Sealed with a loving … invoice

If your partner made you coffee and toast at breakfast-time – and presented you with a bill for £2.50, how would you feel?

Financial independence among couples isn’t so odd nowadays. Around 28% of couples prefer to keep totally separate financial arrangements, according to research.

But news came this week of one married couple in Australia who pushed things a little further.

Apparently, they got into the habit of billing each other for trifling amounts – as little as 50 cents. One invoice was for a $1.60 light-bulb during their 20-year marriage. (NB: We can only hope they used electronic invoicing to avoid a paper storm.)

But the couple’s curious relationship entered choppy water over a boat, according to reports. In fact, magistrates are now being asked to decide whether the wife should contribute to the custom-made $600,000 yacht the husband had built to sail around Europe. It’s claimed that the wife had no interest in sailing whatsoever.

Interestingly, over the years, the wife's assets increased to nearly $4 million while the husband's assets shrank to $315,000, say reports. Perhaps one of them was better at invoicing? We can only speculate.

But however amusing the story, you’ve got to admire their attention to detail. Perhaps they could tell you how many light-bulbs were purchased over their 20 years? And, armed with that information, perhaps they could have bought in bulk from a single supplier and got a better deal for themselves?

The point is this: Potential savings are often locked away in the detail.

In the wider world, finance systems that simply use budget codes for purchasing are often unable to drill down into the detail – and separate items into clearly-defined categories. They cannot see how much is actually spent on product type A or B because the boundaries are blurred.

This contrasts with organisations with purchase-to-pay (P2P) systems that use the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC). Armed with specific spend information linked to codes, these organisations can target particular categories and negotiate contracts with suppliers, often saving a fortune in the process.

The benefits of UNSPSC magnify when others are involved. This may be through collaboration and shared services in the public sector – or through affiliated companies and business divisions in the private sector. Each financial unit may have its own unique budget code system, but UNSPSC brings uniformity so everyone can see the big picture on spending – and make even greater savings.