Accounts Payable
About District Accounts Payable
District Accounts Payable professionals disburse payments. They are the last step in the purchasing process. All approvals, e.g. purchase orders, receiving, evidence of service performed, must be complete at this point prior to disbursing funds. District Accounts Payable professionals are responsible for paying vendor invoices, not authorizing payments. They also handle payments for travel and conferences, procurement cards (P-Cards), and employee reimbursements.
In order to ensure the safeguarding of assets, District Accounts Payable professionals perform the following:
- Match invoices to receiving documents and purchase orders
- Review travel expense reports
- Follow up on discrepant invoices
- Determine if payments are reportable to the IRS (1099-MISC) and flag accordingly
- Ensure that proper sales or use tax has been applied
- Review appropriateness of account coding
- Process check runs
- Review vendor statements (summary of unpaid invoices) and address accordingly
- Respond to vendor inquiries
District Accounts Payable processes vendor payments and employee reimbursement checks according to an Accounts Payable Check Runs schedule.
For internal control reasons, all vendor checks will be mailed directly from District Accounts Payable. Checks may not be picked up by vendors or district employees.
As of July 1, 2016, CLPCCD is fiscally independent. This gives CLPCCD authority to issue warrants without review or approval from the Alameda County Office of Education, which in turn should lessen the processing time by one week.
District Accounts Payable Process
For goods and services procured through the purchasing process, i.e. generation of a purchase order, the District Accounts Payable process is as follows:
- For good received:
- The vendor sends District Accounts Payable an invoice
- District Accounts Payable verifies that goods have been received
- The invoice amount is within a reasonable tolerance level (10% to allow for tax and shipping variances) of the original purchase order amount
- District Accounts Payable enters the invoice into Banner and scans the invoice into Banner
- For services rendered:
- If the vendor sends District Accounts Payable the invoice, it will be routed to the appropriate department for authorization
- When the department receives the invoice, normally directly from the vendor, the department must:
- Ensure that the purchase order number is noted on the invoice
- Sign the invoice authorizing payment
- Forward the invoice to District Accounts Payable within five (5) days
- District Accounts Payable enters the invoice into Banner, and scans the invoice into Banner
Employee Reimbursements
All purchases should be made through the purchasing process. Although not encouraged, it may be necessary, on rare occasions, for an employee to purchase goods on behalf of Chabot. These rare occasions should be discussed and approved by your immediate manager/supervisor in advance.
Employees will not be reimbursed for any payment of professional services, e.g., stipends, honoraria, consulting; instead the Contract for Services process must be utilized.
District Accounts Payable will reimburse employees for incidental purchases made on behalf of Chabot when the employee submits a Disbursement Request form with an original, itemized receipt. An employee may not authorize a reimbursement to him/herself; instead, the employees supervisor must sign the Disbursement Request Form and forward to it to the next level manager for signatures, as appropriate.
Direct Payment / Disbursement Request
The purpose of generating a purchase order is to create a contract between CLPCCD and the vendor. CLPCCD promises to pay the vendor for the good or services as long as the vendor delivers the product or renders the service according to the terms and conditions of the purchase order. A purchase order protects not only CLPCCD but also the vendor because a purchase order constitutes a contract between the two parties.
There are occasions where it is not necessary to generate a purchase order, especially when the vendor doesn't deliver a good or render a service in the traditional sense. Examples of when a direct payment is appropriate are:
- Conference registrations
- Magazine or newspaper subscriptions
- Employee reimbursements
- Institutional Memberships (the District does not pay for individual memberships)
Submit a Disbursement Request form, along with the appropriate paperwork (conference registration form, magazine or subscription notice, original receipt, membership invoice, etc) to your immediate supervisor who will forward to the next level manager, as appropriate.