Starter Kit. Idea 309 of 500. Cluster 15
Payment and invoicing tools built for Sri Lankan exporters, in rupees and dollars
The mechanism, from the book
The proof exists in Malabe. What is missing is a thousand small versions of it.
The first step
Sit with three small exporters and watch how they invoice a foreign buyer and receive payment, noting every step, fee and delay. Build the invoice and follow-up process in a spreadsheet that fixes the worst step, and give it to them free for a month. If they ask to keep it and would pay monthly, you have the product to build.
- Who pays first
- A small exporter who invoices in dollars, loses days and fees on each payment, and will pay monthly to be paid faster in rupees.
- What leaves today
- Exporters lose part of every foreign payment to delays and fees, which is value earned on the island and lost before it arrives.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask which steps in getting paid by foreign buyers small exporters find hardest.
- Inland Revenue Department. Ask what an export invoice must show for tax purposes.
Check before you spend
Whether your tool touches money or only paperwork, since handling payments may need a licence, and what invoices must contain for exporters' tax returns.
Find out these three numbers
- How many days does a small exporter wait to get paid?
- What do exporters lose in fees on each foreign payment?
- What would an exporter pay monthly for the fix?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.