Field Notes
Credit notes that were promised and never posted
Buyer emails are full of polite agreements: a unit-price correction, a damaged-goods allowance, a volume rebate to be settled next month. Those promises rarely appear in the exception log because nobody owns the follow-up.
In expense audits we ask for the dispute register — or build one from email threads if none exists — then match promised credits to the supplier statement. The gap is often smaller in count than people fear, yet large enough in value to justify the chase.
A workable habit is a monthly credit-chase list owned by procurement, with finance confirming postings. Our role in an engagement is to show where the list is incomplete and which open items still sit on the statement months later.
Recoveries from this work feel unglamorous. They also show up clearly on a cash flow statement, which is why controllers tend to keep the practice after the audit closes.