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Q&A
Commissioner Bonilla and panelists discuss standardizing invoicing and the financial impact of late payments
0:52:01
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3 min
Commissioner Grace Bonilla asks Lauren Siciliano (Legal Aid) for recommendations on standardizing invoicing across agencies, who suggests standardizing both format and substantive review processes. Bonilla then asks about data on interest costs incurred by nonprofits due to delays. Michelle Jackson (HSC) shares snapshot data from a member survey ($6M interest on $87M credit lines when $350M was owed) and refers to more comprehensive data from CFE Capital Partners, also highlighting the significant staff time nonprofits lose chasing payments instead of delivering services.
- A standard format and substantive review approach for invoicing across agencies is recommended.
- Nonprofits incur significant interest costs on loans/credit lines needed due to payment delays (HSC survey data: $6M interest paid when $350M was owed).
- There's a significant hidden cost in staff time diverted from service delivery to manage cash flow and chase payments.
Grace Bonilla
0:52:01
So thank you again for for your testimony.
0:52:04
My question was around just going back to Mark's potential elevated authority.
0:52:11
And I think, Lauren, you said that because you have contract with several agencies, you're experiencing firsthand that invoicing is not handled across all agencies the same.
0:52:21
Is there a specific recommendation that you can give based on your experience,
Richard R. Buery Jr.
0:52:27
when that was looked like?
0:52:27
And then
Grace Bonilla
0:52:28
I have one more question for all of you.
Lauren Siciliano
0:52:32
I think the the review comes down to two high level categories.
0:52:38
One is the format, and one is the substance.
0:52:41
I think if there could be a standard format and then a substantive approach that, you know, you're never gonna get prescribed every single step, but has that minimum or should take no longer than, that would be enormously helpful.
0:52:59
Because what what quite often is that not only do does each agency want something in a different format, they also ask very different levels and types of questions at at different stages of the process, which means that, you know, sometimes to get to a particular chef, it almost feels like you're going through an audit on the front
Diane Savino
0:53:15
end in order just to get
Louisa Chafee
0:53:16
the initiative or the initiative.
0:53:18
Thank
Grace Bonilla
0:53:20
you.
0:53:21
And and my other question on accountability, do you have any data on the amount of interest on a given year that your members have paid for just so that we can understand just economic impact of some of the propositions?
0:53:36
Yeah.
Michelle Jackson
0:53:37
Yeah.
0:53:37
So, unfortunately so the answer is yes and no.
0:53:40
CTE Capital Partners has really great data that we're happy to send to you all after this.
0:53:44
I think it might be a little retroactive, but we can certainly share that information.
0:53:48
And I think from our moment in time survey that I had mentioned, we found that and this was a moment in time.
0:53:57
So it was just from about 60 providers that they were owed $350,000,000 at that one moment on their contract.
0:54:05
They had credit a line of credit or loans for $87,000,000, not through
Julie Won
0:54:11
the loan fund.
0:54:11
So, you know, it's
Michelle Jackson
0:54:12
just that's different.
0:54:14
We love that.
0:54:15
And 6,000,000 in interest payments.
0:54:17
So if you wanna extrapolate, you know, 70 87,000,000 equals $6,000,000 in interest payments.
0:54:23
But has some stronger data about, like, what that looks like, and I think in two ways.
0:54:28
The first is groups who are able to take lines of credit and what that costs.
0:54:31
And second, what's just the other money that's spent when contracts are registering?
0:54:38
And I know I'm pretending to know this better than me.
0:54:40
When you have to chase down your dollars on a daily basis, what aren't you doing?
0:54:44
When your management leader, CFO is looking through contracts to send to me, to send to mocks, to say this is late when you're worried about paying vendors and moving money around.
0:54:53
There's actually a cost there, right, of, like, what should people be doing instead.
0:54:57
And did a great report and kind of extrapolating what that would look like.
0:55:00
So we'll send that to you.