Agenda - Council Work Session - 07/25/2017

Home

The City of Ramsey uses various processes in making payments for goods and services. (1) Standard purchase orders. Purchase orders are used when required by the vendor to acknowledge the city's request for goods and services. A copy of the purchase order will be sent to the vendor when requested. a. Obtain purchase order numbers from finance department. b. The completed purchase order will be attached when invoice is received and submitted to respective department to authorize payment. (2) Check requests/immediate pay. The finance department policy is for bills to be paid from the accounts payable bills list submitted bi-weekly to city council for approval. For certain exceptions, check requests/immediate pay may be used under the following guidelines: a. Immediate pay is for payments that need to be made prior to council meeting approval date. Such items include taking advantage of discounts, avoiding late charges, purchases requiring payment with order, etc. b. Immediate pay checks will be issued upon one day notice. Exceptions to the one day notice is for investments and emergency purchases. c. Checks will be issued, mailed, or returned to appropriate department. Invoices. Invoices, purchase order, or expense reimbursement forms must be returned to the finance department with proper authorization and account coding to be processed on the bills list for city council approval. (4) Account coding. All requests for payment including invoices, check request, purchase order, or expense reimbursement forms must have an eight digit code to process payment. Responsible department head will indicate the fund/department and object number from which payment will be expensed. Reference should be made to departmental budget(s) for department and object numbers. (3) (5) Petty cash. a. Receptionist shall be the custodian of the petty cash. b. Petty cash shall not exceed $100.00. c. Used for reimbursement to employees for items $20.00 or less for expenditures made on behalf of the city. d. Receipt and/or expense reimbursement form must be submitted with proper departmental authorization obtained prior to reimbursement. (6) Payment processing. a. Invoices, check request, purchase orders or employee expense reimbursement forms must be submitted to the finance department. b. Detailed receipts, stating reason for public purpose expenditure, must be submitted with employee expense reimbursement forms. c. Immediate pays are due to the finance department at least one day in advance of the payment day. d. Department heads must have fund/department and object codes to process payment. Refer to departmental line item budget for proper coding. e. Checks may not be made out to cash or bearer. (7) Electronic funds transfer. Electronic funds transfer may be required in some cases to complete a business transaction. The funds are transferred electronically between the city's bank account and the respective business party's bank account. Page 8