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What? In order for me to do some work for you, you want to have the option to audit my business expenses of the job!

PS4252

New Member
Has anyone ran into this?!?!

Is this new big business policy?
Not only do they want the option to audit my company at any given time, but they want my business to pay for it too!!!
 

RabidOne

New Member
The legal department at Megacorp used to ask for some silly things from some of our contractors and service providers.
Quite a few wouldn't sign the NDA and other ridiculous asks. I completely understand as I wouldn't either.
If a client asked us to do produce work for them and ask for an audit they would be shown the door. Regardless of who is supposed to pay for it.
Good luck to them trying to find suppliers.
 

pro-UP

New Member
It might be due to their funding source and a requirement for them to open their books. So, like any good giant bully corp, they are sharing the responsibility by rolling the ball down hill. They also want to ensure the costs are in line with profits. Typically, they will give the percentage of allowable profits.

Absolutely make sure to always get photographic proof of every sign manufactured and installed (or delivered). That one rush "favor" will be the one they try to skip paying by claiming you never did the work or you did not do it in a timely fashion. If this is a client you want, I would make it worth the hassle. Like Rmurray said, add a cost line item to deal with their extra overhead requirements. I would get a quote from your accountant for a certified audit. This way you know if it's worth it to you. Will they bring enough business your way? Or is the project too small to be worth the extra expenses they will force you to incur?
 

netsol

Active Member
It might be due to their funding source and a requirement for them to open their books. So, like any good giant bully corp, they are sharing the responsibility by rolling the ball down hill. They also want to ensure the costs are in line with profits. Typically, they will give the percentage of allowable profits.

Absolutely make sure to always get photographic proof of every sign manufactured and installed (or delivered). That one rush "favor" will be the one they try to skip paying by claiming you never did the work or you did not do it in a timely fashion. If this is a client you want, I would make it worth the hassle. Like Rmurray said, add a cost line item to deal with their extra overhead requirements. I would get a quote from your accountant for a certified audit. This way you know if it's worth it to you. Will they bring enough business your way? Or is the project too small to be worth the extra expenses they will force you to incur?
yes, an agreement binding on the purchaser and the company contacting the OP.
OP is not bound by this unless they agreed to it

many clauses in contracts are unenforceable because they are "not in the public interest or public good."

this is one that i would nominate for that type of treatment
 

PS4252

New Member
That's totally out of line. Speaking of crazy stuff, we are doing a small (24"x36") double sided sigh that will be hung on an existing arm bracket. My client's landlord is Yale University. Yale requires that I have a $5.000.000 umbrella policy in addition to the $2.000.000 that I have.:oops:
We ran into that too with another company. We finally settled on the 2M after mush debate.
 

PS4252

New Member
It might be due to their funding source and a requirement for them to open their books. So, like any good giant bully corp, they are sharing the responsibility by rolling the ball down hill. They also want to ensure the costs are in line with profits. Typically, they will give the percentage of allowable profits.

Absolutely make sure to always get photographic proof of every sign manufactured and installed (or delivered). That one rush "favor" will be the one they try to skip paying by claiming you never did the work or you did not do it in a timely fashion. If this is a client you want, I would make it worth the hassle. Like Rmurray said, add a cost line item to deal with their extra overhead requirements. I would get a quote from your accountant for a certified audit. This way you know if it's worth it to you. Will they bring enough business your way? Or is the project too small to be worth the extra expenses they will force you to incur?
Good advise all around. We had built the sign originally and worked directly with the landlord. Now he uses a management company, and they are the ones with the criteria. Would like to work for them as they do manage many shops. The person we would deal with is someone we can deal with too. Just alot of aggravation to do so. Like you say, Aggravation fee.
 

PS4252

New Member
yes, an agreement binding on the purchaser and the company contacting the OP.
OP is not bound by this unless they agreed to it

many clauses in contracts are unenforceable because they are "not in the public interest or public good."

this is one that i would nominate for that type of treatment
OP?
 

Signarama Jockey

New Member
I won't say who, but we work with an education facility that violently defends its branding. To the point where every single project that we print that has its logo must be submitted to law firm in another state for brand review. The law firm then makes a determination on whether the design can be printed and then I have to tell the customer (the actual educators) if they can print the signs they want or not. I have to report earnings and I have to vouch for all of my sub contractors. I also had to fill out a company survey and answer all kinds of questions about how we run our business (are we pro union, do we hire x demographic or y demographic, how much money do we spend on educating employees on gender sensitivity, etc..).

We want to accommodating, but it is a lot of hoops to jump through.
 

victor bogdanov

Active Member
I had a big order from a huge private company and before going through with the order the customer sent a couple of their buyers to "inspect" my equipment (they had 0 clue about print equipment). They came in with note pads and wrote down "how many printers I have" including my laser and shipping label printers. The inspection determined I had 6 printers and got the job, at that time I had 1 Colorado 1650 and 3 brother laser printers and 2 zebra shipping label printers :big laugh: . Passed and got the job
 

Stacey K

I like making signs
I can see what Victor is saying and some of what Signarama is saying. My son does snow plowing and one company rejected his bid because he only has one snowplow truck. The guy owns clinics/hospital properties and requires a minimum of two plow trucks, in the case one breaks down, there's a backup. They can't close the clinics for too much snow, obviously it could be life or death. We just got 18" with 5' drifts so I can see the point.

Signarama - Kind of an interesting! I don't worry about a businesses affiliation but I'm also not getting millions of dollars in donations to keep my business operating. If you got reported for refusing to hire a transgender and it hit the news and they find out you do all the printing for XXX, it could look bad for them. Too bad the world has to come to that.
 

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
New vendor inspections are pretty commonplace. We even have had our customer's customers come to check things out. Sometimes onsite QC for jobs too. As far as the auditing, that is also normal if you declared yourself as an SBE or DBE since the main contract holder is required to prove their use for many contracts. Not everything is nefarious or arbitrary, you guys need to get out more.
 
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