Improving client billing The Government Property Agency’s (GPA) Client Finance team, working closely with our strategic partners Montagu Evans, has invested a significant amount of effort in improving our client billing. Over the last two months, our client relationship and client finance teams, along with the related teams from Montagu Evans, have successfully identified and solved a number of long-standing issues in our client billing process. We are confident that future invoicing will demonstrate a marked improvement in both accuracy and the supporting information available to clients when invoices are produced. We have completed a detailed review of the 20 data fields that we think have the most impact on accurate billing within the Horizon Property Management system. The data within these fields has been reviewed and, where necessary, corrected. A new change management process will ensure that this data remains up to date and accurate. We have also updated process maps to capture the full end-to-end billing process. We identified key intervention points where additional quality assurance measures will be completed prior to invoices being produced. The November 2021 invoices were the first to be produced utilising these new assurance processes. Our quarterly invoicing is also now supported by variance reports developed by the Client Finance team. These reports highlight where the amount invoiced is different from the expected forecast amount and why there has been a change. The initial report testing carried out with a small number of clients received very positive feedback. We are also very pleased with our successful recruitment campaigns to strengthen our Client Finance team. We now have an experienced property accountant in the interim Deputy Director for Client Finance role, John Hatter, and four additional permanent client finance colleagues have also joined the team.
This is just the start of our continuous improvement programme. There is still a lot to do. We will continue to improve our systems and processes and at the same time ensure that the team is very responsive to client queries. We are also working to improve the dialogue with our clients, at all levels. For many of our clients, their property requirements are dynamic and fast changing. Our aim is to ensure that we keep pace with this dynamic environment and have the most effective management systems in place. If you have other suggestions on how we can improve the accuracy of the financial information and invoicing we provide, do get in touch with your suggestions.
Nigel Beckett Finance Director, GPA Talk with Nigel on email (Gmail users) Connect with Nigel on LinkedIn
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