Onboard early to get paid on time

One of the most oft-quoted issues when it comes to long payment (as opposed to late payment) is the amount of time it can take to onboard into a client’s system. This post offers guidance on how to pre-populate profiles on the major platforms so you are ‘good to go’ when contracts are secured.

What’s the PO problem?

This is a message I recently received:

‘We have examples of corporates using our services/platform, but it takes 2.5 months to get our company ‘onboarded’ to their procurement systems with massive paperwork – then we only get the PO number and they claim 60 days payment time. So they use the service for 4.5 months without paying a penny. It would be better if the corporate could make their onboarding process transparent, clear and provide all templates and info requests in time so the onboarding happens.’

This is an issue I repeatedly experienced as a small business owner myself.

But there is a step you can take to make contracting and payment hopefully as smooth as possible – and that is to pre-onboard to the major platforms.

If you are selling to larger clients, you are likely to come across the key supplier platforms; Coupa, SAP Ariba, Oracle and Jaegger. On all you can populate a profile, for free, without an invitation from a buyer and before you have secured any work. Here are the links:

• Coupa – a community of 10 million buyers and suppliers in the network. Sign up here
• Jaegger – as the platform explains ‘registering on the network allows you to maintain your own company profile so buyers can find you. To do specific business, submit invoices, or bid on private contracts, you will eventually need an invitation to that client’s unique portal or system.’ Link is here.
• Oracle – follow the process set out here.
• SAP Ariba – is via the SAP Business Network Supplier Portal and, as the site describes, by signing up you can ‘connect with customers that are already on the network and get discovered by new ones, participate in sourcing events and share your company profile, including sustainability ratings and certifications, with buyers. Once your profile is active and complete with your products, services, and location, buying organizations can discover your business and request a trading relationship.’

As you can see, they all pretty much offer the same range of benefits.

Onboarding onto one or all platforms will require company documentation like insurance policies, cyber certificates, bank details etc. Use this as an opportunity to store that information in one place so it’s accessible if you win new work that requires uploading again.

Our job at the Office is to address all layers of friction that impact payment terms and times. The process to onboard is one of those layers and I hope this newsletter prompts you to pre-onboard, hopefully saving time down the line.

Emma