There are reasons behind the requirements for authorization and documentation in this area. The College has an obvious responsibility to ensure that payments to vendors and reimbursements to employees are legitimate business expenses of Whitman College and within the scope of each budget’s spending limits. The IRS is interested in payments that may need to be included in an employee’s taxable income and in these cases; there is a possible liability to both the College and the employee. The documentation required to process any payment is designed to contribute to institutional control of spending as well as protect the College and the employee from potential tax issues. All payments should be authorized and approved by the person responsible for the budget that is receiving the expense. In addition, any one invoice over $5,000 should be approved by the responsible Budget Officer or in their absence another Budget Officer or the Controller.
Vendor Classifications
Any time Whitman College pays a company or organization for goods or services they are a vendor. Any time we reimburse an employee or student for supplies, travel etc, they also become a vendor in the system. However, we can’t pay employees or students for services through the AP system, those payments must go through payroll. Payments to current employees or students for performances should go through payroll. If we are paying a non-employee for services, they must fill out a W9 and a personal services contract. A person hired to provide a service on behalf of Whitman College may be an employee or a contractor depending on the specific situation. There may be some rare cases where an employee could be treated as a contractor for services in a different capacity (such as, a College custodian (employee) also providing incidental or intermittent services as photographer (contractor)).
Determining Factors in Vendor Classification
The following are factors that on a cumulative basis would point towards an employee classification or relationship. If in doubt contact the Kathy Yeager (#5130) or Walter Froese (#4936) for help with this determination.
· Instructors and adjunct faculty even if they provide teaching services to another institution in addition to Whitman College will be treated as an employee
· The worker is supervised or controlled in the sequencing and manner of their work by the College
· The worker has a on-going long-term relationship to the College
· The worker has an exclusive relationship to the College - especially where the worker can not show any effort to provide services to other entities
· The College provides the worker’s tools, assistants or facilities
Processing Contractor Payments
In order to pay a contractor for services find out if the vendor already has a vendor address in Datatel, you can do this for any vendor not just contractors. To do this get into the CF module (use the “Apps” menu item) and key in VEND in the box at the top left and press return. This will take you to a look-up bar where you can key in the vendor name. This generally works better if you don’t key in the entire name.
When you’ve keyed in the name you want to look up, hit return or click the OK button. You will get the following resolution screen.
Select the vendor/person by keying the “Seq” number in the white box at the bottom of the screen and hit return. This will bring up the following screen:
In order to check the address to see if this vendor has more than one remit to address click the diagonal arrow to the right of the Demographics box. This will take you to the following selection screen:
Since this is a business instead of a person, we want to select ORGP – Organization Profiles. This is normally highlighted so all you need to do is click the OK button. The following screen will appear:
If this vendor had more than one address, all addresses would be shown on this resolution screen. If you need a new remit to address to be added, please e-mail Fran Meyer (meyerbf) with a carbon copy to Kathy Yeager (yeager) and request an additional address. It helps if you include the vendor’s ID number in your request.
Later on in this section we will discuss how to look up vendors when you’re in the VOUM screen.
If you did not find your vendor in our file, please e-mail Fran Meyer (meyerbf) with a carbon to Kathy Yeager (yeager) and include all remit to information and any phone numbers or FAX numbers you’d like to include.
Please check with Walter Froese or KathyYeager prior to hiring or paying a person from a foreign country for services. There are tax treaties and limited presence issues (number of consecutive days in the United States) that need to be addressed.
There are several types of payments that can run through accounts payable. The most common are invoices. Other types include registration fees, personal reimbursements, travel advances/reimbursements, subscription renewals, personal services contracts, performances, honorariums and refunds. Vendor Payment, Travel & Entertainment and Journal Entry forms are available on the Admin server in “misc” or L:AISBusiness OfficeBusiness Office Forms. If you need help with these forms speak to the Kathy Yeager.
The type of payment dictates what form you need to fill out if any. Below is a general guide:
Invoices: Code and sign the invoice. Make a copy if no customer/account number has been established with the vendor.
Registration fees: Since we usually have to send in the original document for registrations, please make a copy and do all the coding and signing on the copy.
Personal vehicle mileage: Mileage covers all costs of using the vehicle including fuel, insurance and wear and tear, except parking fees and tolls, which are reimbursable in addition to mileage. Use a Travel and Entertainment form for employee mileage reimbursements.
Personal reimbursements: Fill out a vendor payment form and attach all receipts or statements.
Travel reimbursements: Fill out a travel and entertainment form and attach all receipts or statements. A Travel form is required where an overnight stay or where meals for people other than Whitman employees or entertainment activities take place. The lodging receipt showing all charges is required for adequate documentation.
Subscription renewals: Since we usually have to send in the original renewal document, please make a copy and do all the coding and signing on the copy.
Personal services contracts: Once we have a contract and a W9 on file for the calendar year, it depends on whether the person/business sends an actual invoice. If an invoice is available but we don’t have a customer/account number with the vendor, make a copy of the invoice to send with the payment and do all the coding and signing on the original. If we don’t have a tangible invoice, please put all information on a VP form and attach the original bill and a copy to send with the payment.
Performances: When paying non-employees for a performance a performance contract and W9 are necessary. Since these types of payments usually don’t have a true invoice connected with them, please put all information on a vendor payment form and attach the back-up.
Refunds: When refunding non-academic fees (scrambles, alumni college, etc.) please fill out a vendor payment form.
Honorariums: When paying an honorarium for a guest lecturer etc. please follow the same guidelines listed for performances.
***Please note that when paying from a statement (usually utility bills or Tallman’s) be sure you don’t stamp the remit stub. We do send these with the payments.***
Accounts Payable Voucher Entry
With the advent of Datatel anyone with the proper access can enter their own vouchers. If you don’t have Datatel access please contact Technology Services helpdesk at 527-4976.
You need to be in the CF apps in Datatel and key in VOUM in the box at the top left. This will take you to voucher look-up or add bar. Key an A in the box to add a new voucher and hit Enter or click the OK box.
You will get the following screen.
Note that the current date has been filled in for you in the Voucher Date field. There is no reason to ever change this date unless we’re at fiscal year end (June 30th). Year-end procedures will be explained later.
Ignore the PO Number it isn’t being used at the present time the Maintenance Date will be filled in for you. The first field you need to fill in is the Invoice Number followed by the Invoice Date and then the Invoice Totals. When you get to the Vendor ID field and you don’t know the vendor number, you can key in a partial name and you’ll get the following resolution screen.
If there were more than one matching entry, all entries would be listed on this screen. All you need do now is key the number of the entry you want in the box at the bottom of the screen and hit Enter. This will take you back to the first screen with the vendor number, name and address filled in for you.
If the address shown in Address line number 1 isn’t the correct address you can click on the diagonal arrow to the right of the Address line and a resolution screen will appear listing all addresses for this vendor.
If there’s more than one address, key in the number of the address you want in the box at the bottom of the screen and hit Enter. This will put the correct address on the first screen and you can continue your entry.
The next box that requires entry is the AP Type box towards the bottom right of the screen. Always key in “CF” in this box and press Enter.
Please take this opportunity to copy down the Voucher ID number (V0033604) on your invoice etc. This number is located in the upper left.
The next step is to click on the diagonal arrow to the right of the Line Items box. This will take you to the following screen.
Click on the diagonal arrow to the left of the Description area. This will take you to the following screen.
Skip the “Cmdty” field.
In the “Desc” box, key in the vendor’s customer/account or if there is no number, key in pertinent information to the vendor on line number 1. This is the only line that prints on the check stub. You can also key information on lines 2 etc. that pertains to you so you can view this information later.
The next field is the Price and you need to enter the total invoice amount and hit Enter.
Just hit the Enter key for the Quantity and the system will fill in a 1.000 for you.
Skip the next 5 fields.
You should now be in the Tax Codes box. If you have purchased something from an out-of-state vendor and that vendor didn’t charge sales tax, you need to put a UT in the Tax Codes box. This code tells the system to charge the 8.3% tax on goods used in the State of Washington. The following items are exempt from use tax: advertising, materials for resale, royalty/professional fees, dues and memberships.
Subscriptions to magazines, newsletters etc. are subject to use tax.
You should now be at the “GL Account No” box. You’ll notice at the bottom left of the screen it will say GL Account LookUp. If you aren’t sure of the GL account number you want to charge this lookup will help.
To look up account numbers key in the first 10 digits then … if you’re not sure of the object code. You’ll get the following resolution screen.
Key the “Seq” number of the account you want in the box at the bottom right of the screen and hit Enter.
The account number that corresponds with the “Seq” number you chose appears in the GL Account No box. If this is the only account number you will be charging, simply hit Enter when you get to the GL Amt box and the total amount of the invoice will be filled in for you. If you need to split the invoice between two or more accounts, key in the amounts in the GL Amt box that you want charged to each account. The Percent and Quantity boxes will be filled in for you.
When you’re done with this screen hit the F9 function key at the top of you keyboard and that will take you back to the second screen.
Hit the F9 function key again and that will take you back to the first screen.
Before you exit this screen you need to key an “N” in the Pay Voucher box towards the bottom right. The Voucher Done box should always say “Yes”. If you don’t have any credit invoices for this vendor that would reduce the total amount of the check you can hit the F9 function key to get completely out of the voucher program or you can hit the F10 function key to continue to add other vouchers.
***Note if you have credit memos/invoices that you want to apply against your debit invoices to reduce the total amount of the check, make sure the debits are greater than your credits, key all credit and debit invoices in at the same time and put a unique code in the Check Group box. Make sure the same code is in all debit and credit invoices you want to process for that check. Also make sure all invoices are coded to the same vendor address. If any of these steps aren’t followed, the credits won’t be applied, the check run has to be stopped, then the voucher with the wrong information has to be voided and then re-entered in order to start the check run all over again.***
If you have made an error on a voucher or have discovered that it’s a duplicate payment and have closed out of the program, please call Fran Meyer (5593) or Kathy Yeager (5130) and tell them the voucher number (ie V0033604) you want them to void. This only works if the voucher hasn’t been paid.
The voucher will be posted to the General Ledger with the date that’s in the Voucher Date box and it’s considered posted as soon as you F9 or F10 out of the program.
Departments are allowed 8-10 days into July to pay any invoices that relate to the prior fiscal year. In order for the vouchers to post in the prior fiscal year, you need to override the Voucher Date field before you do anything else in the VOUM screen. The voucher date is the first field on the first screen and it will default to the current date. To override this date, make sure your cursor is in that field and hit the F4 function key to delete the current date. Make sure your cursor is back in the voucher date field by clicking in that field and key in 06/30/yy for the voucher date so the voucher will be posted in June of the current year. Only use the override for payments that are for activity conducted in the last fiscal year. Do not use this procedure to spend prior year budget money.
Occasionally you may need to look up a prior payment to a vendor, to do this you will need to be in the CF apps in Datatel and key in VENI in the box at the top left. This will take you to a look-up bar where you can key in the vendor ID number or the name.
To look up by name simply key in all or part of the name in the lookup box.
After entering the name you’ll get the following screen:
Select this vendor by keying a 1 in the box at the bottom and hit enter.
To do a look-up by vendor ID simply key in the vendor number in the box.
This will take you directly in to the inquiry screen below.
There are three other screens you can view besides this one. This screen tells you the voucher number, voucher date, check number and check date. The status column lets you know if a voucher is outstanding, paid, reconciled or voided. If the voucher/check has been reconciled that means the vendor has cashed the check and it has cleared our bank. However, since this screen doesn’t show the invoice number or the general ledger account number, you’ll most likely want to view the other screens also.
To view these screens click in the box under the Number column of the voucher you want and either F2 (detail) or click on the diagonal arrow to the right of the voucher number. This will bring up the following screen.
This screen displays the invoice number and description. If you need to view the general ledger account number you need to click on the diagonal arrow to the left of the Description field. This will bring up the following screen.
Always select the VIIN option by clicking on it and then click OK. You will then get the following screen.
This screen displays the general ledger account number as well as invoice number and description. If you have keyed in more than one line of description you can view that here also.
To exit from these screens hit the F9 function key to close all screens and exit the VENI program.
There is another way to view existing vouchers/invoices. Make sure you’re in the CF apps in Datatel and then key in VOUM in the box at the top. The following screen will appear.
To look up a vendor key in the name, usually a partial name works better and hit enter.
We want Sequence #4, so key in a “4” in the box at the bottom and hit enter.
You will get the following screen.
From this screen you can see the invoice number, voucher number, check number, check date and whether the voucher is (O) outstanding, (P) paid or (R) reconciled. If the voucher has been reconciled that means the vendor has cashed that check. We reconcile checks on a monthly basis, so sometimes even though it has a paid code it might actually have been cashed. You can use the scroll arrows to the right to view more vouchers or invoices. To exit this screen hit the F9 function key or click on the X at the bottom.
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