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Self billing invoices for Public Relations

okay well we'll we'll get going thanks everybody for joining us today it's um it's good to have a a good crowd together and uh to be able to talk you all through some some of our inviting processes and and particularly we're going to drill down south berlin um which you know quite looking forward to doing for this audience which you know even as a finance professional is is not something that i see every day um but just to cover off introductions first so on the webinar with us we have myself i'm kevin berry i'm the finance director here at bloom procurement services we have ben dara who is our provide to product owner we have barney markham who is our operations director which can help us out with the q a at the end of the webinar and we have alex wright who is our senior marketing executive so really the purpose of today is just to run through the the overall um kind of downstream process we have within bloom that leads to our invoicing um and then i will take us through that process and drill down specifically into the self building aspect of it and then ben will take us through a short demo of the invoice and portal where the self building invoices are stored and how you can access that and as we go through the webinar if you do have any questions please just pop them into the q a box and we will run through those questions as much as possible at the end and if there are any we we can't answer in the time or what we need to do before we're digging into we will address those questions afterwards offline but we will work through them all so thanks very much we'll get started so initially just to run through a high level version of a as i say our downstream process so this is is very much further into the process it assumes by this point you know you have gone through our full accreditation process you've been awarded a piece of work and you are in the in the midst of delivering that work to the to the end buyer so the first real action for for you guys as supplies of hours in that process is once you you reach a milestone or a scheduled payment that's agreed within that works order you you log into our provided to portal and you submit the relevant service delivery plan or stp as we call them for short and you do that by logging into the provide portal and accessing the specific work planet relates to that's it's not a process we're particularly going to drill into through this webinar but there is a video tutorial of that process on our youtube channel should you wish to access that um and you know this audience again could answer questions around the process at another date if required um so that sdp that you guys submitted that point you know usually covers an update on the project it covers the value of the work that's been delivered to that point or the value of that milestone and you submit that along with any other details that the buyer requires you to do so at that time that goes through a process which it is then available for the buy-in or authority to review and they're checking that in terms of the the content the value that's been submitted doesn't meet with their requirements and if they got any follow-up questions before they want to approve that that step and that submission and assuming everything is fine the buyer then goes on to approve that process they do have the option to reject it but there is a quite a rare occurrence actually throughout this process it's managed quite well to this point so that we don't see an awful lot of rejections um and and that approval is quite an important step because that is the point that triggers invoicing and starts the various forms of payment terms we have as a business so it's all kind of hinged around that approval step and then the fourth box on your screen there the invoice and boxes is what we're going to drill into a bit more detailed after this specifically focusing around the self-build invoice and that really on that approval it triggers three actions on on bloom's part it triggers an invoice sent from us to whoever the buying authority is in relation to that specific piece of work um it then in relation to you guys specifically as suppliers it it triggers a management fee invoice from bloom to yourself and it triggers a self-build invoice that we raised on on your behalf to to to bloom effectively your sales invoice to bloom um and then from there that's feed through to our payment process of which there are a couple of variations of payment teams but you know by and large most are either 30 days from that approval date or pay when paid plus a 14 day window for ourselves so as an overview that is is our downstream process and as i said you know the focus really today is to drill into that invoicing step and more specifically the self-billing process that sits within it in the context of self bill and for bloom as a business is that you know a large proportion of our supply base are smes or small micro entities so we look to have this as an automated service and an automated solution as as much as possible and and that feeds through to the fact that you know the people in that scenario although it doesn't apply to everybody specifically some of our you know bigger suppliers there's some of us should probably relate to you guys on the call um it takes away the admin side of the process for them as well and actually the whole thing is taken care of by the bloom service so we we raised that invoice on your behalf to us and as we said this is us effectively creating what is your sales invoice um and we are doing that on the basis of the self bill agreement that has all been signed and agreed as part of the accreditation process and and that invoice specifically is downloadable from the provide to portal which ben will show you later on towards the end of this webinar um and i guess kind of down the right hand side of this slide you'll see some points about really why why is that important to you and and how can that help yourselves and us with some of the questions and crews we see kind of on a daily basis from our supply base which is kind of what led to this webinar coming about so i mean the self-built reference really throughout this whole process is is key and you know ideally in terms of best practice that self-double invoice reference is something that you should be taking and recording in your finance system or sort of at the very least have a central log where that invoice reference can be can be tied back to any internal references or any um separate processes you have run internally to help line the two up and put them side by side and from my experience and this is only my opinion it's it's not formal advice but that is what hmrc would would expect um to see and quote and that invoice that self-build invoice reference will dramatically reduce the amount of time it takes the the bloom finance team and the wider business across bloom to respond to any queries you may have so that that reference really underpins a lot of the processes the reference that flows through the various systems and platforms we use and um again it is a reference that hmrc would probably expect you to quote as well similarly to that you know the reference is also linked directly to our payment remittance advices so any payment breakdowns or remittance advices you receive from the finance team will will quote those self-build invoice numbers within it um and very very similarly there's a you know you can see a theme immersion here there is a link between that reference under management free invoice we issue to yourselves as well and that effectively is the self-building voice reference usually with an mf reference on the end to denote that it is a management for your invoice from us to yourself and they are two separate transactions um and that that reference really does feed all the way through those processes and is is quite key to this process and being able to tie things together further down so hopefully that is helpful and gives you some insight into into that and and these are just some extracts directly from the self building agreement that is included um in the accreditation process just to give you all the full context and the full picture so you know the the key points to to clarify yeah you know in in the regard of this agreement the customer is bloom we are your customer in this regard and you yourself don't know what it does the supplier and you know the the key parts of this for me um are kind of point to under the under the customers part of the charter the agreement is that you know bloom is agreeing to raise self-built invoices on your behalf with all the correct details and all the correct vo2 requirements that make up a a valid vat or a valid invoice document depending on the registration status of your of your own business um and that really is is kind of one of the key pull outs for for us and part of our process and in relation to you guys the supplier um you know the first two points within this key to the process working correctly for me um you know the first one to accept the invoices raised by themselves below you know bloom um and to to use those references and those documents wherever required and the second one really is also key and it's probably worth a bit discussion and is always quite difficult and these are standard hmrc words that are fed into this document so point two there under the supplier part of the agreement not to raise a sales invoice for the transactions covered within this agreement now that in practical language and again this is this is just my opinion it's not tax advice by any stretch of the imagination but hmrc from my experience have always been very accepting that practically most people now run modern systems that it's impossible to prevent something happening internally some kind of document being raised some kind of trigger at the end of a process that records the sale um so in essence i've seen that applied and practiced as you know that is raised for internal purposes it's part of an internal process but it's not something that's distributed externally it's not referenced externally um and it is very much in an internal reference and and where i've seen it applied in those scenarios and i've seen that in smas and fortune 500 companies nobody that i've come across as fallen foul of that step but it is a key one and it is something that sometimes when people review this agreement they think is is difficult to agree to or difficult to adhere to but that's certainly how i've seen it applied in practical terms you know moving on this is an example of what that self-built invoice within our portal looks like so it covers everything you would usually expect to to see and you know and when we implemented this and the self-building agreement you know it it was largely based on advice we took at the time from some big four accounting firms and and hmrc themselves as part of a hmrc inspection we had um as a business there is no no particular concerns but it certainly fed into this document and how it was designed to make sure that we we address these things in a in a compliant manner so it covers as i say everything you would expect to see you know your your name and address that you have your registered business and if your team numbers that are related again that supplier invoice reference number that i that i keep referring to is in the top right section of this document and and this document as us here is downloadable from the provide2 portal that then i'll show you imminently and again it covers the value a description of the milestone a description of the project there is a kind of specific piece of work it relates to the the values the net values the gross values the vit breakdown everything you would expect to see on an invite is included in here and again this is all downloadable kind of at your own convenience as and when you go through the the invoicing process but it did it is only available once we get beyond that approval step in the process um as we walk through so that third box that approval box in the process that part of the process does need to be complete before we get to this point so you know a key a key phrase that's within this in terms of self building to ensure that it is compliant is that you know it just states that the vt is shown on these is your output tax so it's your sales invoice it's in its output tax and that's how it should be recorded as on your vit returns and moving on through you know just some kind of key takeaways and and and recaps for me before before i hand over to ben um and you know i guess the first part of this is called no surprise based on the narrative i've had so far you know that reference really is key it flows through all of our systems all of our processes and all of the the documents that we send out to yourselves as suppliers of our business we recorded on that self-build invoice number it flows through to the payment advices it throws through to the management free invoice it helps with internal reconciliations it yet speeds up the response to questions and queries and answers um and you know and based on best practice and the advice we've had today it is that reference we have to go by and we're we're not able or looking really to store any internal references that you guys have internally and the emphasis that the process is very much on on this self-filled reference being recorded within your organizations to be shared and used with osan hmrc if required um and in terms of the document the document again that the invoice date hadn't mentioned document previously actually put that the date will match up with the date that the approval was given by the buying authority for these transactions and you can often use that here to give you an indicative idea of a payment date generally most of our terms fall within a kind of 30-day window of that approval there so you can use that there to link that through and make any and a kind of broad assumption around when you might expect to be paid for that piece of work and again you know that that invoice document is something that hmrc would expect to to see should should they want to audit or inspect and you'll your processes with that so that's pretty much from me i've done a lot of talking about invoicing and particularly invoice numbers so i think it would be very useful now if i hand over to ben and then i'll take us as i say into that poll and show us how it's accessed and and how it works over to you ben okay good morning everyone um so i'm just going to give you a quick overview on getting set up with the the system first off and then i'll take you through accessing it and viewing it at the same time so when when you are set up on the bloom provide 2 sourcing system we will at the same time be inviting you out to a separate system which is the finance portal so the first thing to say is we have the sourcing system which you should all be aware of um in terms of where you're going to go tender for work and manage the projects sdps and the milestones we will also send out an invite to the finance portal at the same time when you are set up with your account with us and now that will go to the key account holder so within that step you'll first get a registration to provide two you'll get an email confirming your accreditation and then you will have also received um an invitation to the the finance portal now depending on where you sit on within your own businesses that will go to the key account holder so some some of you may um you're your key account holder will have set up the finance portal um and then there is the opportunity to then invite you into the portal later down the line which i will show you others may have missed this um in the pr in the process so won't have set yourselves up um so i will share the uh our email address to provide two later on um in the day at the end of the slides so you can contact me and we can let you know if you do have a finance poll and if not we can resend the invite out to you so to do that it's very straightforward and we're just going to click onto the registration you will then be asked it will pre-fill with your name a title add in your phone number you're going to have your email address to confirm and then your passwords and key account information once you've accepted the terms and conditions that will go through and you'll be able to then go direct directly into our portal now i'm going to show you um on an existing within our test website to give you an example of what it actually looks like so once you've logged in with your details which will be sent to you you will land on the landing page um and within here the main navigation has some basic aspects so we've got our on the left hand side here the orders icon which is going to go into your sales orders and sales invoices which i'll show you in a second and then our other key bit is around managing users and sending you user requests so the key account holder will get the login to this site and then if anyone else within finance teams or elsewhere within within your business wants access to it they can then be added and invited into the portal in reference to the id so if you do happen to know the the um the invoice id that you're looking for you can search for that using the quick search within here that's going to take you directly into the invoice itself so if you know it you can quickly jump in you can then click onto the invoice id that's going to give you an overview of the invoice the lines within the invoice and the total values as per you would expect for a normal invoice setup you can see if there's any messages now these would have been sent during the process of the invoicing any attachments and also a history but the key bit here is you can also then download your invoice as well and this relates to the structure that kevin's just showed you there in terms of what's been included now there's a number of ways of also finding invoices and finding sales orders as well um if you don't know the ids so the first off if i go into the orders icon at the top and search for a sales order so these are actually going to be all of your sales orders that have been um as part of any agreement with bloom that you can access here as a history so when you come on to set up your account um even if you've been with us or been have pros projects with us for a long period of time any of your historical sales orders and invoice will be accessible via the portal so you can access in a long list there's a number of filters that you can apply to view all of those orders and we have as well po reference sales order invoice numbers and some filters around dates as well when you go into one of those sales orders you're then going to see again high level information and the payment schedule lines that are built from the work order as per agreed um as part of the project so any sales orders will show up within the portal as soon as the the work order is signed and we generate the the supplier development plan the sdp these will then be visible within within your portal now obviously we have a number of ids here there's a sales order number in the po number there are references you can then also search for the project name as well so if you are if you search using the project name that will bring up the the sales order and then you can click within it and if you want to access the invoices that are sat below that that have been generated as part of a project you can then access those directly within the invoicing tab at the top and then you can click in and see the invoices themselves um below that so that's one way of you've been able to access it and we can then also go back in and use any of the other filters now if we want to if we know an invoice number and we want to access it um we're not sure of the the sales order you can search using the invoice number and again that will then bring you up into the sales order information so within here we have status which is just going to give you an overview of that that project uh you've got your milestones that are linked to our service delivery plans below the values and the total value we can then go into some further detail around the sales order um tax statuses and other information any revisions now this may have happened following a ccn or an update to the the po is sat within our system so you can you can see those revisions and access any information on that as well within there the po documentation and then invoices so they're the key elements you're going to see within that now again you can do similar for sales invoice as well so if we go back into the orders tab and go directly to invoices and search for a sales invoice you're going to see a long list of all of your invoices covering all of your projects so again you can search if you've got the if you know the invoice number you can search directly and again you're going to go direct into that and you can download so often the easiest way if you've got project level information is to actually go into the sales order level you can search for a project and drill down so again if i search on a name or a starting name i can access that if you've got a project id um they will be searchable as well you can go in and find your invoices and work from there now again when you're set up as part of the onboarding process this the access to this as i said and mentioned will go to your key account holder to the person whose name is linked to the account when registered often that's not going to be the best person who's going to actually manage in terms of the invoices and reconciliations within finance teams so to do that we can just add in new users so within here we can fill out basic information very quick and easy anyone could then be added in you can be given a role and then you send an email request it's kind of blank because of the country code so making sure that the the uh the email request the country codes in and also that it's a business applicable email address you're going to send that reuse request and that user will get an email and they'll be able to process similarly to um the emails we've received earlier so that's that's the basic of the the um the portal um if you do have any queries um and we've got the uh the email address at the end please do get in touch and i can as i say let you know if you've got access already within the business and if not we can resend our invoice invites so you can process that and i'll hand back over to kevin to pick up the q a thank you very much ben um so we've had a handful of questions in that we'll we'll run through now if anybody else does have one feel free to add them into the box um and if not you know do we do have a slide with some contact deals that we'll put up uh at the end of you know feel free to contact us via the appropriate channel as well and um and this webinar i'm looking at alex tonight has been recorded so we will share the link and it will be posted to the youtube channel should everybody want to watch it back or just frantically make a note it is being recorded so it will be shared via that that process so the first question we have i think i can probably tackle um is the self-bill invoice raised on behalf of the supplier sent to the supplier um it's not sent out by email at present you know the the question is um it's very much downloadable from the portal and that is the method that we have available for people to access those invoices at the moment it you know it may be something we look at in terms of a future roadmap but at the at this moment in time it's not possible and they are they are simply downloadable from the portal and ben anything to add to that no no yeah that's right so um second one is can we download the invoice from the provide2 portal um i'd previously been advised i couldn't self save and had to go through the link players in the bloom um absolutely as ben's just showed us and walked us through you can't download that invoice yourself at your own leisure you can download the history of invoices that's within there and they are accessible you know until until the system no longer exists effectively so they are all accessible within there to download um and and should for any reason you not be able to to get in there or download them you know feel free to reach out to the provide2 or bloomberg services email below and ben will pick those those queries up if there is any issues um next one on the slide it was mentioned stuff but you can self build can be downloaded from provide to yeah very similar so yes um we can if you need a access or you need a link please please reach out to ben on the provide to email that's there and and we'll get you a link to that portal hey maybe there's somebody else in your organization has access and we just need to get it shared shared amongst the correct group so absolutely we can address that for you um the next one there ben this might be one for you the two different logins to the portal could they be merged and is there any kind of potential to do that yeah so that is on our roadmap at the moment is two separate um logins the reason for that really um is around security so because it's secure financial information um actually there's a separate login currently um and also that access to that information is often going to be targeted different users or different people or different teams but it is we are looking at the potential yeah to have a single sign-on option so you're not not having to remember two logins um the next one again very much similar i've never had access to the finance portal only the stp submission you know absolutely please get in touch with us specifically and we'll check the access for your organization whether somebody else has it and we need to get it shared or whether you need some access created for you but absolutely we can resolve that pretty easily and pretty quickly um next round again ben this might be one for you could you include the project name on a project when we get the references of appeal or a sales order we don't know which project it relates to um i think the answer is as yes that is in there when it is searchable by project name as well but then is there anything to yeah so the the project uh yeah the project name and id will be on the invoices and then and when it comes through on the po as well so you can search by all of that and the project id which you should have um as long as the you know the projects will set up that is all fully searchable uh within the portal yeah similarly we throw project descriptions through to management free invoices um and other documents we send out now as well um the next one what's the process of adding change orders to the portal in order to submit an sdp um then or barney i don't know if your best place to answer that in terms of a change order as in a ccn yet so currently that will go through your come through to procurement operations and they'll be able to process process that for you uh we are at the moment just updating our our platform so that there's there is a form directly so you can submit a change order through that form and that will come through for us for processing so the minute direct into proc ops and they'll be able to start that process off through the um through the through the project's email and be able to start that process off for you uh shortly in the next sort of uh quarter one of next year we'll have a direct form so you can upload and we'll process that for you yeah we're worth noting that actually it's not on this contacts page but project aftlum.services is the central inbox for that that procurement operations team depends referring to there so that's projects at bloom dot services um when does the system become live um it it's it's already live it's there we've been using this process in the system since earlier on this year so if you if you do require access and i'll feel free to again reach out and we'll make sure that you've got the right access that you need is it possible to have an internal reference number quartered back to us when a payment is made this is how it used to work under the previous provide system and the removal of the functionality and provide to creates internal admin for us to resolve this you know this is probably the number one question we get asked at bloom in the finance function on a regular basis um you know one of the reasons we made the change between provide one and provide two was on the advice we had from you know a big for finance firm accountancy firm and hmrc about kind of best practices with this process and and how it needs to center around the self billing process for compliance reasons so it's it's not possible and it it's it's not something where we're actively pursuing at this time and you know the focus is on embedding in the self-built process correctly to ensure that you know that self-full reference is recorded correctly on our side and on your side to make sure that things do flow through and are easy to reconcile and i think if you have a specific problem um it might be worth us talking it through in more detail and you can get me through the accounts that bloom dot services if needed and we have a question from claire please can you let me know who to email to get access yeah sure if you drop that to the provide to at bloom.services address we can we can get that sorted out for you and and we can pick up that access um similarly for the the web address for the portal um you know we can share those via email as well yeah and that that's on the invite um when it comes out but i suggest favoring that as well when you um when you do get it and you go in and create your account so you've got that there for future reference yeah the the next question actually relates to the handover between provide one and provide two you know they've got access to the portal but it doesn't uh it doesn't have the backlog of of invoices from provide one and and that is correct so they are not stored within the provide to invoice portal we do have them all logged and registered internally within bloom um if there was an anonymous question but if you if you do need access to the to any historical documents you know that you missed then feel free to reach out and we can have those there shared with you absolutely um how do you know when an invoice is approved i i'll pass this over to ben but i believe there's an automated notification that comes via the system yeah there is a notification uh that'll come that the line is being completed um and it does have that within the body of the email it does come from a system email which means it's sometimes missed um within other inboxes we are just tidying that up as well to improve it just to make it a lot clearer so you are definitely aware of when it has been approved um and you can also check on look at the um the buyer line as well to confirm that as soon as it has been approved the invoice will drop in as well um once the integration is run and processed that invoice will be immediately visible within the finance portal so you can see it within there and below the sales order and the individual payment schedule line um so yes you do get a notification um we're gonna we're tidying those up to make them a little bit clearer so just keep an eye out for system emails uh from the provide to email account um and the final question we've got currently is do they struggling and they sometimes find the system not very intuitive um are we consulting with users to make things more user-friendly um ben do you want to talk about anything that's on the roadmap what could be considered for the roadmap yeah um yeah we're aware that some of the some of the user experience and some of the ui does need to be improved um we're currently testing a new template for the sdp um so in terms of you recording the the um the milestone information and giving the billing amount that should just be a lot easier in terms of what that looks like in the ordering and the ease of use um we're aware as well of some of the challenges in terms of finding the sdps what's been approved and what's not been approved within your supplier dashboard on the sourcing side um so we've got some some working with with uh the system providers to look at tidying that up and organizing that better um and as well managing better alerts out of the system so you're a lot clearer on what's happened and when and particularly around the approval and when the invoice is generated and then when the payment is due what we don't have in the the supplier finance portal side at the moment is the pulling back through the the payment date or the due payment date and there is some work going on at the minute to look at pulling that information out so we can that'll show as well on the invoice against the invoice when um when the payment is due from our finance side so that work we're looking at again in quarter one next year we're looking to make those changes and we will uh provide further communication on what's happening with that and and as well um and as well in quarter one actually we've got a load of new support videos that will go on to our um onto our youtube channel um so breaking the those down into kind of the full sort of flow steps from getting accredited right through to tendering for a project approving stps on the finance portal as well so there will be a number of more videos there to act and provide greater support for you as well well that brings everything we have up to now to to a close um thanks very much for getting involved listening to the webinar and what we've had to say so far um it has been recorded and we'll we'll post the video to the youtube channel and the contact deals are on the screen now should ever anybody have any follow-up questions um to to relay to us or any feedback that would be absolutely fantastic um and they do still have the kind of static page of supplier resources and help guides and management fee calculators the likes on our supplier resources web page which you can all access on the link that's on the slide there as well um but if that is everything that's all we had to say so every 20 minutes of their their day back and and we'll let you all go but thanks very much for attending um and and do keep in touch and sending any questions that are needed but thanks to the other panelists for fatigue