4 errors in invoices that cost your company 3,200 PLN per month

Wrong rates for transport and logistics

We often see that suppliers from Gdynia or Pruszcz Gdański add extra fees that are not in the contract. The biggest problem is so-called fuel surcharges. In the contract, you have 1.5% written, but on the invoice, 2.8% suddenly appears without explanation. If your company orders 47 transports a month, these small differences quickly swell. We checked this in a company producing yacht parts – in October 2024 alone, they overpaid 840 PLN this way.

The problem is that billing systems at suppliers are often set to 'automatic'. No one verifies if your specific rate is consistent with what you negotiated last year. At Baltic Synergia Consulting, we always repeat: numbers must match the contract, not the supplier's convenience. It's worth sitting down once a quarter with a calculator and comparing 15 random invoices with the base price list. The results usually open owners' eyes.

Also pay attention to pallet fees. It happens that a supplier charges a deposit for 24 euro-pallets, even though the driver picked up the same number of empty ones in exchange. That's another 1,200 PLN frozen in the system that rarely comes back to the company without a clear demand. Concrete instead of theory: check the warehouse receipts (WZ) and compare them with the invoice from the same day. You'll often find a discrepancy.

A small mistake of 1.3% on a fuel surcharge with 47 transports a month is real money thrown away.

Double accounting of the same parts

In the great rush of production, especially when deadlines are tight, it's easy to have a mess in the documents. We had a case with a client near Tczew where one batch of gaskets was invoiced twice. Once as a bulk order, and the second time as an 'urgent replenishment of shortages'. Accounting approved both documents because the amounts were different – one invoice was for 4,300 PLN, the other for 420 PLN. No one noticed the batch numbers overlapped.

Such situations happen more often than you think. Especially when you use the services of 12-15 different suppliers. Everyone has a different system, different product codes, and your warehouse people just want the goods on the shelf. Without a clear procedure for checking duplicates, you lose control over the budget. We know every screw in the budget and know that such 'small' errors can hide losses of 5,400 PLN over six months. That's pure profit you're giving someone for free.

To avoid such slip-ups, introduce a rule: one invoice must have one unique order number assigned from the system. If the system throws an error that the number has already been used – the invoice goes to the bin until clarified. This is a simple solution that doesn't require expensive software. A simple Excel sheet kept by one person is enough. (By the way, most companies we audit have this sheet, but no one fills it out regularly).

Unapplied discounts and prompt payment terms

Many factories negotiate a 'skonto' or a discount for early payment. For example, a 2% discount if the transfer goes out in 5 days instead of 30. This is a great way to save, but in practice, it rarely works. Why? Because the invoice gets stuck in document flow. Before it gets from the production manager to the office and gets approved, 6-7 days pass. The discount is lost, and the company pays the full amount. At Baltic Synergia Consulting, we calculated that a medium-sized plant loses 930 PLN a month on this.

It's worst when the supplier issues an invoice with a backdate. You have 5 days for the discount, but the paper arrives by mail 4 days after issue. You have 24 hours to react. If your accountant is on vacation or has other urgent tasks at that time, you lose money. Concrete instead of theory: require electronic invoices in PDF format sent directly to a dedicated email address (e.g., invoices@YourCompany.pl). This shortens the document flow by at least 3 business days.

Another problem is volume discounts that the supplier's salespeople forget about. If you agreed on a price of 4.20 PLN per piece after exceeding a threshold of 1000 pieces, and the invoice still comes in at 4.50 PLN – you're losing 30 cents on each piece. On an order of 3200 items, that's a 960 PLN difference. No one will give you this money back if you don't fight for it yourself. At Baltic Synergia Consulting, we check such 'forgotten' discounts up to 2 years back.

A discount for quick payment is not a gift, it's your right. If the invoice sits in the office for a week, you're burning cash.

Wrong VAT codes and customs fees

For companies from Pomerania that often import components by sea, errors in CN codes are a daily occurrence. A customs officer at the port enters a different code, and your supplier thoughtlessly copies it onto the invoice. The effect? You pay 23% VAT instead of 8% or a duty you shouldn't have paid. We had a client who paid an inflated rate for imported aluminum profiles for 11 months. We recovered 12,400 PLN for him, but the stress and paperwork were immense.

Accounting often fears questioning VAT rates on invoices from big players. They think: 'They have big offices, surely they know what they are doing'. Nothing could be further from the truth. People work there too, and they make mistakes or take shortcuts. If you produce something specific, you must know your product codes better than anyone. At Baltic Synergia Consulting, we're not afraid to ask 'why so expensive?'. We look for holes in everything because that's usually where your savings hide.

Finally, there's the matter of currencies. If you pay in Euro or Dollars, check what exchange rate the supplier used for the invoice. They often take an 'own' rate that is 2-3 cents worse than the NBP rate from the day preceding the issue. On an invoice for 15,000 Euro, those 3 cents of difference are 450 PLN of loss on one transfer. These aren't huge sums individually, but multiply them by 12 months and 83 contractors. Then you'll see why it's worth watching every zloty.