Over the past year at work, we’ve been doing a lot of work for a US Fortune 500 company (my firm is in Canada). For a boutique consulting firm, they are a major client, and a major contributor to our cashflow. Last month, I figured out why one invoice had been delayed - in Canada, the date 10/07/06 is July 10. In the US, it’s October 7. In the finance system, the invoice wasn’t due until November! Interesting reminder about how small things, from date formats to rounding errors, can break systems…and I’m happy to report that we got paid promptly as soon as the error was discovered.