UBCO Finance News

Accounts Payable Update – Okanagan Campus

To keep us all moving forward, and to support our teams across campus, Finance is amending our business processes to accommodate social distancing protocols, and increased working from home.  The amended processes will be in effect as needed, currently anticipated to be on a pilot basis, as follows:

• Accepting email approvals for invoices and expenses
• Accepting photos or scanned copies of supporting documentation (i.e. receipts)
• Planning for a higher volume of year end accruals

Accepting Email Approvals for Invoices and Expenses & Scanned or Photo Supporting Documentation

We are now accepting approvals for invoices and expenses via email. Please share the following process with your teams as necessary.

• Complete the electronic form online (Qreq or TReq) and save. The forms are available at https://finance.ubc.ca/forms under QReq or TReq.
• Scan or take a picture of all supporting documents.   Convert the supporting documentation to PDF.  (Instructions can be found at:  https://www.wikihow.com/Convert-JPG-to-PDF)
• The original paper document will have to be retained by the department, and if required later for audit purposes will need to be produced
• Copy the completed requisition form (QReq or TReq) and supporting PDF documents into an email
• Route the email to the appropriate individual for approval(s)
• Ask each approver to give their authorization via email, with the following information clearly stated by the approver in their email (this will be required for Accounts Payable to process your request)

• • State “OK to pay”
  • Payee name____________________
  • Requisition or PO #______________
  • Total Transaction Amount (incl taxes)_______________________

• Multiple transactions may be approved in one email as long as the above items are present and it is clear as to what has been approved.  References to this key information (i.e. “per attached” or “see below”) are unfortunately not sufficient.
• The approved transaction can then be sent to Accounts Payable at UBCO.AccountsPayable@ubc.ca.

JVs

We are now accepting approved JVs via email. Please share the following process with your teams as necessary.

• Complete the JV as usual
• Route the email to the appropriate individual for approval(s)
• Ask each approver to give their authorization via email, with the following information clearly stated by the approver in their email (this will be required for Accounts Payable to process your request)

• • State “approved” in the email
  • It should be clear that the approval has come from the appropriate person (i.e. the approval should not be forwarded multiple times and should not be buried in a message)

• Separate emails for each approved JV are requested. References to this key information (i.e. “per attached” or “see below”) are unfortunately not sufficient.
• Each approved JV can then be sent to Accounts Payable at UBCO.AccountsPayable@ubc.ca
• The original paper document will have to be retained by the department, and if required later for audit purposes will need to be produced

This process will only be in place for items approved by email that are received during the pilot period.   We anticipate the pilot period will be in effect until year end, however, due to COVID-19 may continue longer to accommodate people working from home.  Upon expiration of that period, we will revert to our current processes and any transactions received for processing must have a physical signature as per standard UBC policy.

Thank you for your continued support and patience at this time, as we navigate these challenging waters. We will continue to provide you with updates as new information becomes available.  If you have any questions about the information above, please email finance.ubco@ubc.a