Accounting Best Practices, Fifth Edition

3–58. Issue Standard Adjustment Letters to Suppliers

When the accounts payable staff have a valid reason for making a deduction from a payment to a supplier, this can result in a prolonged series of complaints from the supplier as to why a short payment was made. The adjustment will appear on the next monthly statement of unpaid invoices from the supplier, and will likely end with a series of irate collection calls. At some point, the accounting staff may feel that the cost savings from taking the deduction was not worth the effort required to convince the supplier of the reasoning behind it.

This issue can be solved to some extent by checking off a box on a standard adjustment letter and mailing the letter to the supplier. The letter should note the invoice number that is at issue, as well as a series of common problems that caused the short payment to be made. The accounting staff can quickly check off the appropriate box and mail it out, using far less time than would be required to construct a formal, customized letter of notification. The letter should contain space for a free-form written description of the issue, in case it is a unique one not covered by any of the standard explanations already listed on the letter.

Cost:

Installation time: