Occasionally, you may be unable to locate the correct vendor in the AP Vendor Master file, or the Master file may include a vendor record with the right name, but with a different address or payment type. In such cases, the system will guide you through a series of steps to request creation, or “assignment”, of the necessary vendor record.

After clicking Invoice and  New Invoice on the top toolbar of the Pending Invoices screen, enter a search string in the Vendor field and click the Vendor button. CAR then searches the vendor file for one or more matches. If the system is unable to find any matches, a window will appear.

• Click OK.

• You will be returned to the Vendor Selection window.

• Click Cancel in the Vendor Selection window.

A window appears verifying your request to create a new vendor record in the AP Vendor Master file.

 

·         Click OK

You will be automatically taken to the new paperless ASSIGN VENDOR REQUEST SYSTEM which resides on the AIS Financial Systems Website.

(You can also access this website directly at http://my.columbia.edu )

OVERVIEW:

On the website, you will be prompted to enter all pertinent vendor information so that the system can create the vendor record which will in turn be reviewed by Accounts Payable. Just like the previous system, once the vendor record is released by AP, you will be able to complete your processing of the invoice in AP CAR. (However, this new system eliminates the need to send in new vendor paperwork to AP, thus reducing Vendor Maintenance turnaround time.)

CREATING A NEW VENDOR RECORD – 10 EASY STEPS

STEP 1 – LOGIN

At the AIS Financial Systems homepage: Click on the Financial Systems Logo to Log in

At the Finsys User ID entry point: Enter in your AIS Logon ID

This takes you to the Financial System - Modules interface.

Click on  Vendor Create

STEP 2 - ANSWER A SERIES OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THE VENDOR

If this is your first time entering in a new vendor, or if have no pending new vendor requests, you will encounter a series of questions that must be answered before the system will allow you to complete entering primary vendor contact information.

(If you have any vendor creation requests still pending, you will instead be taken directly to the “Your Pending Vendor Creation Requests” screen.)

If a mistake or omission is made during this process, you will be notified by a small red text message at the top left corner of screen.

Some examples:

A. Who are you paying? AP needs to know what affiliation the vendor has with the University. For example, if the vendor has no direct affiliation with Columbia (such as an outside corporation or contractor), click “no”. In other words, is the person a student, employee, prospective employee or student, contractor, consultant, or non resident alien?  Or is the vendor an incorporated company?

 B. Are you paying a foreign vendor? For proper record formatting, AP needs to know if the vendor is a foreign entity without a US Tax ID.

 

  C. Has the Vendor submitted documents requesting payment? For proper invoice processing, AP needs to know whether the vendor submits documentation to support payment.

 

D. Does the vendor submit invoices with unique invoice numbers? AP needs to know the layout of the vendor’s invoices so that proper remit information can be included with payment. For instance, if the vendor submits only monthly statements w/o invoice numbers (such as credit card or utility companies), click “no”. Or, if the vendor is requesting only travel reimbursements, click “no”.

STEP 3 - ENTER IN VENDOR TAX ID

If the vendor is a University employee, student or faculty member, enter in their SSN. If the vendor is an outside company or contractor and uses only their SSN, enter that in. If the new vendor uses a Federal Tax ID, enter that in, then request vendor to fill out a W-9 Form and send or fax it to AP at 854-9352. 

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 STEP 4 - VENDOR P.O. QUESTION

For accounting and compliance purposes, it is very important to indicate whether a P.O. number is on the vendor invoice and/or determine if a P.O. has been assigned to the vendor transaction.  If so, fill in the P.O. number in the space provided. For more information on the proper use of purchase orders, see: http://www.columbia.edu/purchasing/

 STEP 5 - ENTER PERTINENT VENDOR INFORMATION

This is the main vendor contact and information form. Although not all fields are required, please fill in as completely as possible.

For all Foreign vendors, please include the complete address on lines one through four. Lines one through four should include the foreign city, foreign country and foreign zip code.   Leave the city field, state field, and zip code field blank. 

SOME TIPS FOR COMPLETING FORM :

Accounts Payable issues three different prefixes to vendor numbers in detail. 

The vendor number of a student or employee at Columbia University consists of the prefix “E” followed by his or her social security number {for example, “E-123456789”}. 

Please Note:  Casuals, Post Doctoral Fellows, and Graduate Research assistants are also “E” vendors

The vendor number of an individual who is not a student or employee at Columbia University or any business or corporation consists of the prefix “P” followed by either the individual’s SS# or the business or corporation tax id number. (For example, P-987654321).

Please Note: Those who work or attend school at affiliates such as Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, Barnard College and Teacher’s College, are “P” vendors. 

A third prefix “F” is used for foreign nationals and for vendors who have neither a Social security number nor a tax identification number.  An “F” vendor is automatically generated by AP/CAR.

Please Note: Documentation must establish that a foreign vendor’s work was preformed in his or her country, not in the US.  If the work was done in the US, the foreign vendor must be paid through HRPC.  The types of payments we can make to non resident aliens are dependent upon their visa status.  Some may be given compensation while others may not be given any form of payment.  IRS regulations and University policies further limit the types of payments non resident aliens receive. 

If the vendor is a University employee, student or faculty member, enter in their SS#.  If the vendor is an outside consultant or contractor and uses only their SS# enter that in.  If the new vendor uses a Federal Tax ID number then enter that in. 

FIN / SSN: Double check for mistakes. INDIVIDUAL: Also mark if vendor is an employee or sole contractor.

NAME: If an individual, enter LAST*FIRST for proper sorting. Abbreviate if vendor name is more than 24 characters. For guidelines, click here.

In the “NAME” field, in the VDC enter the first name followed by the last name, with an asterisk before the last name(FIRST NAME*LAST NAME) for example, CHRISTINE*KLEIN

Always demarcate the last name with an asterisk.  This enables CAR to search by last name.

Please Note: If you are entering a “P” vendor that is an individual please check the box for individual.  If you are entering an “E” vendor, this box is automatically checked. 

ADDRESS: If foreign, write entire address in this space, then select 99-FOREIGN in state pull-down menu.

REQUEST STATUS: Indicates status of vendor request (i.e. started, working, released)

SIC CODE: For accounting and compliance purposes, please be diligent in selecting the correct Sic Code from the pull-down menu. For example if a non-employee is being reimbursed for travel use the sic Code z0024.  If you are paying an honorarium to an individual use the sic code z0006. 

Sic Codes are important as they help the vendor maintenance team determine if the vendor profile should be set up for a 1099 or as a non 1099.

Please be sure to include the type of service that was provided in the notes field.  This will help the vendor maintenance team determine if the sic code is correct. 

PO Number: If you indicated a PO # on earlier screen and it doesn’t show up here, return to previous screen to verify.

VENDOR PHONE AND FAX: Enter as follows using no extra characters (i.e. 2128543029)

VENDOR EMAIL: This is very helpful in case a vendor needs to be contacted and will help ensure smooth payment communications.

NOTES: indicate here vendor’s type of business (ex. Services manufacturing, Consultant), describing the services performed or goods received. 

STEP 6 - VERIFY INFORMATION IS CORRECT

It is important to double check the completed form against vendor information on the invoice.

When finished Click SAVE to keep record in working status in case you need to still verify some information, or RELEASE FOR APPROVAL to submit vendor record to AP for review.

 STEP 7 - VENDOR RECORD RELEASED FOR APPROVAL CONFIRMATION

To research the process of this vendor request, click on “ History”.

Or Click on “Close”. This takes you to a list of “Your Pending Vendor Creation Requests”.

In this example, notice the new vendor BIFF HENDERSON shows up on the list of Pending Vendor Creation Requests with a status of L-Released by Dept. This means that the vendor request will be reviewed by AP and either ACCEPTED, HELD for further information, or REJECTED. You will be notified in AP CAR of the status of your new vendor application.

NEW VENDOR CREATION REQUESTS

At times you may find it easier to process all of your Vendor Creation Requests in a row without returning to AP CAR. To continue processing requests, click on New (at top left of window) to repeat Steps 1-8.

(You can also access this website directly at http://my.columbia.edu)

EDITING PENDING VENDOR CREATION REQUESTS

The above window is also the location from which you can Edit Pending Vendor Creation Requests.

Any requests still pending will be listed according to status on the initial screen (this window) after login. Choose the item you want to edit. You will then be taken to the VENDOR DETAIL window. Click on Edit.

The VENDOR EDIT window will be displayed with spaces for entry of basic vendor information.

Example:

After completion of edits, you have the choice again to either Click on SAVE (to save changes for later), DELETE (which will delete the entire record), or RELEASE FOR APPROVAL, which will release this vendor record to AP for review.

STEP 8 - LOG OUT OF VDC

Once you have completed entering all necessary information in the ASSIGN VENDOR REQUEST SYSTEM you can exit the AIS Financial Systems Website and return to AP CAR in order to monitor recent vendor requests or to complete processing of invoices.

To do this:

Click on EXIT VDC, which will return you to the FINANCIAL SYSTEMS- MODULES interface. Then, either close out this window or Click on LOGOUT to return to AP CAR.

STEP 9 - RETURNING TO AP CAR to finish invoice processing

With the new vendor information correctly entered into the ASSIGN VENDOR REQUEST SYSTEM (see AIS Financial Systems Website at https://finsys.ais.columbia.edu/fin/index.jsp), you should now be able to locate this vendor in the AP Vendor Master file.

To do this, re-enter the correct Vendor Name (remember to search for individuals last name first) or Number (i.e. P123543789) as a search string in the Vendor field and click the Vendor button. AP CAR then again searches the vendor file for one or more “matches”.

Notice the vendor now exists in the search engine, even though it has not been reviewed by AP yet.

If you choose, you can continue to process the invoice using the pending vendor record information.

However, you will not be able to fully complete the transaction nor obtain a Voucher number until the Vendor Assignment process is completed in AP. If this process is not yet complete, you will get the following message:

 

Click Yes.

CAR will automatically save the current invoice to the database and assign it a "working" voucher number.

Write the Working Voucher Number on the front page of the documentation and save invoice until it shows up in your Pending Items Queue for appropriate action.

 

You will notice in the Pending Invoices window that the Total counts in both the Working and Vendor Assignment: WAITING queues have been increased by one.

Note: before the new vendor record is released by AP, further information may be requested, such as a completed W-9 form.

DO NOT forward original documents to Accounts Payable without Accepted Voucher Numbers.

After a Vendor Maintenance staff member assigns the new or modified vendor, he or she will electronically route the item to your Vendor Assignment: ASSIGNED queue.

If the item does not appear in your “Vendor Assignment: ASSIGNED” queue within 48 hours, contact the Vendor Maintenance area of Accounts Payable.

ACCESSING AN ITEM IN VENDOR ASSIGNMENT: ASSIGNED

Once AP has released the vendor assignment (and a corresponding invoice has been entered in AP CAR), you will find the assigned vendor listing in your Vendor Assignment: Assigned queue.

Click on its Total box. The items in the Total box are displayed in the Results Window in the lower half of the screen. Click on an item in the Results Window, highlighting it. Click Edit Invoice.

Note: You must be in your In Box  in order to be able to change an item.

Read the text message entered by a Vendor Maintenance staff member in Accounts Payable. Scroll to the bottom of the message by clicking on the square in the upper right hand corner of the text box and dragging it down. Click OK.

Click the Vendor button, in the upper left corner of the New Invoice screen, to select the assigned vendor.

The “Confirm Vendor Selection” box is displayed. Make sure that the vendor’s name, tax identification number, and address in this box is the same as the information on the invoice. If it is, click OK.

However, if information was entered incorrectly, click Reselect, Cancel and Close and contact the Vendor Maintenance section in Accounts Payable.

Tab to the Invoice Number field. Finish entering invoice and account distribution information. (For assistance formatting the invoice number, click Help, and then Guide to Invoice Number Entry.

Some Important information:

Invoice number

Use an invoice number when the vendor has submitted a bill, showing Columbia University as the billing address, with an INVOICE NUMBER, an amount, and a description of services or goods provided.  A “reference number” can serve as an invoice number. 

Date of Billing

Use Date of Billing when the vendor has submitted a bill, without an invoice number, showing Columbia University as the billing address, the date of billing, an amount, and a description of services or goods provided. If an actual “date of billing” is provided on the bill then the date of billing invoice number is preferred over the use of a check request.

Check Requests

Use a check request when the vendor has submitted a bill, without an invoice number or an actual date of billing or for any of the following types of payments. 

Below are some of the more common payments using a Check Request:

Honoraria: Taxable payments to featured speakers. Only “P” vendors can receive honorariums.  The SIC Code is z0006.

Prizes and Awards: “P” and “E” vendors can receive this type of payment.

 Reimbursement of Individuals Other than Employees and Students for Travel:

University travel and business policies and procedures apply to individuals, such as guest lecturers, consultants, prospective faculty or officers who are not University faculty, staff or students but are to be reimbursed for University approved transportation and business related costs.

Federal and I.R.S. regulations requiring departmental approval, payee information, signature, documentation of business purpose, receipts, mileage and meals, etc., also apply to non-employee expenses.  It is the department’s responsibility to inform non-employees of the University’s travel policies and procedures prior to their visit in order to ensure compliance.

Please be aware that New York Presbyterian Hospital, Barnard College and Teachers’ College employees are considered non-employees for reimbursement purposes.

Medical Benefits: Payments made to a faculty practice doctor for care provided to his or her private patients. 

Consultants are sometimes paid via check request but the preferred way to pay for this type of service is via invoice number format. 

Travel and Business Expense Report

Use this payment type to process reimbursements to students, employees, post-doctoral fellows and graduate research assistants only.  The only prefix used on a Travel and Business expense report is the prefix “E”. 

Petty Cash

All Petty Cash vendors must be sent to General Accounting and not set up through the VDC system. 

 

LEARN THE NEXT STEP:  MODIFY A VENDOR.