Valentina Akpan: Founder of Rellatech, providing administrative and operations support to executives, founders, business owners and teams. Her background combines technical support, customer success, administration and operations.
The Starting Point
The company charges most of its customers by card in one monthly billing run. When the run goes out, each invoice is rebuilt from the account's records, so a problem in those records becomes a wrong charge on a customer's card.
What I Did
Before the run, I went through the batch and checked each invoice against the company's invoice rules. When I could see invoices that would rebuild wrong, I asked for the run to be held until they were fixed.
I found 16 of them. They came from five different causes, so I listed each invoice with the cause next to it, which made it clear what had to change on each account.
Once the records were corrected, the run went ahead and none of those customers were charged the wrong amount.
What the Review Found
An exchange rate added into totals
On some invoices, an exchange rate was being added into the total instead of used to convert it.
Credits dropped
Credits that belonged on the invoice were missing from the rebuilt version.
Card records out of date
Some card records were a billing cycle behind, so the charge would have gone against old details.
Declined cards
Cards that had already been declined were still set to be charged in the run.
A cancelled account in the batch
An account that had been cancelled was still in the batch and would have been billed.
The run held first
I asked for the run to be held rather than fixing things after the charges went out.
Why It Matters
A wrong charge on a customer's card is harder to undo than a wrong draft invoice. It means a refund and a call from the customer.
Holding the run cost a short delay. Fixing 16 wrong charges after they went out would have taken much longer.
Tools and Skills Used
Invoice review, billing rules, card payment records, account records and clear reporting on what needs to change.
Who This Is For
This case study is worth reading if you are:
- ●A business that bills customers by card each month and finds errors only after customers complain.
- ●A finance or operations lead who wants someone to check the batch before it runs, not after.
- ●Looking for someone who will stop a process when something is wrong rather than let it go out.
Need help with similar work?
Tell me how your billing runs, which system you use and where errors tend to show up. I check billing batches and account records within the scope we agree.
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