.g. paying whatever is in the 60 day column. If you do this you may not have the supplier invoices in your system.
2. Agree a day for when you pay suppliers, who you are going to pay and write the cheques then.
What can happen is that Mary sees she an important supplier is owed money and sends them a cheque there and then. The next day John sees the same supplier on the aged creditors listing and also pays the supplier and so the supplier is paid twice. In this case the payment should have been posted into the accounts system and from the accounts system you decide then who gets paid.
3. Keep your accounts system up to date.
Enter payments and invoices quickly and keep your system up to date, this means you can work from your own accounts system and not rely on your suppliers or your memory.
4. Use Purchase Orders and keep delivery dockets
Your supplier may send you copy invoices and you so you pass both the original and the copy because you got them two weeks apart and forgot you already passed them. If you had used purchase orders, you would be missing a purchase order or find it attached to another invoice and would not be able to pass the invoice as you could not find the purchase order or the delivery docket
5. Every month reconcile you suppliers statement to your accounts system.
The balance on your supplier's statement should agree to the balance on your accounts system. If it does not, then you may have the same invoice entered more than once. If you don't check the suppliers statement you could be paying over more money than you should and you may not get it back.
6. Don't pay a supplier in response to a phone call from them
Pay your supplier when you are ready to pay them. This means you should be in control of your cash and know if you can pay your bills.
7. If you are asked to pay an invoice you can't find, then ask for a copy of it.
Ask for a copy of the signed delivery docket and if you don't do it at this stage then start using purchase orders for everything you buy.
8. Record the suppliers invoice number in your accounts system when entering the suppliers invoice.
This makes it easier for you to see if the same number shows up more than once. This may indicate an invoice entered twice.
9. Make sure you get an invoice and not a delivery docket with values on it.
Some suppliers use duplicate books and give you a priced delivery docket and a priced sales invoice is posted on later. Only record the invoice in your accounts system. If you don't have the invoice get them to send you the invoice. Don't use the delivery docket as an invoice.