00306 PROCEDURE RAISING ORDERS

Version: 2 ECHR Last Updated: 18/05/09 Review Date: 17/05/12

Potential Equality Impact Assessment: Low

1. About This Procedure

1.1. The procedure covers the ordering of goods and services. It relates to the financial management policy (00300).

2. Risk Assessments / Health & Safety Considerations

2.1. Adherence to this procedure will reduce the risk of fraud and unnecessary expenditure on goods and services for the Force.

3. Procedure
3.1. Purpose
The purpose of this procedure is to ensure that:

3.1.1.

a) all goods and services are ordered by persons with the appropriate authority and recorded with a suitable audit trail b) all correctly authorised official orders for goods and services required by the Force are placed in accordance with Procurement. policies and procedures e.g. using the appointed preferred supplier for stationery or furniture. c) only goods and services required by the Force are ordered d) orders for goods and services are placed with the most appropriate supplier in terms of cost, quality and delivery time e) where appropriate, tenders are invited in accordance with Standing Orders on Contracts. f) deliveries of all goods and services received by the Force are checked and receipted to ensure that they are in accordance with the order and/or contract specification.

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3.2. Ordering Goods
Official orders are to be issued for all goods and services required by the Force with the exceptions of:

3.2.1.

a) items of a recurring nature e.g. rates, gas, electricity, telephone, fuel b) doctors and surgeons fees c) purchases from imprest accounts d) works or services provided under a contract where the requirements of the Code of Practice on Procurement will apply, e) subscriptions and similar services where payment is returned with application or renewal form f) short notice overnight accommodation in hotels (NB pre-booked hotels should be covered by official orders). g) External Training Courses i. where the course is ad hoc in nature and is booked and paid for at the same time, e.g. where single cheque and application are sent at same time. ii. training financed by the External Studies Budget. 3.2.2. Orders may only be authorised in accordance with the eFin authorisation limits as per the eFin user profiles set up by Financial Services Department and the list held by the Creditors Section of the Financial Accounting Department. OCU Commanders and Heads of Departments may authorise amounts up to the limit of their budget provision within agreed policy decisions. All other accounts must be referred to the Director of Finance, the Head of Financial Accounting or the Head of Financial Services, who will be responsible for authorising the payment. It is the responsibility of the budget holder, prior to entering into commitments, to ensure that they are in accordance with Force Policy and comply with Contract Standing Orders and Financial Regulations.

3.2.3.

3.2.4.

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3.3. Conduct of Personnel
Apart from participating in concessionary schemes arranged by staff associations and trade unions for their members, employees must not avail themselves of the services of contractors employed by the Authority for acquiring materials, labour or plant at cost, trade or discounted prices. The risks to the employee and the Force of finding themselves in an embarrassing situation cannot be overemphasized.

3.3.1.

3.4.

Tendering
All goods, services and works over 25,000 are subject to a tendering process as required by the Contract Standing Orders. See separate Procurement site for further details.

3.4.1.

3.5.

Ordering on Efin
Establishments should be using eFin (official purchase orders) to order from external suppliers. Full details of the eFin purchase order process are available in the eFin user manuals on the Force intranet. On occasion it may be necessary to order items by phone, in this situation a purchase order should be produced subsequent to the phone call and the supplier should be sent a copy of the order by fax, or be told the order number with a copy of the order to follow by post, both clearly marked CONFIRMATION OF TELEPHONE ORDER. Telephone orders can only be made to suppliers that are already set up on eFin, to ensure that the supplier has been approved. The procedure for producing purchase orders on eFin involves two appropriately authorised users: an initiator and an authoriser. The same person is unable to initiate and authorise the order. This is designed to ensure segregation of duties. The initiator will type the order into eFin. Once this stage is complete the document will be checked and, if satisfactory, confirmed by the authorising officer. An authorised order will commit the order total against the establishment budget as an outstanding commitment. This commitment will remain against the budget until the goods or services have been paid or the order is completed / cancelled. The commitment will also remain if an invoice is paid and not matched against the order. (See eFin procedures for further details)

3.5.1.

3.5.2.

3.5.3.

3.5.4.

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3.5.5. When raising a purchase order, a delivery address must be completed. This is the location to which suppliers will deliver the goods. Once the order has been confirmed it is to be printed and dispatched to the supplier. A copy should be retained on file to match to the goods received note (GRN), and an additional copy of the order, which will be clearly marked as "COPY" by the system, should be printed and passed to the person who will receive the goods. The order total will be automatically added to your outstanding commitments. If goods are not delivered, the commitment against your budget should be terminated.

3.5.6.

3.5.7.

3.5.8.

3.6.

Emergency Manual Orders

OCU's and major Departments may hold a small stock of manual purchase orders (Requisition Form B) as an emergency supply in case of eFin not being accessible (e.g. contractors required outside of office hours). The Requisition Form B is a controlled document and is to be accounted for in the Controlled Stationery Register. A stock of manual paper requisition forms is held by the Financial Accounting Department. When a manual Requisition Form B has been used, a report or email must be sent to the Financial Accounting Department advising the circumstances surrounding its use and requesting a replacement. In addition, the order should be entered into eFin when access is restored (but not sent unless as a confirmatory order) so that the commitment is entered and the payment can be made when the invoice is received.

3.6.1.

3.6.2.

3.7.

Receipt of Goods
When goods are received they should be checked that they are of the quality and quantity ordered, as specified by the contract, and that the details on the order/advice note are correct. Evidence of these checks should be annotated on the delivery note and passed to the finance team. When the Goods Received Note (GRN) is received by the finance team it should be attached to the order to await the receipt of the invoice.

3.7.1.

3.7.2.

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3.7.3. If the supplier does not issue a GRN then the copy of the order is to be signed, dated and then passed to the local finance team as confirmation of receipt. If an invoice is received before the goods have been delivered the supplier should be notified immediately. Invoices should only be paid where goods have been received. If the conditions of sale printed on the invoice stipulate that non-delivery must be advised in writing then these conditions must be fulfilled, unless it is a contract under which we have agreed particular conditions as part of the specification, in which case those conditions should be complied with. Goods should also be receipted in eFin to facilitate payment to the supplier.

3.7.4.

3.7.5.

3.8.

Payment of Purchase Orders

The payment against a purchase order will amend the outstanding commitment accordingly. A payment can be made on the whole order or part. Payment of creditors is covered in 00307 Procedure Payment of Creditors.

3.8.1.

3.9.

Security
The initiation and authorisation of purchase orders by two separate members of staff is a requirement of Financial Regulations and ensures proper internal control on the order and subsequent payment of goods and services. The sharing of passwords is prohibited, as this will hinder the proper execution of the internal check process. For further details on use of passwords please refer to the Force Information Security Policy (06100).

3.9.1.

3.10. Cost
3.10.1. To aid budget monitoring, and to enable the authoriser to know how much they are authorising, the cost (or, if the exact cost is unavailable at the time, an estimated cost) must be shown on every order.

3.11. Checking of Orders / Payments

3.11.1. When checking purchase orders against payments on the eFin system, it is recommended that the popr37 outstanding orders screen is used. Popr37 should be run periodically and certainly

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before the year-end scheduled creditors are generated, to show all orders with uncleared lines.

3.12. Efin Payment Procedures

3.12.1. Full details of how to process purchase orders are available in the EFin user manuals. To summarise, the authorisation of an invoice for payment requires a number of steps:

a) If the invoice is in respect of goods or services for which an order has not been raised in EFin, enter the invoice on the Invoice Register to ensure there is an audit trail when the invoice is passed to an authoriser for manual authorisation. b) Manually match the invoice received to the finance copy of the order/GRN if all correct then create a batch of invoices for payment. c) If the invoice is in respect of goods or services for which an order has been raised in eFin, the invoice must be matched against the order in Invoice and Credit Note Entry ACTS035 (shortcut ACT35) d) The batch must then be authorised so that the individual invoices can be processed for payment.

3.13. Payment without an Order

3.13.1. The Invoice Entry ACTS035 screen is used for invoice and credit note entry where an invoice/credit note is received for which no order has been placed using eFin. In this case the screen is accessed via the Purchase Ledger / Invoice and Credit Note entry screen. Please see the eFin user guide for details of how to use this screen

3.14. Tranman Purchase Orders (Transport Department Only)

3.14.1. Orders can be raised directly through the Tranman system for the purchase of stock items and for the requisition of work to be undertaken. Each order is automatically issued a unique order number from the Tranman system Where telephone orders are placed the supplier should be sent a copy of the order by fax, or be told the order number with a copy of the order to follow by post, both clearly marked CONFIRMATION OF TELEPHONE ORDER.

3.14.2.

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3.14.3. Each order needs to show the name and address of the supplier, delivery address, contact name and telephone number, full details of goods being ordered (including any technical specifications and/or relevant standards, quality standards). If the item price is available please enter this and calculate the total cost as well if more than one item is being purchased for comparison to the invoice. If the item price is not available estimate the expected price and clearly mark as estimated. The order should be raised and signed as requisitioning officer, with the order authorised by the appropriate officer. There must be two different signatures on all orders i.e. the authorising officer must be different from the requisition officer. All orders must be authorised by approved signatories, as per the signatory list held by Creditors Section, Financial Accounting Department. A Goods Received Note should be entered onto the Tranman system to match up to each order issued. If an order has been cancelled the appropriate entry must be made on the system, with a copy of the cancellation to be maintained on file.

3.14.4.

3.14.5.

3.14.6.

4. Roles and Responsibilities

4.1. It is the responsibility of all staff to ensure compliance with this procedure.

5. Administration
5.1. All relevant financial documents are to be held for four years from the date of the transaction.

6. Monitoring / Evaluation
6.1. The procedure will be monitored by the Financial Accounting Department. Assurance will be gained through Internal Audit and self inspection checks carried out by local staff.

7. Review
7.1. The procedure will be formally reviewed every three years by the Head of Financial Accounting.

00306 PROCEDURE RAISING ORDERS 8. Related Polices and Procedures

8.1. Related Policies
00300 Policy - Financial Management

8.1.1.

8.2.

Related Procedures
00307 Procedure - Payment of Creditors 00310 Procedure - Audit

8.2.1. 8.2.2.

8.3.

Other Information Sources

Hampshire Police Authority Financial Regulations and Contract Standing Orders. AD203 Equality Impact Assessment Finance

8.3.1.

8.3.2. Origin: