Greene King pub gig payment

[mikegatward]

Has anyone experienced this recently and their move to Concur payment system.

 

We’re having a bit of a mare !

[Silvia Bluejay]

It wasn't too bad for us, when we used it for the first time a few weeks ago. However, it has a rather steep learning curve. Quite apart from the weird terminology, which doesn't match any of my experience as a self-employed person, there are some unexpected steps.

To start with, it's not the Client who gives you a Purchase Order; the onus is on you, as the Supplier, to put a Request in the system, mentioning the agreed job and fee, BEFORE the job is carried out.

The Client then approves your Request - possibly several times (twice in our case, by two different people).

Then you do the job, play the gig. Then the onus is again on you to put the same amount you previously 'requested' in the system again, but this time in the form of an Expense to which you attach an invoice. You should do that just after playing the gig.

Then, in the following few days, several people at the Client and at SAP Concur approve your Expense.

Then you wait. And wait. And wait.

Then you get paid, eventually, into the bank account you entered when setting up your Concur account.

 

With us, it wasn't too bad, we were paid about 10 days after the day of the gig. I hear that Event UK normally takes 3 weeks. Mustn't grumble... 🙄

[Teebs]

3 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

It wasn't too bad for us, when we used it for the first time a few weeks ago. However, it has a rather steep learning curve. Quite apart from the weird terminology, which doesn't match any of my experience as a self-employed person, there are some unexpected steps.

To start with, it's not the Client who gives you a Purchase Order; the onus is on you, as the Supplier, to put a Request in the system, mentioning the agreed job and fee, BEFORE the job is carried out.

The Client then approves your Request - possibly several times (twice in our case, by two different people).

Then you do the job, play the gig. Then the onus is again on you to put the same amount you previously 'requested' in the system again, but this time in the form of an Expense to which you attach an invoice. You should do that just after playing the gig.

Then, in the following few days, several people at the Client and at SAP Concur approve your Expense.

Then you wait. And wait. And wait.

Then you get paid, eventually, into the bank account you entered when setting up your Concur account.

 

With us, it wasn't too bad, we were paid about 10 days after the day of the gig. I hear that Event UK normally takes 3 weeks. Mustn't grumble... 🙄

What could be more straightforward!

[mikegatward]

Thanks @Silvia Bluejay

 

i managed to figure the expense part of it. Trouble was for us, we only created the request after we played the gig. The guy who booked us didn’t know the process either !

 

Guess I should have watched the 27 minute video in full but I figured that time was better spent playing bass 😂

[Silvia Bluejay]

LOL I didn't bother with the video, I went old-school and RTFM'd... 😉

[Doddy]

12 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

It wasn't too bad for us, when we used it for the first time a few weeks ago. However, it has a rather steep learning curve. Quite apart from the weird terminology, which doesn't match any of my experience as a self-employed person, there are some unexpected steps.

To start with, it's not the Client who gives you a Purchase Order; the onus is on you, as the Supplier, to put a Request in the system, mentioning the agreed job and fee, BEFORE the job is carried out.

The Client then approves your Request - possibly several times (twice in our case, by two different people).

Then you do the job, play the gig. Then the onus is again on you to put the same amount you previously 'requested' in the system again, but this time in the form of an Expense to which you attach an invoice. You should do that just after playing the gig.

Then, in the following few days, several people at the Client and at SAP Concur approve your Expense.

Then you wait. And wait. And wait.

Then you get paid, eventually, into the bank account you entered when setting up your Concur account.

 

With us, it wasn't too bad, we were paid about 10 days after the day of the gig. I hear that Event UK normally takes 3 weeks. Mustn't grumble... 🙄

That seems like a massive ball ache for a pub gig? 

[warwickhunt]

We do quite a few GK pub gigs and though it's one of the other guys who set this up, it is pretty seamless when you've done a few.

[toneknob]

Getting your expenses from Green King is quite simple, now pay attention everyone

 

 

[pete.young]

15 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

It wasn't too bad for us, when we used it for the first time a few weeks ago. However, it has a rather steep learning curve. Quite apart from the weird terminology, which doesn't match any of my experience as a self-employed person, there are some unexpected steps.

To start with, it's not the Client who gives you a Purchase Order; the onus is on you, as the Supplier, to put a Request in the system, mentioning the agreed job and fee, BEFORE the job is carried out.

The Client then approves your Request - possibly several times (twice in our case, by two different people).

Then you do the job, play the gig. Then the onus is again on you to put the same amount you previously 'requested' in the system again, but this time in the form of an Expense to which you attach an invoice. You should do that just after playing the gig.

Then, in the following few days, several people at the Client and at SAP Concur approve your Expense.

Then you wait. And wait. And wait.

Then you get paid, eventually, into the bank account you entered when setting up your Concur account.

 

With us, it wasn't too bad, we were paid about 10 days after the day of the gig. I hear that Event UK normally takes 3 weeks. Mustn't grumble... 🙄

What a surprise. Greene King is an appalling company with a terrible business model, a vindictive street which includes attempting to evict a bunch of pensioner tenants who had the temerity to object to a licence extension, they make deeply unremarkable beer and are best avoided at all costs.

[Old Horse Murphy]

These PO/Supplier management systems aren't designed for this type of transaction and (believe me) are even far worse in professional services' applications. If you were placing an order for (say) 10,000 iPhones or 60,000 toilet rolls it's a great way of raising PO's right through through to payment as it can really speed-up transactions and the whole procure to pay process. 
 

At the moment, it's seen as a very low-hanging fruit for an increasing number of companies to roll out without a great deal of thought as to how it's applied. It's going to get worse before it gets better, especially as companies will want to take the savings early in the process. 

[chris_b]

It's a long time since I had enough gigs to be able to pick and choose who I play for based on the company's business model!!

 

I have no shame. I even used to gig in Watney's pubs when they were foisting Red Barrel on an unsuspecting public.

 

We are seeing some pubs going cashless. I'm now being paid by bank transfer and even PayPal on some of my gigs. One regular pub had even stopped accepting cash from the customers! It's all change. We have to learn to live with these changes or risk sitting at home for months waiting for cash only gigs to come up.

[Mudpup]

We just got paid for a gig we aren't playing till next Friday in a GK pub. Never had that before (although we haven't dished it out yet in case anyone comes down with Covid beforehand and it gets scratched)  😂 

 

[nilebodgers]

1 hour ago, Old Horse Murphy said:

These PO/Supplier management systems aren't designed for this type of transaction and (believe me) are even far worse in professional services' applications. If you were placing an order for (say) 10,000 iPhones or 60,000 toilet rolls it's a great way of raising PO's right through through to payment as it can really speed-up transactions and the whole procure to pay process. 
 

At the moment, it's seen as a very low-hanging fruit for an increasing number of companies to roll out without a great deal of thought as to how it's applied. It's going to get worse before it gets better, especially as companies will want to take the savings early in the process. 

When I was working in conference event production one of our clients (a large European bank) used one of these systems (SAP Ariba). It was a massive ball ache to invoice a job as the kind of things we were doing didn’t fit the process and required a messy kludge with many traps that would cause the invoice to be rejected.

 

I don’t miss having to deal with that sort of nonsense.

[psburley]

Hi all I am so glad I found this thread !  We have done two GK gigs in the past 10 days and no one told us about the change to Concur. Now they just say you need to invoice us via concur. They seemed to know nothing about it. I have looked at the SAP Concur site and completely confused about how we set ourselves up firstly, then raise an invoice. Can anyone send a link to where we set ourselves up as a new user (band) and then how we send an invoice to the two respective pubs, any help really appreciated.

[Silvia Bluejay]

I received from the pub who booked the band a couple of PDFs with step-by-step instructions on where and how to start on Concur. I can't find online version of those I have, I'm afraid. You should probably ask the pub to direct you to the correct link to join their own flavour of Concur, so you can be sure you're both reading from the same, er, online page.

[psburley]

Thanks we have contacted the pub but no help. Would you be able to attach PDF's on this thread?

[Silvia Bluejay]

I can, but my point is, the pub I was working with created my account, on the basis of the Invapay account I had with them previously. I received an email from Greene King with a link to my account. Then I finished setting it up, and then a test payment of 1 penny was made to my account to see if everything worked.

 

From what I understand, the pub always has to make the first move, not you, and if the pub is so lost at sea, or totally refuses to help, you really don't want to be working with them or, above all, trying to get paid afterwards.

 

For what it's worth, here is the PDF I received. You will notice that it starts with telling you how to log on to your account, not how to create one.

 

Concur Request - Supplier Getting Started.pdf

[chris_b]

GK Head Office will be driving this and some pub managers probably aren't interested. Call Head Office and talk to them.

[SteveXFR]

Seems like it really wouldn't be worth the effort for a one off gig. 

I'd want to add on a charge for a few hours labour to go through all that. It's extra work that you have to do so surely it's only reasonable that they pay for your time.

[Old Horse Murphy]

41 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

Seems like it really wouldn't be worth the effort for a one off gig. 

I'd want to add on a charge for a few hours labour to go through all that. It's extra work that you have to do so surely it's only reasonable that they pay for your time.

In the commercial world, believe it or not, a number of companies using these types of supplier payment systems have the nerve to charge their suppliers a transaction fee and/or an annual subscription for using the tool....

[SteveXFR]

3 minutes ago, Old Horse Murphy said:

In the commercial world, believe it or not, a number of companies using these types of supplier payment systems have the nerve to charge their suppliers a transaction fee and/or an annual subscription for using the tool....

 

Well there's another cost to include in your bill. List it as admin charges. It wouldn't just be accepted in any other industry without charging to cover the additional costs and labour. 

[Old Horse Murphy]

25 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

Well there's another cost to include in your bill. List it as admin charges. It wouldn't just be accepted in any other industry without charging to cover the additional costs and labour. 

Cost of doing business I'm afraid, especially with the likes of Tesco etc. 

[SteveXFR]

2 minutes ago, Old Horse Murphy said:

Cost of doing business I'm afraid, especially with the likes of Tesco etc. 

 

You play gigs at Tesco? Our local tesco sometimes has a smelly hippy with a flute playing outside but I don't think they pay her.

[Old Horse Murphy]

8 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

You play gigs at Tesco? Our local tesco sometimes has a smelly hippy with a flute playing outside but I don't think they pay her.

Not personally. I don't like their sandwiches
 

the problem is with these supplier systems being adopted is that they will push all supplies through it whether it makes sense or not and as such, there's very little leeway of doing it other ways. 

[MichaelDean]

Ugh. Payment/invoicing portals are the worst. When I was working in an invoicing role, we were invoicing a company in Ireland for certification. No VAT applied as they're EU. Took months to get it right on their portal and get paid. They couldn't get it right at their end. These things aren't suited to one off/weirdy-beardy transactions.

Can't imagine having to jump through these hoops for a gig!