Accounting Instructions
3. Payments of Invoices and Contract Payment
Introduction
All payments to suppliers, staff and students, with the exception of petty cash items, will be processed by Finance and recorded on to CODA, the University's Financial Accounting System.
Procedure
Receipt of Goods/Service
Budget holders should ensure that goods are checked to ensure that they have arrived in satisfactory condition, numbers and quantity. In the event of a discrepancy or damaged goods the supplier must be informed immediately.
If the delivery is satisfactory:
- The relevant Goods Received Note is signed by the person who has received the goods.
- The date of physical receipt of the goods is written on the GRN.
- For devolved users of CODA - the GRN is passed to the Faculty/Service Office for input onto CODA.
- For non-devolved users of CODA, the GRN is forwarded to the Expenditure Section of Finance for input onto CODA.
Part delivery of order - The part delivery goods received note must be completed.
GRN's must be entered onto CODA as and when they are received by staff responsible for GRN input onto CODA.
Invoice Checking
The following checks should be carried out on invoices passed for payment by Finance staff:- That, where appropriate, the invoice relates to an official order.
- That, where appropriate the goods have been received, examined and approved as to quality and quantity or that the work has been completed satisfactorily in accordance with the order.
- That, where appropriate the prices, discounts, arithmetic, expenditure and VAT allocation are correct.
- That the invoice has not previously been passed for payment and is a proper liability of the University.
Where stage payments are made under a building contract a separate record should be retained by Property Services, detailing:
- The name and address of the contractor.
- Date and value of the contract.
- Any special terms of the contract.
- The date and amount of cash instalments, with a cummulative total of payments to date under the contract.
- The amount of VAT paid should be recorded separately.
- The amount of retention monies.
- Such stage payments shall be recorded by Finance and shall be made only on a certificate issued by Property Services. Where a certificate is issued by a consultant it shall be counter-signed by the appropriate authorised signatory within Property Services.
- The approval to any variation to a contract or addition to or omission from a contract shall only be given in writing by the responsible officer. Where the final cost is likely to exceed the financial provision, the Purchasing Services officer shall be informed and approval obtained.
- Before a final certificate of payment is issued under a contract, the Purchasing Services officer shall have the opportunity to examine the contractor's final account together with such relevant documents as he/she may require.All invoices received will be input to the CODA.
Cheque Payments
There will be one main payment run per week.The purchase ledger cash posting relating to the payment run will be initiated by the Senior Payments Officer or the Payments Officer.
All cheques must be signed immediately after their printing.
The Cheque Signer Log Book must be completed immediately after the cheques have been signed. The log number shown on the cheque signer must also be entered into the book. The number of cheques signed must agree with the reading given by the Cheque Signer, and a member of staff other than Expenditure Section staff, must sign the log book confirming that the number of cheques signed is correct.
Cheque audit trails must be printed immediately after cheques have been printed.
Cheques of £10,000 or more
Cheques with the value of £10,000 and over must be countersigned by a bank signatory.The relevant invoice(s) supporting cheques with a value of £10,000 or more must be extracted and attached to the cheque remittance. A senior member of Expenditure Section staff must ensure that the details shown on the invoice(s) are in agreement with the details shown on the cheque remittance. Any discrepancy must be investigated immediately.
The cheque(s) will be taken to an authorised bank signatory for countersigning, together with the cheque audit.
The bank signatory will countersign the cheque and also initial the cheque audit against the appropriate cheque number.
The countersigned cheques must then be posted to the supplier, and the invoice(s) supporting the cheque filed.
Cheques with Value of between £5,000 and £9,999
Supporting invoices must be extracted and attached to the cheque remittance.
A senior member of the Expenditure Section must ensure that details on the remittance advice agree with the actual invoices.
The cheque(s), supporting invoices, and cheque audit will be taken to a bank signatory.
The bank signatory must check that remittance details and supporting invoices are in agreement, and that the cheque number shown on the cheque audit agrees with the actual cheque number. If correct the bank signatory initials the cheque audit against the appropriate cheque number.
Electronic Payments
Payments made by BACS, Businessmaster, etc, will be subject to requirements similar to those applying to cheque payments. Passwords and swipe cards issued to authorised staff must be kept secure at all times.All BACS security labels will be held in the office safe.
