Government Payments

[Todd Terry]

[Timothy J. Allen] “Also, make sure you send your invoice to the correct person”

I’ll echo that…

And sometimes the correct person isn’t the most obvious one….

They are not government, but we do a bit of work for a gigantic corporate client here in town… usually dealing with one of three different people there. TWO of them are GREAT, and steamroll our invoices through in no time flat. The other person sits on them, misplaces them, loses them completely, sends them to the wrong people, etc etc. The last time he for some unkown reason decided to have their office in IRELAND pay us… causing delays. And it’s not that he is not trying to pay, he’s just very scattered and not a “money guy,” he has already mentally moved on to the next project. So we try to deal with the other two people whenever possible.

Also, it helps to educate yourself a bit to see what kinds of invoices scoot through and what kinds hit roadblocks. Again, with this same company… we usually do a project for them every week or two and have learned that with their particular beancounters anything UNDER $10,000 is practically rubberstamped… but anything OVER $10,000 leads to all kinds of red tape and everyone including the custodian’s mother-in-law has to sign off on it. SO… we bill them for shooting and posting separately, so each part of the invoice gets under the $10K wire and it slides right through. Or bill them for preprod/shoot/edit/duplication or whatever separately, whatever it takes to break the total bill up into <$10K chunks. We're not tryng to pull a fast one... their comptroller actually suggested we do it that way. T2 __________________________________ Todd Terry Creative Director Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc. fantasticplastic.com

[Timothy J. allen]

So true, Todd.

The magic numbers might be different in different places. It helps to ask.

In one department I worked in, there is a total different path and process for invoices under $2500 then there is for invoices over that amount. It’s not just payment either, it affects whether the government requires bids from at least three vendors, whether a purchase decision can be left to the discretion of one person – without that person having to write a “sole source justification”, etc., etc.

There are several “break points” that lead to additional layers of paperwork and complexity on the purchasing side of government offices. While that extra paperwork is inconvenient for vendors and government employees, the main purpose is to ensure good stewardship of taxpayer dollars by the government. An unfortunate side effect of that protection is the cost (and time) of processing that “extra” paperwork.

[Grinner Hester]

[Steve Wargo] “Does anyone else have a recollection of this or am I the only one on hallucinogenic drugs?”
the only one with drugs goof enough to think our gov’t will ever unwillingly pay for anything.