One of my first surprises doing business in Thailand was when a prominent Scandinavian company here announced that they had changed their supplier policy.
“As of today, our company will only write checks on 1 (one!) designated day per month. If your bill collector is not able to make it to our office on that particular date within our working hours, he will have to come again next month and get in the queue,” was the message.
I was amazed. In Denmark, nobody would accept this, I thought. I was also impressed how ‘local’ that company had managed to become.
Later, another Scandinavian company in Thailand implemented another inspiring rule.
“We only accept invoices dated between the first and the fifth of any month. If you deliver goods and an invoice to us on for example the 15th we will accept your goods, but not your invoice. You will have to change the date in your invoice to anywhere between 1 and 5 of the coming month. The credit period will of course be extended similarly, so you cannot expect to be paid before 30 days after the new date on your new invoice.”
Why didn’t my company think of doing like this long time ago, I asked myself..
It would be fun to make a collection of these funny Thai accounting rules and publish them in one article. This is where I now appeal for help from fellow readers. The examples mentioned are implemented by Scandinavian companies, who have obviously adapted their management style to the Thai ways, but your examples could also be rules and ways implemented by local Thai, Chinese or Indian companies.
Have you ever met rules like the above? Let’s hear your story, please!
