All requests for goods and services must be initiated through a requisition within the University’s Financial Management System, Business World (Agresso). This will ensure an electronic purchase order will be issued to the supplier and a commitment against a budget code in line with the No Purchase Order No Pay Policy.
Why are we doing this?
a) To obtain upfront authorisation for expenditure and improve the University’s ability to forecast and budget accurately.
b) To ensure we communicate the University’s Terms and Conditions to suppliers. The University’s Terms and conditions include important legislative elements such as Trading Ethics, the Modern Slavery and Bribery Act. In addition, they detail the University’s conditions for resolving issues e.g. the supply of inadequate goods/services.
c) To quickly identify fraudulent invoices because a bogus PO number has been quoted.
Where users are proceeding to instruct a supplier to supply goods or services verbally or in writing but not using a Purchase Order, it is likely that no formal check has been made as to the availability of funds, and from a commercial perspective a legally binding contract on supplier terms and conditions could have been created.
Although we are faring better than other Universities, invoices without a PO are having a negative impact on the University, for example:
- Lost savings on contractual arrangements
- Impact on volume aggregation
- Lost control and compliance issues that can lead to fraudulent activity
- Delayed payment of invoices due to lack of upfront authorisation
It is imperative that the University maintains prompt goods receipting for all delivered products and services to ensure cash flow in the supply chain and to protect suppliers.