FAQs – Accounts payable

Purchase Order-backed invoices must be sent directly to po-invoices@georgetown.edu, and must contain the following pieces of information:

• The supplier’s name
• The date that the invoice was created
• A unique invoice number
• The number of an adequately-funded, Georgetown-issued Purchase Order
• The amount owed for the goods or services listed

Please submit each invoice only once – duplicate submissions are unnecessary, and may delay payment.

Invoices submitted to po-invoices@georgetown.edu will be ingested by our invoice processing system, and, if they contain all of the necessary information, will be processed within a few days. Suppliers can log in to our Supplier Portal, where they can review the status of all processed invoices (as well as view any Purchase Orders and Payments).

Invoices submitted without the necessary information will take longer to process. The most common reasons for a delay in invoice processing are as follows:

• Missing or invalid Purchase Order number
• Closed Purchase Orders
• The supplier’s record is not active

Georgetown’s standard payment terms are net-30 from the date of the invoice. These terms will apply unless alternative terms have been negotiated and memorialized on a Contract or Purchase Order. Please review your Purchase Order document to determine the payment terms that apply to you.

Georgetown offers the following payment methods:

• ACH: Automated Clearing House. An electric payment method for domestic transfer. Preferred for vendors with US bank accounts
• Viewpost – Check: Paper checks issued by Georgetown, printed and mailed daily by our third-party payment partner, Viewpost
• Viewpost – Virtual Card: An optional method of payment provided by our third-party payment partner, Viewpost, to recipients of paper checks. Payees tend to receive these payments fairly quickly, in exchange for a merchant fee. Virtual Cards not processed within 14 days will be closed and the funds sent to the payee via a paper check
• International Wire: Vendors with bank accounts outside of the US will be paid via international wire. Through our payment partner, Flywire, Georgetown is able to send payments to most countries worldwide, in most currencies (some restrictions may apply)
• Domestic Wire: Payments via FedWire are possible, but exceedingly rare. Given the cost of such payments, requests to be paid via Domestic Wire should generally be included in the final terms & conditions signed by both parties

The person who has engaged you to provide goods or services to the University is responsible for ensuring that a Purchase Order is issued prior to the start of any work or fulfillment of any goods order. If engaged to provide goods or services, ask your contact to provide you with a Purchase Order.

All suppliers with access to Georgetown’s Supplier Portal will receive copies of any issued Purchase Order via email – to all email addresses on file for the supplier record.

Georgetown settles most “ready-to-pay” invoices on a daily basis, starting at 8:30am. An invoice is “ready-to-pay” when the following conditions are met:

• The invoice is approved
• The invoice is due
• The invoice is not in Match Exception
• The supplier is active
• The invoice has not been placed on an administrative hold
• The supplier does not have an outstanding debt to the University

Once all of these conditions are met, the invoice will be settled and payment issued with the next settlement run (which typically will be the very next business day, if these conditions are met after 8:30am)

All PO-backed invoices are subject to a matching process that compares:

• The extended amount of each invoice line
• The remaining extended amount balance of the PO line to which the invoice line is attached
• The amount of all receipts on the PO line (subject to certain thresholds)

In essence, the matching process ensures that the invoice amount is within the amount approved for the engagement in question (as detailed on the PO), and (in certain cases) that a Georgetown employee has verified the receipt of the goods or services in question.

A match exception will clear when one of the following occurs:

• The invoice is applied to a sufficiently-funded and properly-constructed PO line
• Sufficient receipts are created (if required)

Receipts are not created by Accounts Payable; they are created by procurement personnel and/or departmental personnel.

Georgetown attempts to settle invoices in a fashion that will result in the funds being received on the invoice’s due-date (assuming that the invoices are “ready-to-pay” prior to the due-date). Once an invoice has been settled, and a payment issued, the estimated timeframes for the payment to reach the payee are as follows:

• ACH: 1-3 business days
• Check: 3-5 business days
• Virtual Card: 1 business day
• Domestic Wire: Same day
• International Wire: 5-10 business days

For new international registrants, upon specifying that you are a non-US person, you will be asked to identify the currency in which you wish to be paid. For most payees, this will be a choice between USD and the local currency of the country in which the beneficiary bank is located.

For existing suppliers, if you need to make an update to the currency in which you wish to be paid, please email SupplierCare@Georgetown.edu.

Please be sure that your invoices are denominated in the same currency as is specified on your Purchase Order.

Georgetown does not charge any fees to pay suppliers for any payment method. That being said, there are a few occasions that may lead to a supplier receiving a payment that differs from the nominal amount of their invoice:

• The supplier has elected to receive payment via a Virtual Card from a third-party payment processor, Viewpost; such payments are subject to merchant fees (as are all credit card payments)
• The supplier has requested to be paid in a specific non-USD currency, but their Purchase Order and invoices are denominated in a different currency. When such a situation occurs, payment must be converted into the supplier’s preferred currency at the prevailing rates. This can be avoided if the Purchase Order and all invoices are denominated in the supplier’s preferred currency