The Council is moving its Financial Management System onto Oracle Cloud from the start of the financial year 2021/22.
The system will go live from April 6 2021.
New technologies
As part of this launch we are installing new technologies which will change the way we transact with suppliers and streamline the invoice and payments processes.
These technologies include:
- Invoice scanning. This will only work effectively if there is a valid purchase order (PO) number printed on the invoice
- Supplier Portal. This enables suppliers to log into their own account on the Council system, view their purchase orders, create the invoice for payment against the order and update their own details. Suppliers will only be able to do this if they ensure that a purchase order is used. This will be rolled out to appropriate Suppliers later in the financial year
Change to policy
A big change that will affect suppliers is that we will be moving to a policy of 'No Purchase Order No Pay'.
In short, this means that unless a supplier quotes a valid Oracle Purchase Order number on their invoice, we will not process a payment for that invoice and it will be returned to the supplier.
Staff have been instructed that they must place an order through Oracle for the good or services that they require from the supplier. Please ensure that you request a purchase order number before you despatch goods or provide services.
How this will operate
To ensure prompt payment from the council you must quote a valid purchase order number.
All purchase order numbers generated from Oracle Cloud will be prefixed with 'BC' and will have 8 digits, starting with the number 8 following the BC prefix e.g. BC8*******.
Each invoice we receive must quote the correct purchase order number for the invoice and must only be for the items that are ordered on that purchase order. Without this information the system will not be able to process your invoices correctly and this may result in payment delays.
The Authority will continue to operate on 30 days payment terms.
Any purchase orders that currently have outstanding invoices due to be paid on them will still be paid as expected.
The council will also be processing all payments through BACS and cheques will no longer be issued.
We understand that some transactions are complex in nature and will always need to be paid freestanding or through another system that the Authority has in place. For these there will be a list of exceptions that will apply to a particular supplier, service or commodity.
We hope that the transition period for these changes will run as smoothly as possible. However, if you should encounter any issues or concerns please contact our Accounts Payable Team by email.