Notice to Suppliers - Achieving Purchase Order Compliance

We are making some changes to how we handle our invoices by introducing a compulsory purchase order (PO) policy which will help to speed up the processing of invoices and is a key financial control measure for the council. This will further ensure that the council only pays for goods, services and works received, after they have been properly authorised in accordance with the council’s financial governance framework.

To avoid any unnecessary delay to your payment, you should only supply goods/services to the council once you are in receipt of a valid PO number. The PO number must be quoted on the invoice before being submitted to the council.

Invoices received without a quoted valid PO number may be returned to the council staff who placed the order so that they can obtain a valid PO number. They may then need to contact you to request you re-issue the invoice quoting the PO number, thereby incurring unnecessary delay to your payment.

The PO number is numerical and follows the format of 1nnnnnnn. You should not accept any verbal or written order from a council officer unless a valid PO number is given, or it is classified as an exception as set out in the FAQs or it is an emergency order. The person placing the order will advise you if an exception applies.

If your goods/services have already been provided to the council and you have not received a PO number, you should contact the member of council staff who gave the original instruction to supply the goods/services and ask them to provide a valid PO number.

If you are a regular supplier of goods/services to the council and you have any questions, or to confirm your status, you may wish to get in touch with your usual order contact.

The council standard payment terms are 30 days from receipt of a valid invoice.

It is your responsibility to inform the council of any changes to your business information including bank account, VAT and Companies House details.