And everything I do turns to gold this week.

This is how it's meant to be! Orders piling up, customers getting themselves sorted out and putting our stock out in the right places, cover design work flowing in at just the right level, bit of sunshine, new bag of coffee, everything's right with the world.

Except for one thing.

So I looked at our orders this morning. Excellent, lots of orders coming in from lots of stores. Except, and I checked this, today is the 30th October. October has 31 days. So why the bloody hell are the orders dated 1st November? So that they can pay 30 days later, that's why, because most customers pay at the end of the month that the invoice falls due. If an invoice is raised on 30th October, with 60 day payment terms I'd get the money on 30th December (or thereabouts). If an invoice is raised on 1st November, with the same terms, I'll get the money on 30th January. Makes a bloomin' big difference, I can tell you.

I'm really cross about this because it's mean. I normally hate it when suppliers complain about their customers (it is not the cleverest thing to do) but just for once, just for today, the customer is not always right.

Oh, now see? The very first time I think bad thoughts against our customers, I'm wrong. Turns out it's a distribution issue! Who'd have thought. Month end is 27th October this month (financial month end, not actual month end, silly.) Orders that are released after that date are, for some reason, put into the next calendar month. No, it makes no sense to me, either. Customers, I fall at your feet and apologise for doubting you!