[Intro]

Invoice number: eight-seven-four-six-two.
Supplier: North Meridian Systems.
Amount due: two hundred forty-eight thousand.
Cost centre: unknown.

[Verse]

It entered Accounts on a Tuesday at ten,
Approved by a workflow that could not say when.
The purchase order carried an old project name,
But the project archive denied the claim.

Finance called Strategy, Strategy called Tech,
Tech sent the question to Enterprise Arch.
Enterprise Arch said the scope had moved,
Then forwarded the thread to a mailbox removed.

The invoice sat under fluorescent light,
A white rectangle with the numbers right.
Every field complete, every tax line shown,
Except the small box marked "cost center unknown."

[Pre-Chorus]

Who asked? Who signed? Who received the work?
The workflow is green. The owner is gone.
The payment is waiting. The meter runs on.
Who approved the expense no one will own?

[Chorus]

Cost center unknown,
A debt without a home.
Every door says, "Not my name,"
Every system clears the claim.

Someone bought the work we cannot find,
And left no hand to sign the line.

[Verse]

The vendor supplied a statement of work:
"Strategic architecture enablement support."
The deliverables listed "alignment design,"
"Capability mapping" and "future-state mind."

Nadine searched calendars, folders and chat,
Found one kickoff photo and nothing after that.
Seven executives smiling beside a screen,
The project title cropped from the scene.

She traced an email to a director who left.
His auto-reply offered another address.
That address belonged to a contractor in Spain,
Whose contract had ended before the campaign.

[Chorus]

Cost center unknown,
A debt without a home.
Every hand has passed it on,
Every useful trace is gone.

A quarter-million waits in line,
Perfectly valid, wholly undefined.

[Drum Break]

[Bridge]

Not operational. Not in the plan. No access. The terms still stand.
The board asks Finance to assign a code—
Nadine turns the calculator, once, twice, three times:

"A temporary code becomes a permanent road."

[Build-up]

Unknown in the system.
Known in the spend.
Unknown at the start.
Renewed at the end.

Unknown in the minutes.
Known on the wire.
Unknown in the office.
Known by the supplier.

[Final Chorus]

Cost center unknown,
Now the debt has found a home—
Not in Product, not in Tech,
But where the leaders never check.

A blank field is not innocence.
A blank field is control.

[Outro]

Invoice number: eight-seven-four-six-two.
Payment status: held.
Owner:

Unknown.