What happens between the award letter and the first invoice?
In most firms, delivery happens. The project team mobilises, the site opens, the first milestone comes round, and only then does finance learn there is a portal, an approver on leave and a form nobody mentioned. In the last fortnight of October 2026 the eTenders portal recorded 234 awards. Somewhere in each of those firms a finance manager is about to find out how that client pays.
The weeks between the award and the first milestone are the cheapest time to fix the payment route. Nothing is owed yet, so nothing is late, and everyone on the client side still wants the project to start well.
Seven things to settle in that window
1. The order number, before any work. “No PO, no go” is Sasol’s rule for its own suppliers, and it is the right rule for yours. Work done before the order is issued can be irregular expenditure on the buyer’s side, and payment for it can stall indefinitely. Check the order value covers what you will invoice, and that it names your legal entity exactly as your tax invoice will.
2. The acceptance document, and who signs it. South Africa has no rule that deems your work accepted if the client stays silent. Name in the special conditions of contract the document that proves acceptance (a completion certificate, a service entry sheet, signed timesheets), the person who signs it, and a period after which it is deemed accepted, for example ten working days. Many buyers will agree to it at contract stage. Few will agree once a dispute has started.
3. The payment route, by name. Ask four questions in the kick-off meeting: who approves our invoice, who posts the goods receipt or service entry it must match, where invoices are sent, and when the payment run falls. Write the names down. People change; the playbook keeps the route.
4. The invoice specification. Every buyer’s system checks fields. Write them down from the buyer’s own documents: the order number, the buyer’s registered name as it appears on the order, the cost centre or project code, the VAT details, the supporting documents it expects. Put it on one page and give it to whoever raises your invoices.
5. Your supplier record. Your Central Supplier Database registration, tax status and bank details must stay current for the life of the contract. CSD problems appear in every Treasury report on late payment from 2023/24 to 2025/26. Diarise the expiry dates now.
6. A test invoice. Before the first real invoice, send a small or zero-value one through the route, or walk a draft through with the client’s accounts payable. It is the step most firms skip, and it surfaces the missing field, the wrong address and the absent approver while nothing is at stake.
7. Proof of receipt. The 30 days run from the day the client receives your invoice. Decide now how you will prove it every time: a portal receipt, an acknowledgement email, a date stamp.
What it looks like when one of these is missed
On 29 October 2026 we looked at a client’s R5.7 million invoice to a metro. The purchase order existed and the evidence of delivery went with the invoice. The invoice did not quote the order number, and it went to the CFO’s inbox instead of the metro’s published invoices address. Two items from the list above. Both take five minutes to fix before the invoice goes; afterwards each can cost a month.
Why this belongs to finance and delivery together
Thandwefika Tshabalala learned this as a project manager on ICT infrastructure projects. The milestone would be reached, the client’s evidence of completion would arrive, and the money would take months. The question came back to the project manager: why are you not collecting? The fix he built was to start finance on the day the project starts, with the payment route tested before the first milestone falls due. In that business, receivables came down close to zero.
The award is when your client is most willing to answer your questions. Ask them then.
A checklist for your next award
- Order number received, value checked, legal entity matches
- Acceptance document, signatory and deemed-acceptance period in the contract
- Approver, receipt owner, invoice address and payment run date written down
- One-page invoice specification for this client
- CSD, tax and bank expiry dates diarised
- Test invoice sent and confirmed
- Method for proving the receipt date agreed
Just won one? Book a Stuck Invoice Diagnostic and bring the award letter instead of a stuck invoice. In 30 minutes we will walk your new client’s payment route with you. Book a call · Back to the guide: getting paid by government on time
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