Dr. Project: Backcharging

 

Dear Dr. Project,

Backcharging???

Brazil

Dear Brazil,

The brevity of your question suggests desperation--or at least exasperation. I am interested in hearing about some of the symptoms of your malady. Were you feeling well prior to your most recent backcharging incident? You might take two aspirin and call me in the morning. Just kidding...

I have seen two contexts where the term "backcharging" is used. Neither context is very pretty. In the first case, the project manager or responsible team member did not provide good oversight of a project deliverable and, to quote the blessed PMBOK, "Houston, we have a quality management problem!"

Backcharging indicates that you paid a project invoice and then discovered that your subcontractor failed to do the work, or did shoddy work. In this case, you are backcharging the subcontractor for work that you have already been invoiced for and paid. If proper safeguards and quality controls had been in place, backcharging would not be necessary. Part of being a good project manager is handling the minutiae of tracking thousands of details and catching the six gremlins before they become, let's just say, less than stellar moments.

A second but less frequent context that I have observed the term "backcharging" occurs after the bean counters (a.k.a. accounting department) discover an …

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