Accounts Payable

Helpful Resources

• What fund can you use? (University Funds Overview)
• What account should you use? (Frequently used OE Accounts)
• Hospitality
• How should I use my ProCard? (ProCard Guidelines)

How to Pay

Paying for goods and services may be accomplished in a few ways. Any contract or agreement must be reviewed and signed by Contracts & Procurement, as they have been delegated the authority to sign on behalf of the Trustees and the University.

Please note: Cal Poly Humboldt may not retain current or recently separated (2 years) CSU employees as Independent Contractors. Before services are performed, all requests for independent contractors must pass the Independent Contractor Review Process to determine whether the worker is an independent contractor or an employee. Please visit: https://hraps.humboldt.edu/independent-contractor-review-process before any services/work is performed.

All invoices and payment requests should be emailed as a single PDF attachment, per invoice, to Humboldt.invoices@trustflowds.com. Please do not leave any instructions or approvals in the body of the email as they will not be sent forward to the AP team. No forms, including Adobe Sign, are automatically routed to humboldt.invoices@trustflowds.com on your behalf.

To follow up on the status of your payment, please locate the document in CSUBUY and comment. Weekly trainings for CSUBUY can be found here.

Pre-Approval Required for Prohibited & Restricted Items

Please see the Restricted & Prohibited Items section of the Procurement Card Guidelines to see the university policy, as the same rules apply for direct and reimbursement requests for payment.

Circumventing the procurement policy requires a written justification with approval from your administrator and VP as to why the Procurement process was circumvented.

Option 1. Procurement Card (ProCard) 

The CSU requires low-value purchase transactions be processed in the most effective and efficient manner for the purposes of reducing the costs. Low-value purchases are categorized as commodities less than $5,000, and off-campus services less than $1,000, and should be facilitated through the use of procurement credit cards ("ProCards"). For these low-value procurements, little or no value can be added by processing the transaction through standard procurement procedures. ProCard purchases are almost always preferred over a personal reimbursement. For common commodities please utilize the CSUBUY Shopping portal.

Requirements for ProCard

1. ProCard Application
2. Commodities less than $5,000
3. Off-campus services less than $1,000
4. Approved on campus service providers by the following vendors (no requisition or contract required):
   1. Western Business Products
   2. Shred Aware
   3. Eureka Oxygen
   4. Sequoia Gas Company

Links 

• ProCard Guidelines
• CSUBUY Shopping 
• Hospitality Request Form

Option 2. Commodity & Service with a Purchase Order

A Purchase Order (PO) should be used when a commodity is over $5,000, an off-campus service is over $1,000, or for all on campus services. Anytime there is an associated contract, please email the contract to procure@humboldt.edu for review. To pay an invoice associated with a PO, the person delegated the fiscal authority can write that they approve on the physical invoice and sign, then email the invoice to Humboldt.invoices@trustflowds.com. If the invoice comes directly to AP, the AP team will email you through CSUBUY for approval.

Requirements for Commodities and Services

• Requisition for a Purchase Order (PO)
• Bid thresholds for Goods, and Services

Links

• Payee Data Record Form Std. 204 (new vendor/ update status).
• Facility Management
  • Furniture & Fixture
• Ergonomic Equipment
• For IT purchases (computers, software, equipment, etc.): see the ITAR Procurement Approval Request
• For Independent Contractors: Independent Contractor Review Process

Option 3. Direct Pay – Least Preferred Option

Direct Pay expenditures are payments made against a department's chartfield without the establishment of a Purchase Order, or if the vendor will not accept a ProCard.

Requirements for Direct Pay

1. Should only be used on low-value procurements where the vendor does not accept ProCards
2. Services over $5,000 should be on a PO – no Direct Pay form is necessary with the invoice
3. A Payee Data Record Form Std. 204 form must be collected. Please DO NOT include 204s as attachments when submitting payment requests in CSU Buy. Accounts Payable receives these securely and they are filed separately outside of CSU Buy.
4. Itemized backup documentation must be included
5. A single PDF including the Direct Pay form (one single PDF per email (Max 5MB) should be emailed to Humboldt.invoices@trustflowds.com
   1. To follow-up on payment status, please comment on the document in CSUBUY
6. You may only submit a single invoice per payment request. Do not submit multiple invoices with one payment request form. The system will reject these submittals.

Links

• Payee Data Record Form Std. 204 (new vendor/ update status). Must be on file and approved by AP for any campus payee unless ProCard payment is acceptable by payee and within campus policy
• Direct Pay Form

 Staff

Accounts Payable will be monitoring incoming emails from 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday at accountspayable@Humboldt.edu. For assistance, please call (707) 826-3512 from 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.