Policy & Procedure Updates as of September 23, 2020

The following policy documents are now published and effective.  Please discuss the documents with the appropriate people in your department and send any questions to controllers.office@yale.edu.

Policy 3401 General Payment and Related Procedures

Related Documents:

• Policy 3401 General Payment – Revised
• Procedure 3401 PR.01 Supplier Setup and Change – New
• Procedure 3401 PR.02 Supplier Invoice Request – Revised
• Procedure 3401 PR.03 Disbursing Funds for Prizes, Awards, Stipends, and Fellowships – New
• Procedure 3401 PR.04 Submitting Invoices for Payment – Revised
• Procedure 3401 PR.07 Requesting Accounts Payable Check Voids – Revised
• Procedure 3401 PR.08 Recurring Payments – New

These updates come from the Procurement Department and Accounts Payable (collectively, the “Policy Sponsors”). Last 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 the policy and procedures. These are the resulting documents, which have been through a full review process.

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 and inserted 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 was 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 previous 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.

Three of the six procedures reflect updates to existing documents.  In those cases, the procedures were comprehensively reviewed and revised for clarity and conciseness. In instances when content was duplicative of another document (i.e., the policy or another procedure), it was removed and replaced with an appropriate directional reference.  Overall, the scope, purpose, and foundational elements of the procedures have not changed. Rather, the intent of the revisions was to create more streamlined documents that are chronological in nature in order to more accurately reflect the processes they describe. In addition, the revisions seek to clarify and reinforce the various responsibilities in the processes (e.g., Requestor v. Approver v. AP’s role). Ultimately, the intent is for these to be more functional documents that can be used by even the newest employee.

The other three procedures are brand new. While the documents themselves are new, however, the documented processes are largely not. Rather, the processes for establishing a new Supplier and making changes to an existing Supplier were repeatedly documented in other procedures (e.g., Procedure 3401 PR.02 Supplier Invoice Request). As such, the Policy Sponsors thought it would be better practice to consolidate that information, ensure there is only a single source for it, and use it as the foundational document for Supplier setup and changes.  Similarly, the processes related to PandA requests and recurring payments are well known to departments who regularly use them. As they are fairly widespread practices, the Policy Sponsors again thought the better practice would be to document them. In all cases, the procedures seek to chronologically detail their associated processes. They outline where responsibilities exist throughout the procedure. The intent of the new documents is to distill important information into a usable format for the community.

Always check the Policies and 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.