Who at your client confirms, in their system, that your work was done?
If your finance team cannot answer by name, that person is probably the reason an invoice is late right now.
Four records have to agree
Before a department or a large company can pay, four records must match on quantity and value:
- the order (purchase order, official order or contract);
- the acceptance record: the buyer’s own confirmation that the work was delivered as ordered;
- your tax invoice;
- your supplier record, which in government means the Central Supplier Database.
You create the invoice and keep your supplier record current. The buyer issues the order. The acceptance record is created by someone at the buyer, often a project manager or end user who has no reason to hurry, and it is the one that most often stalls payment.
What it looks like at different clients
| Client setting | The acceptance record |
|---|---|
| Government department or municipality | Goods received note or voucher, and an end-user certificate that the goods and services were “received and rendered in good order” (Polokwane’s wording) |
| SAP buyer (most SOEs, mines, banks) | An approved service entry sheet. In S/4HANA, approving it posts the goods receipt. Until then your invoice cannot match |
| SAP Ariba portal | Often you cannot even submit the invoice until the service entry sheet is approved |
| IT projects | User acceptance sign-off or a milestone acceptance certificate |
| Time-and-materials work | Approved timesheets |
| Construction under JBCC | A signed payment certificate, payable within 7 days |
City of Cape Town runs the three-way match explicitly: order, goods received note and invoice must agree on price and quantity. If one line is off, the invoice stops.
South Africa has no safety net here
In the United States, a government service is deemed accepted on the seventh day after delivery if nobody signs. In the European Union, a public buyer’s verification may not exceed 30 days unless both sides agree. South Africa has no equivalent law. If the acceptance record is never created, your invoice waits.
The only protection is the contract, and the contract is settled before the work starts.
What to agree before the work starts
Put three things in the contract or the special conditions of contract:
- The document. Name the acceptance record by its real name at that client: “service entry sheet”, “completion certificate”, “signed attendance register and close-out report”.
- The signatory. A role, and a named person with an alternate. “The project manager” is a start; “the project manager, or in their absence the programme director” stops the invoice that waits for someone on leave.
- The deemed-acceptance period. For example: a deliverable is deemed accepted unless rejected in writing, with reasons, within ten working days of submission. Typical commercial wording runs from five to fifteen working days.
Then, in delivery:
- collect the signed evidence of delivery at the event, on the day: attendance registers, delivery notes, minutes;
- ask the receipt owner to post the goods receipt or service entry before you send the invoice;
- quote the acceptance reference on the invoice where the client’s system expects it.
A line we use in training
On 15 October 2026, teaching a finance and procurement class for a client’s team, Thandwefika Tshabalala put it like this: “A purchase order is money, just without the cash.” The acceptance record is the step that turns it into cash. Treat it as a deliverable of the project, with an owner and a date, and the invoice that follows it has something to match.
Which acceptance record is holding your money? Bring one stuck invoice to a 30-minute Stuck Invoice Diagnostic and we will trace which of the four records is missing. Book a call · Back to the guide
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