You just arrive to the office. You grab a coffee and go to your desk. Then you turn on your laptop and take a sip until it is ready to be used. You expect it to be a calm day. However, the moment you open your mailbox, an email from a business partner pops up. You open it and the first thing you see is that you owe X euros, quite a big amount, that has to be paid as soon as possible. You wonder if it is legit. After checking it, yes, it is, but you aren’t certain why you have to pay that amount, only that that business parter is important and you can’t afford to anger her. What would you do? Make the payment straightaway?

Many of us have faced a similar situation in life. Either when our employer paid our salary, or final settlement, a landlord returning us a deposit, a supplier asking us to pay a certain amount, customers complaining… There can be as many examples as people in the world. However, when we face these type of situations, it is important not to overreact and try to ask questions. In the example above, you can ask a business partner to elaborate more and ask for more details. In the same way, you can ask a supplier to send you a breakdown of invoices that are outstanding or an account statement.

Some will simply keep pushing you to accept their terms. A few would react negatively, or threaten you to take legal action. Tne most important here is to stand your ground and ask for evidence, in form of contracts, invoices, delivery notes, payslips, etc., and keep asking questions until everything is clear.

Even though this sounds as common sense, It happens a lot in both business and personal life. It even happened to me multiple times and I learned the lesson the hard way. I saw wrong invoices being paid, and amounts paid because somebody asked to do it with no supporting documentation. Many would argue „this is how business works”. Wrong.

We accountants are trained to ask these questions, even to our managers, even if it looks that we are crossing lines. We just want to know why we spent more money, where it went. Only when there is a legal or confidentiality reason, it is when we will stop asking, as long as we know this is the reason why. For example, how much a person is earning. That is Human Resources’ area. We only need to know if we spent more money because they hired more people, or fired someone, but not the name of the specific person.

By asking questions, despite the resistance you can find, you will benefit your business and personal life in two ways:

• You’ll have more control over your finances, and you’ll be able to protect your assets, and better reduce risks of losing money
• Stakeholders will trust you more, even those who trick you, and take you more seriously. Investors, banks, suppliers, employees, etc. will rely more on you. It looks really bad to accept to pay X amount of money you don’t have to. The other side will think you’re easy to trick and in the future they’ll probably ask you again.
• Bonus: if, when they ask you questions, you explain why you are asking to receive or pay X amount, and are open for clarification with partners, instead of directly trying to impose your point of view, this will build trust.

Remember. Asking and trying to understand what is happening around you might feel uncomfortable, but it is vital to request more information or challenge a request to pay money, even if the other side isn’t open to discussion. In the end, doing business isn’t saying yes to everything and showing a smile to our business partners. It’s about making money and preserving it, by standing our ground, while showing respect and trying to understand the other person’s point of view.