Procurement and the council

The council operates a “No Purchase Order, No Pay” approach. All orders for works, goods and services require an official purchase order from the council’s electronic procurement system, Oracle Fusion. There are a limited number of exceptions to this rule and these are contained within the council’s certified payments policy, however in general, suppliers should not provide goods or services to the council without receiving an official purchase order.  

The purchase order will provide details of the order, the delivery and invoice addresses, and will specifically contain a seven digit number containing no letters or symbols which must be quoted on any invoice submitted for payment. Where an invoice is submitted without a valid purchase order number quoted, other than the categories recognised as an exception, these will not be processed or paid.

Payment

Unless specific contract terms have been agreed, the council’s standard payment terms are 30 days from receipt of a valid invoice, and an invoice will only be deemed valid if a purchase order number is quoted upon it. If an invoice is submitted without a purchase order number it will remain unprocessed unless this number is provided. This will result in an indefinite delay in payment.

It is therefore in a supplier’s best interests to ensure that they obtain a purchase order prior to the provision of goods or delivery of service, and that they quote this number on their subsequent invoice. If a purchase order is not received, the supplier should contact the person who gave the instruction for the goods/service to request it.