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Receipt and Payment of Services and Materials

The receipt and payment of materials and services is as important as ordering itself.

This section discusses what is undertaken to ensure that the items and services Brandeis ordered are the items and services we receive and pay for.

Procurement Services is responsible for the vouchering process for invoices associated with purchase orders. This process initiates payment to the vendor that occurs within Accounts Payable, which is responsible for the disbursement. This gives our Procurement Team member a unique view of the entire transaction, creating an environment where the person responsible for processing the payment also has intimate knowledge of what was ordered.

Central Receipt

Brandeis University maintains two central receiving operations:

• Lab Supplies Receiving (managed by Procurement Services) and
• Epstein Receiving (managed by University Services).

Members of either receiving area will verify the quantity of items received against the quantity ordered on a Purchase Order using the PeopleSoft receiving module. They will visually inspect for damages and refuse items that appear to have extensive damage. As the receiver does not possess intimate knowledge of the items ordered nor the capability to test them, they are not able to ascertain if an item is indeed usable as intended by the requisitioner.

Final inspection of materials against specification is the responsibility of the requisitioner. Therefore, it is imperative to inspect your shipment and verify its quality immediately upon receipt. Delaying this inspection may hamper the effort to return materials that do not work as intended.

When an item does not meet your specification or is damaged, contact your procurement representative immediately. She/he will assist you in returning the item and negotiating a remedy with the supplier before payment occurs.

Direct Receipt/Services Receipt

From time to time, it may be necessary to have shipments directed to a location other than central receiving; or, an order may have been for services rather than goods. In these cases, if the item or service is valued greater then $5,000, then the requisitioner is responsible for acknowledging receipt of the item or service to make it eligible for payment.

To facilitate this process, procurement services provides you with a Confirmation of Goods Received Form. This form serves as verification of receipt or approval for payment of services rendered. Please use this form whenever an item or service processed on a Purchase Order has a value that exceeds $5,000.

Packing Slips

Whether a shipment is received though a central receiving location or is shipped directly to you, a packing slip is usually provided by the supplier. This document commonly shows a shipping number, the Purchase Order number, the quantity ordered, the quantity shipped and, when applicable, the quantity back ordered.

A packing slip is your record of what was sent to you by the supplier and is used to track the shipment throughout the system. Packing slips for items ordered using the PO system will be retained by procurement services.

Authorization for Payment

Whether received centrally or directly by the requisitioner, all supplier invoices are matched against the items or services ordered on the Purchase Order as well as the items or services received (for goods greater than $5,000).

At Brandeis, this three-way match is accomplished electronically, through the PeopleSoft system. For orders valued greater than $5,000 the system will verify that the item or service received matches the quantity and prices of the item or service ordered, and the invoiced amount.

There are two ways the receiving data is entered into the system:

1. When an item is received at Central Receiving, the receivers will enter the data directly into the PeopleSoft system.
2. When an invoice is received with a value greater than $5,000 Accounts Payable will request a Confirmation of Goods Received Form be processed by an individual with the appropriate budgetary approval. This will occur regardless if the shipment has been received in central receiving. The information provided on the completed form will be entered into the PeopleSoft database, thus creating a match.

For invoices valued less than $5,000 a two-way match occurs between the invoice and the Purchase Orders. If the price and quantity of items or services invoiced match the price and quantity of the items or services ordered on the Purchase Order (within set invoice tolerances), then the invoice will be paid.

Because Brandeis’s payment terms are net 30 days, the majority of invoices will “age” for 30 days before the check is cut by the Controller’s Office. As mentioned in the receiving section above, it is the requisitioner’s responsibility to contact Procurement Services as soon as possible if goods are received damaged or an invoice should not be paid.

Invoice Tolerances

When processing invoices, the procurement team works within institutionally defined parameters to determine what is a reasonable variance between invoice total and Purchase Order totals. These tolerances allow procurement to process payment of invoices that exceed the value of the Purchase Order.

If the value on an invoice for a Purchase Order exceeds 20% or $250 of the Purchase Order total, whichever is less, the invoice will not be processed until the appropriate procurement representative contacts the vendor and the requisitioner regarding the discrepancy to determine the reason for it.

Procurement Services will need to document the reason for the discrepancy prior to processing the invoice for payment.