Policy and Procedure Updates as of April 29, 2020

April 29, 2020

The following draft document is now available for review and comment and is posted on the Policies and Procedures Drafts website. The document will be posted on the drafts site for a period of 30 days. Please discuss the document with the appropriate people in your department and send any applicable feedback to controllers.office@yale.edu.

Policy 3401 General Payment

This revision comes from the Procurement Department and Accounts Payable (collectively, the “Policy Sponsors”).  Earlier this fiscal year, Internal Audit conducted a review of this policy and its related procedures.  As a result of that review, as well as additional internal discussions, the Policy Sponsors committed to a comprehensive review and update of this policy. This draft is the resulting document.  The Policy Sponsors have begun work on the associated procedures as well, but plan to finalize those drafts at a later date. Accordingly, please note that there are several placeholder procedures referenced in the policy document.

The policy was comprehensively reviewed and revised for clarity and conciseness.  In instances when content was procedural in nature, it was removed from the policy with the intention of inserting content into its applicable procedure (in some cases, creating a new procedure). Overall, the scope, purpose, and foundational elements of the policy have not changed. Rather, the intent of the revisions is to focus the policy’s scope on the payment end of procure-to-pay (while moving all purchasing end content to Policy 3201 General Payment) and clarify and enhance the documented roles and responsibilities.

The policy now consists of fewer major sections (four in total), concentrating the content on high-level topics.  Several of these sections, while rearranged to some extent, share much of their substance with their counterparts in the current version of the policy. Other sections (e.g., 3401.3 Standard Payment Terms) are new to the policy. While the substance of that section reflects current practice, the Policy Sponsors felt it would be beneficial to include it in the formal policy.

Reminder:

Always check the Policies & Procedures Website for the latest revisions of all documents. This will ensure you that are utilizing the most up-to-date version.

If you have any questions, please contact Policy & Compliance Services at controllers.office@yale.edu.