UK Modifying original invoices

[Culwych]

Hi all, just a quick sanity check.

We've got multiple customers in multiple countries - we send them an invoice and occasionally there's a small error/discrepancy - e.g. the date, the company name (same company just change of name), product description or some additional info required on the invoice.

Should we:

A. Simply use a pdf editor and add/change the required information (note that this will mean that the invoice the customer has is different to the officail invoice on our system) and send this pdf to the customer

B. Issue a credit for the original invoice and issue a new invoice with the requested modifications

Obviously solution A is the easiest and quickest option, but just wanted to double check that there aren't any issues with modifying the original invoice slightly. I am particularly interested in the legal implications.

Thanks!

 

[kirby]

Sounds like you have VERY serious quality control issues. Attack the main process first before just cosmetically fixing the invoices. And some errors are worse than others. An invoice date off a couple days is one thing but to have the product description wrong is really bad. Leave the original invoice as is and re-issue if it was that bad. Else you will soon have NO idea of what info your customer has versus what your own records say.

 

[Culwych]

Sounds like you have VERY serious quality control issues. Attack the main process first before just cosmetically fixing the invoices. And some errors are worse than others. An invoice date off a couple days is one thing but to have the product description wrong is really bad. Leave the original invoice as is and re-issue if it was that bad. Else you will soon have NO idea of what info your customer has versus what your own records say.

Hi Kirby, thanks for your reply. The process issues and reasons behind the errors/change requirements are being investigated. What I am primarily concerned with is the legality of how changing an original invoice and issuing to the customer (e.g. under SOX or other guidance) is viewed.

 

[Fidget]

Best practice is to cancel the original via a credit note and reissue. It's not illegal, per se, to amend an invoice that you've raised, but it is covering your back as it could invite litigation if you amend your own version of it without cancelling the original version - in particular if the customer has actually paid against the original.

I find it surprising mind you, that a company would pay an invoice not made out in its company name or having incorrect order details on it. Surely an original order must have been submitted by them for it to be invoiced against in the first place and therefore they would know that the invoice isn't correct and query it themselves anyway?

 

[kirby]

If you allow the practice of modifying your invoices and sending something out that does not tie to company records you are on your knees begging for problems. For a few examples, if customer does not pay you and requests invoice copies, you now have to remember to send the pdf copy on a case by case basis vs just issuing copies right out of the accounting system. Even worse if there is a legal dispute and you are compelled to give all invoice related data to the opposing attorney. Your PDF data will contradict your accounting system data. You lose. And one more (but there are tons of issues!) - what if the person modifying the invoice manually makes an unintentional or INTENTIONAL error? Changes the "send payment to" address to their own address??

 

[Kobe]

Please cancel the original invoice and send a credit note and reissue ALL invoices so it is in line with your system.

Modifying original invoices could be diasterous... As it will be confusing and it is fraudulent.

You could overstate your revenue by doing that...

 

[attfinmun]

Hi,

I have an awful story which i need advice on, to try and remedy. My brother works for a company to which he has used the internal payment processes in the accounts department to send himself a BACS payment.

He told me this at the weekend and i have decided to force him to payback the money. However i don't want him to incriminate himself so i need to know a couple of facts.

Firstly you need to know that the payment made to himself was successfull, he used his own sort and account number but the payee name was incorrect, so his accounts department made the BACS payment (as it looked like it was going to the correct persons name)

1.I need to know that when using BACS, do they not rely on the account name.....is it really just the numbers?

2. i have read that once a payment is made by a company, and received by the payee a report is sent back to the company informing them that the payment was sucessful, does this report contain any account names or is it again just numbers ?

I don't want him to get away with it, as it might tempt him to do it agin in the future, i want him to pay it back and NOW.

 

[Kobe]

Hmm that's bad...

You can either rescind the payment, by reporting the payment was made wrongly and that the account details are incorrect.

Or tell the bank to return the payment anonymously without showing the name of the payee.

Notifying the company that the payment was made in error.

Please tell him not to do this again as it is a criminal offence.

 

[Fidget]

1) Yes, it's all about the numbers - bank account number and sort code are how electronic payments are made via BACS. If you think about this logically, it wouldn't make sense for a company to have to change its banking details if it changes its name, or vice versa.

2) I think you might be confusing that with a 'remittance', which is basically a follow-up to another organisation which tells it that a payment that has been sent to it has been approved by the sender's bank and can expect the monies hitting its bank account within a few days.

Wherever it is he works either has a big issue with who can amend bank details of suppliers, or is in a position of trust to be able to do it himself. Either way, it'll come back to get him when the rightful company chases up non payment.

Even if no invoice is involved, the track record of money going out and to where it went will still be there, even if he does a reverse transaction to put it back.