Payment Help

If you are a vendor that provides goods or services to the City, there are a number of things that you can do to assist the City in getting you paid quickly and correctly.

Important: For Prompt Payment

All invoices submitted for payment must include on the invoice:

• The related City Purchase Order or Contract Release Order Number
• The City Department/Division making the Purchase.

The City has 21 distinct departments that operate within their own budgets and control their own purchases and expenditures. Accounts Payable processes, on average, more than 13,000 P.O. lines each month, totaling more than $34 million each month. Once a department receives their goods or services, and releases the purchase for payment, the Accounts Payable section of the Department of Finance & Administrative Services can pay the invoice. Many things must be in sync for the payment to happen quickly and automatically.

The City's procedures call for vendors to send their original invoice to the Accounts Payable section of the Department of Finance & Administrative Services. The direct address is:

City of Albuquerque
Department of Finance and Administrative Services
Accounts Payable Section
P. O. Box 1985
Albuquerque, NM 87103

It is not necessary for vendors to send a copy of their invoice to the departments because the Accounts Payable section scans all invoices received into a system whereby the departments can view scanned invoices. However, some vendors choose to send an additional copy of the invoice to the department in order to expedite their payment. Our Purchasing/Accounts Payable system requires the department to enter the invoice number when the purchase is released for payment. So providing a copy directly to the department may help the department enter the release more quickly.

While the following is not an exhaustive list of things you can do to expedite payments, it is a list of the most common problems the City faces when attempting to pay for goods:

• Make sure that the invoice clearly indicates the Department and Division.
• Make sure that the amount(s) match the amounts on the Purchase Order or the Contract Release Order.
• Make sure that the Purchase Order Number or the Contract Release Order Number is indicated on the invoice.
• Make sure that the invoice clearly states what goods or services are being invoiced. Some departments do a large volume of orders and providing a description of the goods or services delivered can only expedite matters.
• If an invoice is being issued for a partial order, you must ensure that the P.O. was written in a way that can be partially paid. For example, if 10 widgets are ordered at a unit price of $ 1 each, and 8 widgets are delivered, the vendor can invoice for 8 widgets, for a total of $8. However, if an order was written as 1 @ $10, then the vendor would be unable to invoice for a partial delivery.

Invoices Received But Not Yet Paid

If the City has received your invoice, but the invoice has not yet been paid, there may be reasons why the invoice cannot match and pay automatically. If this is the case, it will require research and some sort of corrective action in order to get the invoice paid.

The first thing you, the vendor, can do is look at the invoice details on the unmatched invoice report. Ensure that the department and the division are noted. Compare the details on the invoice to your original purchase order or contract. Do the quantities and prices agree with the original P.O.? If you are confident that the invoice is in order, then the next thing you should do is contact the department and work with their Accounts Payable contact, or the person you sold the goods or services to. The department personnel should research and see if they have released the purchase for payment. If they have, but have entered the invoice number or other critical information incorrectly, it will restrict the payment from being released. If the department has not released the purchase for payment, then the Accounts Payable staff cannot make payment. Consult with the department personnel to see if something was not received, or if the department was unhappy or dissatisfied with the goods or services for any reason. Again, Accounts Payable cannot pay an invoice until the department has released the purchase for payment.