FAO: OrderWork Service Partners
We are delighted to announce to service partners that we upgraded the OrderWork site with a range of new functionality. All service partners should have received an email explaining the new changes and how this affects you. Please take some time to read through the information below.
If you still have queries or are unsure of any points, our service delivery team on 0845 373 3572 will be more than happy to talk you through the changes.
Thanks.
The OrderWork Team
The old system
Under the original terms and conditions of trading with Orderwork, you as a Service Partner provided services to the Buyer. Orderwork raised your sales invoice to the Buyer, acting as your agent, and you were also invoiced by Orderwork for a 10% commission on the value of the services you provided.
The new system
Under the new model, you as a Service Partner supply services direct to Orderwork and we then bill those services on to the Buyer in our own name. Under this new approach, we continue to raise your sales invoices for you under a self-billing arrangement, under which we are able to raise invoices on your behalf addressed to Orderwork. We also raise sales invoices on our own account addressed to the Buyer.
Why we have made the change
We have made the change as a result of feedback from both Buyers and Service Partners to ease the administrative burden on both parties. Buyers can now receive consolidated sales invoices for a number of work orders from us and Suppliers now only have one invoice to process per work order, as opposed to two under the old model.
Retrospective impact
We have obtained authorisation from HM Revenue & Customs to apply the change in billing model described above retrospectively. The change will therefore apply to all work orders closed after 1 July 2007.
Practical and contractual implications
In practical terms, the changes resulting from the new billing model are minimal:
- You continue to use the Orderwork website to provide services in the same way as before
- We continue to raise the necessary invoices on your behalf and make them available for you to access for your own accounting purposes on the Orderwork website
- The fee payable to OrderWork will be expressed as a discount of 10%, rather than invoiced separately
- The net amount of VAT you are required to report and pay to HM Revenue and Customs is unchanged.
- You have fewer invoices to process in accounting for your transactions with Orderwork
The main contractual changes are:
- You are now providing a service to Orderwork, rather than the Buyer
- You are authorising Orderwork to raise self-billing invoices addressed from you to ourselves, using your VAT number, in accordance with VAT regulations, under a formal “Self-billing” agreement.
Updated terms and conditions
In line with the change in the billing model, the terms and conditions of trading with Orderwork have been amended in a number of respects. The revised terms and conditions can be found on the OrderWork site and will apply from now on in accordance with our existing terms and conditions.
The new conditions also contain an agreement between you and Orderwork by which you give your authorisation for us to raise sales invoices on your behalf addressed to ourselves, in line with the current VAT regulations, known as “self-billing”. If you are not happy for us to use this self billing approach, you must let us know immediately so that we can delist you. You should not accept any work going forward if you are not prepared to accept self billing.
The self billing approach considerably simplifies our and your administration as we do not need you to send us invoices before arranging payment of withdrawal requests
Implications for your own accounting systems
As noted earlier, we have been advised by HM Revenue and Customs that it is acceptable from a VAT point of view for us to retrospectively apply the changes discussed above. Therefore, it will not be necessary for VAT credit notes to be issued by Orderwork.
Instead you should:
- Regard all invoices relating to affected transactions as having been officially withdrawn.
- You can obtain replacement invoices for those transactions on the new Orderwork website if you wish to print or download them for your records. These are now the official VAT invoices relating to those transactions.
- There will be no change in the amounts of VAT you have paid or received as a result of transactions with Orderwork in previous periods, merely a change in the documents which you should retain as the official evidence of those amounts.
Changes to the Withdrawal web pages on the new OrderWork site
A few changes have been made to the supplier withdrawal pages as part of the new release. The main change is that within the new “Invoices Out” section, you will find a listing of your purchase invoices (paid and unpaid).
For unpaid invoices, those that are available for withdrawal will have a checkbox. Simply check and click on the “Withdraw Funds” button for each of those invoices where you wish to receive payment.
Invoices will not appear in the listing until we have received payment from the buyer or otherwise authorized payment – for example if different payment terms were specified in the original work order
If you have any queries on any aspect of the changes, please do not hesitate to contact our Service Delivery team on 0845 373 3572.