Getting the Bills Paid

[Joel A. Jones]

>To you CAUT's (primarily) out there,
>   Does anyone have any ideas on how to be sure that a vendor has been
>paid? I'm now trying to have the invoices sent directly to me so I can
>immediately hand them to the person in the music office who does this work.
>But once it leaves my hands, I have no way of knowing if/when the bill was
>actually paid.
>   When I first came here we used a Purchase Order system but later was
>told it would be quicker, with less paperwork, to use a Purchase Voucher to
>pay anything under $500.00. So far, it doesn't seem to always work out that
>way!
>   I ordered a few things last week from one of the supply houses and a day
>or so ago I received a notice that an order from Mar. 29, 1996 had not yet
>been paid! I've had this type of problem before, but that time it was the
>fault of a very bad secretary who, thankfully, is no longer with us.
>   This has been very frustrating, as well as embarrassing, to me. I'm even
>considering talking to the Director of the Music Department and trying to
>get permission to do the vouchers and send them to Accounts Payable myself.
>At least I would know they had been done, and when.
>   Any suggestions?
>
>_____________________________________
>Avery Todd, RPT
>Moores School of Music
>University of Houston
>Houston, TX 77204-4893
>713-743-3226
>atodd@uh.edu
>_____________________________________


Avery,

No doubt there as many ways of working the purchasing department as there
are Universities, but I have our office, in specifid our accountant set up
an open account with several suppliers.   I can then order anything I need
until the budget is gone.   For the unusual things such as decals etc. I
have another account number that takes those miscellaneous items.
        Our accountant talks to purchasing about vouchers, purchase orders
etc. as she knows their language.  However, I have been at School where the
office was in the way and every nail had to be approved.  In most of those
cases I too was embarrased by having to back pedal and shake the desk
jockies  before the bills were paid.  Whatever the system is it sounds like
you'll be doing some networking.  Finding a person in the system that will
handle the invoices in a timely manner and work with you to keep the paper
work moving.
        Now, if you have some secret about getting your budgets increased,
give us all a shout  !