Payment Requisition Procedure
Requisition Process
Filling out requisition forms is an important responsibility, and doing so correctly saves time for all people involved. Errors filling out your requisition form may lead to delays in your payments. Should you have any questions, please call 6385 for assistance.
Below are the procedures for payment requisitions that should answer most of your questions. To help answer additional questions, please direct your inquiries to Accounts Payable, 6385. This is also the number to call with inquiries about paid requisitions or those in process.
Questions about journal entries, departmental charges and account numbers are best directed to General Ledger, 6113.
Here are some tips that help ensure that your requisition is complete before submission.
- Always include a complete address for the payee. This is a required field in the process leading to the issuance of the check. If you have a common name i.e. William Smith - please include a middle initial, complete address or social security number for proper identification.
- Social security or Federal ID number when appropriate, are frequently missing. We face IRS fines if we do not have this information on file.
- The account number(s) to be charged must be 20 digits long and be accurate. Do not try to combine parts of different accounts to make a whole one. Be very careful to distinguish between unrestricted (Fund 10, 11) and restricted (Fund 20) accounts.
- Avoid using "ASAP" as a date for the check to be written. Specify a date.
- Documentation is a MUST. Many different people, inside and outside the university, review expenditures. We are expected to show support and justification for each disbursement. No documentation with a requisition can result in return of form.
- All "enclose with check" copies to be sent with requisitions must be supplied at time of requisition submission.
Procedure for Payment Requisitions
- All payments, except for payroll and travel reimbursement, must be initiated with a Payment Requisition form. This form may be either typed or hand printed (legibly) as follows:
DEPARTMENT - Enter the department name to be charged.
PAYEE NAME AND ADDRESS - Many companies have a remittance address that differs from the corporate address. The address shown in this block should be the remittance address. This address should be included even if special instructions are given (see below) to forward the check to another individual for distribution. Please make sure the address is correct and check the box if it is a new or change of address. The computer can accommodate 5 lines of address with 24 spaces per line. Addresses longer than this should be typed on an envelope and enclosed with the requisition. If the check is to be made out to an acronym, please write out what words the letters stand for under special instructions. Vendors are listed under the full words spelled out.
SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER OR FEDERAL ID NUMBER - This will not be required on most requisitions. It is required only when an individual or corporation has provided services for which we must issue an IRS form 1099. Examples: honorariums, awards, services provided by persons not employed by Capital (including students), and businesses providing services as opposed to materials. Please provide a student ID number when paying students for services or reimbursement.
PURCHASE ORDER # - Whenever the payment is for goods or services for which a Capital University Purchase Order was issued, the Purchase Order # must be entered. In many cases, payments will be made for which there was no purchase order, in which case, this block is left blank. If you have a Capital issued PO and do not enter it here, the requisition may be processed as a regular payment and it will not unencumber your funds from the PO.
VOUCHER TOTAL - This should be the total of the check to be written, and must agree with the total of all amounts listed on the lower part of the requisition.
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS - Enter here any special instructions that the Finance Office should know in order to properly process the payment. For example, all checks are to be mailed from the Finance Office, but if you need to pick up the check because it is to be hand delivered after hours, please note this here. If the check is to be sent certified, FedEx or UPS, please note here with the GL# to be charged.
ENCLOSE WITH CHECK - If you want anything to be enclosed with the check when it is mailed from the Finance Office, you must identify it here and attach it to the payment requisition. This is in addition to what you attach for documentation. If all or part of the supporting documentation is to be mailed with the check, you must provide sufficient copies of the documentation so that the Finance Office can retain one copy to support the expenditure and mail one with the check.
INVOICE # AND INVOICE DATE - If the payment requisition relates to a vendor’s invoice, the invoice # and date must be shown. The invoice # will then be printed on the check stub. If you have multiple invoices to the same payee, and if a purchase order was not involved, you may list all invoices on the same requisition form. If there is no invoice #, use the account number if there is one.
DESCRIPTION - Enter here the brief description you want to appear on the check stub. It should be a description that will be meaningful to the payee and limited to 25 characters. (Not “see attached invoice”).
AMOUNT - The total of all amounts listed in the column must agree with the Voucher Total shown above. Make sure the amounts reflect any discounts to which we are entitled.
ACCOUNT NUMBER - This consists of five parts: a 2 digit fund #, a 2 digit location #, a 6 digit department #, a 5 digit object code and a 5 digit activity #. A full 20 digit account number must be shown for each amount to be charged. Requisitions with incomplete account numbers will be returned to the requester.
SIGNATURES - Two proper signatures are a must. Any unsigned requisitions will be returned. Both signatures must be legible.
- Appropriate documentation must be attached to the requisition. In most cases this will mean the original invoice. Other examples might be a copy of a registration form showing the registration fee due, or a copy of a contract or letter of agreement with a speaker or performer. No requisition will be processed without proper documentation. If any of the supporting documentation is to be mailed with the check, you must attach sufficient copies for one to be retained by the Finance Office and one to be mailed. There may be times when documentation does not exist because of the nature of the purchase or service. In these instances, a complete explanation must appear on the requisition or as an attachment. Be specific. At the moment we may know what the University is paying for, but months later when it is important to know, we may have forgotten. If a receipt is to follow, clearly mark the requisition, it is your responsibility to get that receipt to the Finance Office.
- The person requesting payment should sign the requisition, retain a copy, and forward another copy, with original documentation attached by staple and enclosures attached by paper clip, to the appropriate Budget Manager for approval. Requisitions for over $5,000.00 must be sent to the Vice President of Business & Finance for approval before being sent to AP.
- If approved, the payment requisition and all attachments should be forwarded to the Finance Office.
- The Finance Office will write checks weekly, on Mondays.
- Please be aware of the different payment processes for employees and independent contractors. Persons who are employees, are employees for all services rendered, and must be paid through the normal payroll process. Non-employees acting as independent contractors are paid through the requisition process, which ends with the Accounts Payable department issuing a check.
- We receive many duplicate requisitions. To save us all time, please check to make sure you haven’t requested payment for this previously.