Accounting Best Practices, Fifth Edition

4–3. Have Delivery Person Deliver the Invoice

A company may not have the wherewithal to create invoices at the point of delivery, as described later in the “Have Delivery Person Create the Invoice” section. However, it may still be possible to have the delivery person hand-carry the invoice at the time of delivery to the customer’s accounts payable department. By doing so, a company can compress the mail time that would otherwise be required to get an invoice to a customer and ensure that the invoice is delivered directly into the hands of the person who is responsible for paying it. Thus, direct delivery of an invoice carries with it the advantages of reducing the total transaction time, while also ensuring that the invoice is not lost in transit.

However, having the delivery person deliver the invoice only works in a small number of situations. The key element is that a company must make deliveries with its own personnel; if not, a third-party delivery person will not hand-carry an invoice, which makes this best practice impossible to implement. Also, there must be a close linkage between the accounting department and the shipping dock, so that invoices are prepared slightly in advance of shipment and sent to the delivery person at the time of shipment. In addition, a customer may not allow delivery personnel to have access to the accounting department, resulting in the delivery of the invoice to the customer’s front desk, which may result in a delayed or incorrect delivery to ...