We All Make Mistakes – You Just Shouldn't Have To Pay For Someone Else's

Author: Joseph Lizio

How many times have you received a bill or invoice that was completely wrong or that severely overcharged you?

How many times has your supplier or vendor short-changed your order or miss calculated the price of that order?

How many times have you been charged for a purchase that you or your business never made?

Most business owners are extremely busy running the day-to-day operations of their business.

The servicing of customers, completing orders, landing new business, putting out fires and developing the overall, long-term growth strategy of the business tends to take priority over even some of the most simplest of housekeeping tasks – like keeping your service providers honest.

Early on in the life of my company, I had a vendor hit my bank account, not only for my normal monthly charges but also for an additional charge that was twice my monthly rate.

Luckily, I caught this charge early and was able to get it reversed before I got hit with additional bank fees.

Apparently what happened was when a newer employee at my vendor's company was inputting billing information to ACH or draft the payment from my account, they got a little confused and imputed my bank information on another customer's account. Thus, my bank account was drafted for another customer's payment.

Now, this was early in the life of my company and at that time we kept very little cash in our account as all our spare funds were being plowed back into the company to grow the business.

Had I not seen the charge or waited another day I would have not only paid that other customer's bill but would have been hit with a bank overdraft fee.

And, even though I might have been able to get all of this reversed, it would have taken my time away from growing my business and servicing my customers – time I just did not have to lose.

The moral here is that everyone makes mistakes from time to time including your most paramount vendor or service providers. Therefore, you have to take some time, each day, to monitor your accounts or oversee your partners, suppliers and vendors.

Just image if I never saw this charge? Not only would I have been out that money (money I really needed to build my business), but they could have charged my account over and over again without my knowledge - bad for me and great for that other customer.

And, know that it does not just have to be your monetary accounts. One time, I even had my Internet service provider erroneously switch my account to a lower level service plan.

Thus, until we figured out what happened, our Internet speed was so slow that my company could not process new orders and without those new orders I don't know what would have happened to my company – it definitely would not be where it is today.

My suggestion is to take time (even though time is scarce) each and every day and review your accounts.

Review invoices as they come in – it only takes a minute or two. The little time spent here is much better than wasting many times that amount trying to fix a bad situation.

Or, if you set up automatic payments (making your life that much easier) make sure that you are signing into these accounts each day and comparing all transactions (deposits and expenses) to your own accounting system (know that your bank or credit card company will make mistakes too).

What works for me is every morning before my day starts, I check all of my accounts for proper credits and charges. I just want to keep my service providers honest for the safety of the business I have worked so hard to grow.

You might think I am a bit OCD here but I can tell you that what this has saved me in both time and money has far outweighed what it would have costs had I missed the mistakes made by my suppliers, service providers and vendors.

All businesses make mistakes from time to time (to err is human). But, when another company makes a mistake against your small business, you should not have to pay for it.

And, with a little daily diligence, you won't ever have to.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/small-business-articles/we-all-make-mistakes-you-just-shouldnt-have-to-pay-for-someone-elses-5055542.html

About the Author

Joseph Lizio holds a MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship, is the founder of Business Money Today, has a strong commercial lending background and is regarded as an expert in business and finance.