Stop trying to help, cos you're not!!
Sep. 14th, 2006 12:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
switch842A big part of my job involves submitting invoices from all our offices into the various online 3rd party billing systems so we can get paid by our clients. Since we literally have thousands of invoices every day, we do this at night electronically and upload our invoices into the systems so no one has to manually enter all these invoices.
One of the systems, utilizes what they call batches. Each night (well, morning really with this system), we upload our invoices and they wait in a batch queue for us to review for any errors. These errors range from missing information to incorrect information, and the most popular, needing documentation to show the client that, yes, it did cost is $XX to do blah.
It is my job to go through this system and correct what I can to get the invoices into the system. This system was recently upgraded and we can now submit partial batches. Meaning, if some invoices are fine and dandy and others we need more information on, we can check a little box on those that aren't fine and dandy and those will not be submitted but stay waiting in that little queue in their batch.
With me so far? If you are, I'm impressed. :-D
Now, these batches also have various statuses attached to them so we can identify which ones still have unsubmitted invoices and which ones have been completely submitted. It is important to know that I cannot change the status of a batch. The help desk at that company has to do it. It's not difficult to do, but it's kind of a pain and is sometimes unnecessary work. Like the example I'm about to get to. (Damn, this is a really long intro into a random work rant).
So, yesterday, I had one invoice that needed documentation. When this happens, I e-mail the office with what I need, they usually send it later that day or the next day, I attach it and submit their invoice. Fine and dandy, right? So, with this one, I submitted the rest of the batch and had this one invoice waiting. I e-mail the office requesting the information and do some other work while I'm waiting. A few hours later, the office replies back that they manually submitted the invoice themselves.....
WHY?!?! Did I ask you to do that? No! Doing what you did is going to turn out to waste a lot of people's time, including you because you just did a lot of unnecessary work! I now have to get on the phone and call the company and have them change the status of the batch. Like I said, it's not a big deal, but it's wasting time that doesn't need to be wasted. Your invoice was in the system. I just had to attach the documentation you did yourself! You didn't have to go through and hand enter all 10 line items by yourself. YOU ARE NOT SAVING ME TIME! Just do what I ask!! Why is that so hard? But, my manager did OK a kind e-mail back to the office politely asking them to stop doing that! It's a pain in my ass!!
OK. Thanks. Back to lunch now. Later!
One of the systems, utilizes what they call batches. Each night (well, morning really with this system), we upload our invoices and they wait in a batch queue for us to review for any errors. These errors range from missing information to incorrect information, and the most popular, needing documentation to show the client that, yes, it did cost is $XX to do blah.
It is my job to go through this system and correct what I can to get the invoices into the system. This system was recently upgraded and we can now submit partial batches. Meaning, if some invoices are fine and dandy and others we need more information on, we can check a little box on those that aren't fine and dandy and those will not be submitted but stay waiting in that little queue in their batch.
With me so far? If you are, I'm impressed. :-D
Now, these batches also have various statuses attached to them so we can identify which ones still have unsubmitted invoices and which ones have been completely submitted. It is important to know that I cannot change the status of a batch. The help desk at that company has to do it. It's not difficult to do, but it's kind of a pain and is sometimes unnecessary work. Like the example I'm about to get to. (Damn, this is a really long intro into a random work rant).
So, yesterday, I had one invoice that needed documentation. When this happens, I e-mail the office with what I need, they usually send it later that day or the next day, I attach it and submit their invoice. Fine and dandy, right? So, with this one, I submitted the rest of the batch and had this one invoice waiting. I e-mail the office requesting the information and do some other work while I'm waiting. A few hours later, the office replies back that they manually submitted the invoice themselves.....
WHY?!?! Did I ask you to do that? No! Doing what you did is going to turn out to waste a lot of people's time, including you because you just did a lot of unnecessary work! I now have to get on the phone and call the company and have them change the status of the batch. Like I said, it's not a big deal, but it's wasting time that doesn't need to be wasted. Your invoice was in the system. I just had to attach the documentation you did yourself! You didn't have to go through and hand enter all 10 line items by yourself. YOU ARE NOT SAVING ME TIME! Just do what I ask!! Why is that so hard? But, my manager did OK a kind e-mail back to the office politely asking them to stop doing that! It's a pain in my ass!!
OK. Thanks. Back to lunch now. Later!
