Workflow break check · your result
Where your deal-closed-to-billing hand-off typically breaks
These are the places setups like yours usually fail; they are not findings about your systems, since nothing here looked at them. Each one comes with a way to check it yourself. Navceed is being built to run checks of these six kinds; today it runs them on an example company, and connecting your own tools is coming next.
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1. The first invoice is created but never sent
Check firstInvoiceRun by finance or sales opsabout 10 min
Shown because you answered “Someone notices and tells us”; “I'm not sure, to: How does the first invoice go out?”.
How to check, and why it happens
The subscription or order exists, but its first invoice sits as a draft that nobody finalises or sends. The customer is not asked to pay, and the date money is expected drifts.
Why it happens. In some tools the first invoice is created as a draft on purpose, so it can be edited, and it needs a setting or a person to send it. Other tools default differently.
Usually fixed by: Finance operations.
Kind of break, one of six: Freshness: is the step still running, and on time? Arrival: did it show up in the next tool in time?
Sources: Vendor documentation · Vendor documentation
2. A payment fails and the people who own the customer do not know
Check firstPaymentRun by finance or sales opsabout 20 min
Shown because you answered “Sales asks finance when they want to know”; “Automatically, but nobody checks”.
How to check, and why it happens
The first or a renewal payment fails and the subscription goes past due, unpaid or cancelled. The account owner sees a healthy customer and does not call; the customer is surprised by a cut-off, or keeps access for free.
Why it happens. Failure is handled inside billing (automatic retries, then a setting that decides what happens), and the CRM learns of it only if a status is sent back (our reading).
Usually fixed by: Finance operations (collections), with sales or customer-success operations (visibility to account owners).
Kind of break, one of six: Return path: does what the next tool did get back to the first?
Sources: Vendor documentation
3. Payment and subscription status never get back to the CRM
Check firstPaymentRun by finance or sales opsabout 15 min
Shown because you answered “Sales asks finance when they want to know”; “Automatically, but nobody checks”.
How to check, and why it happens
The way back is missing or partial: the first payment is shown but a cancellation is not, or nothing at all. The account stays "closed won" forever, and the CRM cannot show who is active, past due or cancelled.
Why it happens. The return path is a separate setup with its own settings. In some tools the status is only set when the connection is configured for it, and a status built on one payment event misses invoices paid another way (a trial, a credit, a payment recorded outside the tool).
Usually fixed by: CRM admin or sales operations, with finance operations.
Kind of break, one of six: Return path: does what the next tool did get back to the first?
Sources: Vendor documentation · Vendor documentation
4. The first invoice is held up because the customer's address is too thin
Check firstCustomerRun by finance or sales opsabout 15 min
Shown because you answered “Someone notices and tells us”; “I'm not sure, to: How does the first invoice go out?”.
How to check, and why it happens
The deal carries a company name and an email but not a full billing address or tax details. The first invoice cannot be finalised, or goes out without tax, until someone fills the gap.
Why it happens. Sales tools often hold only what the rep needed to close; in some billing tools an incomplete address stops the invoice, and a missing tax registration gives no error, so a zero-tax invoice is not proof the setup is right.
Usually fixed by: Finance operations, with sales operations (which fields are required on the deal).
Kind of break, one of six: Field landed: did each field arrive with a value, in the right place? Arrival: did it show up in the next tool in time?
Sources: Vendor documentation
5. An upsell, cut or cancellation is recorded in only one system
Check firstChangesRun by finance or sales opsabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “I'm not sure, to: When a customer adds seats, changes plan or cancels mid-term, where is the change made?”; “Automatically, but nobody checks”.
How to check, and why it happens
A change is recorded in the CRM but not in billing, or the reverse, or a change made directly in billing is later undone by a step scheduled at signing. The customer is billed the old amount, or the CRM counts revenue that no longer exists.
Why it happens. Changes travel only when someone re-sends the deal or uses the intended path, and in some tools direct edits can be overwritten by what was scheduled earlier.
Usually fixed by: Sales operations (change process), with finance operations.
Kind of break, one of six: Return path: does what the next tool did get back to the first? Count: do the numbers at each end agree?
Sources: Integration vendor guide · Vendor documentation
6. A won deal never becomes a customer in billing
Check firstHandoverRun by finance or sales opsabout 20 min
Shown because you answered “Someone notices and tells us”.
How to check, and why it happens
A deal is marked won, but no customer or subscription appears in your billing tool, or it appears days later. The deal looks finished on the sales side, so nobody asks.
Why it happens. The hand-off needs a trigger (a button, a stage change, a complete record). In some tools a deal missing a product line, a contact or a company is not sent, or waits until someone presses the button.
Usually fixed by: Sales operations (when a deal may be marked won, and what must be filled in), with finance operations.
Kind of break, one of six: Arrival: did it show up in the next tool in time?
Sources: Integration vendor guide · Integration vendor guide
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7. The CRM shows "past due" after the customer has paid
Check firstPaymentRun by your billing adminabout 20 min
Shown because you answered “We wouldn't”.
How to check, and why it happens
The status in the CRM is behind because messages from billing arrived in a different order, arrived twice, or were missed during an outage. Reps chase customers who have paid, or relax about customers who have cancelled.
Why it happens. In some tools, status messages can arrive out of order or more than once, and delivery is retried only for a limited time. A receiver that applies each message as it arrives ends up with an old status.
Usually fixed by: Whoever runs the connection (CRM admin or an engineer), with sales operations.
Kind of break, one of six: Return path: does what the next tool did get back to the first? Freshness: is the step still running, and on time?
Sources: Vendor documentation
8. An invoice that has gone out differs from the deal and cannot simply be edited
Worth a quick lookInvoiceRun by finance or sales opsabout 20 min
Shown because you answered “Automatically, but nobody checks”.
How to check, and why it happens
An issued invoice has an amount, term or detail that differs from the deal. People void it and issue a new one, or issue a credit, so the CRM, the contract and billing now hold different versions. In some countries, rules also apply to how an invoice may be corrected.
Why it happens. Once issued, most of an invoice is locked in some tools, and a correction is a separate document (credit or replacement) that the other tools do not see.
Usually fixed by: Finance operations, with whoever is responsible for accounting (for the rules).
Kind of break, one of six: Return path: does what the next tool did get back to the first? Count: do the numbers at each end agree?
Sources: Vendor documentation · Law or standard
9. A mid-term upgrade or cut bills an amount nobody quoted
Worth a quick lookChangesRun by finance or sales opsabout 20 min
Shown because you answered “I'm not sure, to: When a customer adds seats, changes plan or cancels mid-term, where is the change made?”; “Monthly, quarterly or at close”.
How to check, and why it happens
A customer adds seats or changes plan part-way through a term. Billing works out a part-period credit and charge that no one quoted; the credit may sit as a balance, and the extra charge may wait for the next invoice. The CRM shows the new full amount while finance sees an odd invoice.
Why it happens. In some tools partial periods are calculated by the tool's own rules (for example to the second), whereas the deal records only the new annual number. Rules differ between tools.
Usually fixed by: Finance operations, with sales operations (how mid-term quotes are produced).
Kind of break, one of six: Count: do the numbers at each end agree? Field landed: did each field arrive with a value, in the right place?
Sources: Vendor documentation
The common questions follow six kinds of check: Arrival (did it show up in the next tool in time?), Return path (does what the next tool did get back to the first?), Count (do the numbers at each end agree?), Freshness (is the step still running, and on time?), Field landed (did each field arrive with a value, in the right place?), Condition (does a rule that should always hold, hold?).
Checking by hand does not last
Everything above is a one-off look. The breaks that cost you are the ones that start next Tuesday, when someone changes a field.
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