This is a yearly aggravation for our team. Our district for as long as I can remember has an issue with how FIRST generates a proforma Invoice or quote. The bookkeepers need a non-proforma invoice to be able to write a check, create a PO, etc.
For definition sake, and I’m not an accountant so I had to look all of these up for my own sake.
Proforma Invoice: “Pro forma” means “as a matter of form” and is the term used for an invoice that estimates the price or goods of services in advance of shipment or delivery. You can issue a pro forma in situations where it’s impossible to give your customers an exact price, but you’re still able to give them a general idea of the costs involved. Source
Quote: Short for quotation, is a preliminary document provided by a seller to a potential buyer. It serves as an initial estimate of the cost of goods or services and outlines the terms and conditions under which the transaction may take place. Source
Both of those are estimates of the cost, but not actually a final bill with a firm amount the district can actually write on a check.
Invoice: Unlike its proforma sibling, a commercial invoice is non-negotiable, legally binding, and is sent only after the approval process is complete, the transaction has an associated purchase order, bill of lading, and invoice number, and an actual sale has occurred. Source
Our district Bookkeeper:
To me:
I cannot pay this. The district will not accept a quote or proforma invoice. It must say invoice in order for me to pay it.
To FIRST CS and AR emails:
We need to pay this but I am unable to pay via a quote or proforma invoice. Will you be able to send an invoice so I can get this paid?
FIRST Customer Service:
To me:
Thank you for requesting a copy of an invoice to facilitate the payment process for your program registration and materials. We recommend confirming with your institution’s purchasing office if they will accept a quote to generate a purchase order. If they do not accept a quote, we can provide a "Proforma Invoice " but the FIRST® Finance team will require an approved purchase order (PO) before we can issue an actual invoice. Unfortunately, we are unable to issue an invoice without a valid purchase order committing to payment of goods & services provided by FIRST.
So we are stuck between FIRST being unable to make an invoice for the final price and product and the district says we can’t cut a check for something that is still not finalized. I get both sides, but we go through this every single year and it’s like the bookkeepers on both ends forget they emailed each other last year about this exact same thing. Every year someone caves and somehow it is paid and yet they all forget the process the next time. I never get told how it was solved, I just eventually get another email saying we are paid finally.
How do other teams handle this that use school district bookkeepers for registration payment? Do they accept the quote/proforma invoice as the final and if the cost changes they get a refund/pay extra?
As a coach what are my options, I started this process weeks ago and obviously registration payment was due yesterday so we will be late and possibly have our kit delayed anyways. Customer Service took about a week to get back to me about it after I tried chat support. Chat recommended we contact AR as well which we did, but haven’t heard from them directly yet.
It seems like it’s the district who will have to budge on their policy, but based on the definitions of each term FIRST is not doing things in a standard way. Am I misunderstanding the definitions and how payments are supposed to work with POs and invoices?