Dan’s thoughts on service charge coding

POV: When your new temp admin is trying to work out where to code service charge invoices...

It never fails to surprise me how little attention is given to the act of coding invoices and raising PO's. Often the task is given to the lowest paid (or newest) member of the team, or treated as a low priority, tick box exercise. The outcomes of this can be super frustrating for service charge teams.

Rather than dwell on this, it's important to identify & address the reasons WHY it happens. When it comes to coding, teams often have these three thoughts:

1. It's not my job to code invoices

Cost coding is part of your role, whether or not it's in your job profile or list of tasks you're measured against. It's part of every role in the organisation, from CEO down. Your organisation's purpose is related to the ability to make a difference in people's lives, whether by providing a safe, warm home or support services. You can't do this to the best of your ability as an organisation if you're miscoding costs in the wrong place. From a service charge perspective, a miscoded cost sent to an overhead code might get missed and be unrecovered. On a grand scale, this stops the organisation from meeting its primary purpose. It may extend beyond service charges - certain costs can be offset, depreciated.

2. As long as the supplier gets paid, it doesn't matter

Of course we want suppliers to get paid. However, that should be the byproduct of correct coding, not the sole requirement. Otherwise, your organisation pays and cannot recoup the cost.

3. I've got budget in this code, so I'm coding it there

The fallacy that is matching to your budget. Often seen as good financial management by the teams (I've even seen Finance Business Partners encourage it!), the classic, 'code it to X, I've got some spare budget there' is far from ideal for those at the far end of the service charge process. If it's a recoverable cost, it might not be in a place where the service charge team will look. Another missed opportunity and more money taken away from meeting your organisation's purpose.

If you're reading this and can relate, it's not a lost cause. You have the ability to change behaviours.