Vendor Invoicing

All university departments have the authority to purchase goods and/or services subject to established spending limits.

Direct Vendor Invoicing

Departments may use their spending authority to purchase goods or services valued at $5,000 or less directly from a vendor and have an invoice sent to Accounts Payable, if the vendor does not accept the university Visa procurement card. The vendor must be given the department name and the cost center or grant number to be charged and must be instructed to send the invoice directly to the Stratus Payables email, .

If the department receives an invoice directly from a vendor, it is critical that the invoice be forwarded to  as quickly as possible so that it can be sent out for account coding.

If you receive an invoice with issues, call the vendor immediately to dispute the issue. Fully document any invoice dispute by making note of the reason for the dispute and the potential date of resolution on the invoice.

Departments have five days from the day they receive an invoice to review, add account coding (if applicable), approve and return to Accounts Payable for processing. Going over five days can cause the invoice to become late, affecting the university's delayed invoice rate. If you plan to be out of the office, please make sure to set up your Out of Office Delegate/Reassign Approvals rule in Stratus and delegate someone to approve on your behalf while you are away so that invoices sent to you are not delayed.

If the invoice does not belong to your department, return/forward the invoice to Accounts Payable or the correct department immediately.

Purchase Order Invoicing

Requisitions and purchase orders go onto the departmental budgets as open commitments of funding set aside for goods and/or services being purchased for the department. When a purchase order is utilized to buy goods and/or services, the resulting invoice is processed differently than invoices from direct purchases.

The purchase order remains on the departmental budget with the encumbrance amount being reduced as each payment is made by Accounts Payable.

Requisitions should be submitted prior to the required dates for both goods and services. Once you have a purchase order issued by Procurement, the vendor should reference the issued Purchase Order number on any invoices pertaining to that purchase and submit to . The department must verify the good or service is satisfactory by entering receiving in the system. The Accounts Payable Office pays these invoices based on the three-way match between the invoice, the purchase order, and the system receiving date.

Please note that if AP receives an invoice before the Purchase Order is received, the invoice will go on hold until receiving has been entered. If AP processes an invoice against a PO that has not been received, the requestor who entered the requisition will receive a notification that a Purchase Order requires receipt confirmation. The invoice will not be paid until receiving has been entered into the system.

  • Each invoice paid reduces the amount of money left in the contract.
  • Once out of money, invoices cannot be processed until additional funds are added to the contract.
  • The department must contact the Procurement Office (410-704-2171) to request a 'change order' to add more money to the contract.
  • For more information on Requisitions, Purchase Orders, and Receiving, please visit the Procurement Training & Resources page.

Invoices Routed from Accounts Payable Office

Vendor invoices should be sent directly to Stratus Payables at 

When an invoice is emailed to Stratus Payables and received by the Accounts Payable Office, it will either be matched to a PO, or it will need account coding. If an invoice is not automatically matched to a PO - the AP office will add the name of a requestor, the individual the invoice belongs to, and send it out to that individual to add coding information. Once account coding is added to the invoice and all proper approvals are in place, it will be returned to the AP office for final review and approval.

  1. Make sure the invoice belongs to your department. If it does not, please return it back to the Accounts Payable Office.
  2. Verify that the goods/services have been received and that the billing amount is correct.
    1. Call the vendor if you note any discrepancies.
    2. If settling a discrepancy will cause a delay in processing the invoice, indicate the issue on the invoice or attach appropriate documentation and indicate approximate date of resolution.
  3. If the invoice is 'ok to pay', complete the invoice coding or add your approval. Invoices must be approved by both the Cost Center Manager(s) and Financial Steward(s) for each cost center entered on the invoice, regardless of dollar amount.

Turnaround timeframe - all invoices must be handled promptly. Timely payment of vendor payments is a high priority of the State Comptroller's Office who, along with USM monitor and report late invoice statistics. Delayed payments are closely reviewed, and agencies are held accountable for late payments exceeding one percent of total volume processed. The State Comptroller's Office requires that invoices be processed and transmitted to the state for payment within 25 calendar days, resulting in a very tight five-day turnaround timeframe between Accounts Payable and the campus departments.

Invoice Account Coding

Stratus invoice account coding

Why is Account Coding Necessary?

The invoice account coding summarizes all the important information regarding payment of the invoice. Account coding identifies the source and cost center where the expenditure will be charged, as well as the account number.

To learn how to add account coding to an invoice in Stratus, please see the Stratus Training page.

Description of Distribution Combination Fields

  1. Alias: Cost center or grant project ID used to bring in Chart of Account string onto transactions. To learn how to use the Alias feature in Stratus, see the Stratus Training page.
  2. Source: funding source tied to the cost center.
  3. Cost Center: the five-digit cost center number where the expenditure is to be charged.
  4. Account: the six-digit account number that classifies the type of expense.
  5. Initiative: the five-digit initiative number used to track expenses related to a specific activity within a department.
  6. Objective: the University Objective segment is used to track specific revenues and expenses of university-wide activities related to the university strategic goals.
  7. Future Use: a segment reserved for potential future functionality.
  8. Interfund: the Interfund segment provides the offsetting transactions that are needed when activities cross Source so that Source can be the balancing segment.

Distribution combination fields 5 through 8 will default to all zeros.

To learn more about the Stratus Chart of Accounts, see the Stratus Training page.

Approvals

All invoices regardless of amount will require approval by the Cost Center Manager and the Financial Steward.

  • Cost Center Manager: approver in the Stratus workflow and responsible for performing daily tasks associated with the cost center.
  • Financial Steward: approver in the Stratus workflow and responsible for all transactions, reconciliations and balances posting to a cost center​; provides fiscal accountability.

For any questions or concerns about the Financial Steward or Cost Center Manager for a given cost center, please contact the .

The Accounts Payable Process Overview

Review

Once invoice coding is completed and the invoice is approved by the Cost Center Manager and Financial Steward, the invoice is received by the Accounts Payable Office in Stratus Payables where each document is reviewed to assure account coding is properly completed, the appropriate approvals are in place, and any supporting documentation is attached.

Processed

Invoices are sorted and assigned to an account clerk who reviews the invoice information entered on the distribution combination of each invoice. The invoices are charged to the cost center or grant as indicated on the distribution combination except for purchase order commodity invoices that are charged to the cost center or grant designated on the purchase order.

The financial system generates a payment data file that is electronically transmitted to the General Accounting Division (GAD) in Annapolis. Each invoice and all supporting documentation is forwarded to GAD following the electronic file submission. A copy of each document is maintained on file in the university's financial cloud system.

Payment

The Annapolis General Accounting Office audits each invoice and reviews supporting documentation. Payment data is then transmitted to the State's Treasurer's Office where payment is generated to the vendor.

Reporting

Reports are available in Stratus of all activity posted to each cost center. For information on running these reports, review the training materials on the Financial Systems training page or contact the .