Accounts Payable FAQs: Vendor Setup and Management

The vendor records are being cleaned up to remove duplicate records and duplicate addresses.  The goal is to have a single vendor record per Federal Tax ID instead of numerous records associated with a single Federal Tax ID.  This is being completed to ensure vendor record information is accurate, decrease opportunities for errors with payments, and also to help vendors set up EFT.

You can redirect the vendor to ColoradoVSS (http://colorado.gov/vss) to register. You may also contact your department-appointed CORE VCC Entry person, or your Department Controller's office.

If the vendor is not a registered VSS user, the department should refer to CAVO's VCUST job aids or request that the addition or change be completed by the OSC, Central Accounting and Vendor Operations (CAVO).  For further questions on how to process a vendor address addition or change, please email the State_centralapproval@state.co.us help desk. 

The approval for the update usually depends on when the vendor has updated their address. Any changes made to a VSS account on the VCUST record won't be processed until the next batch cycle.  This batch cycle usually happens hourly.

The Prevent Spending flag is added to the vendor account by Central Accounting and Vendor Operations (CAVO).  CAVO adds this flag when there is an address that they would like to remove.  The Prevent New Spending flag prevents new encumbrances using the address.  Once existing encumbrances are completed, CAVO will delete the address. You will want to use a different address ID.

You will have to wait until the hourly batch processing has been completed.  After the batch processing has been completed, the updated address has to be approved by Central Accounting and Vendor Operations (CAVO) and then go through another batch processing before the update is shown in CORE.  This process can take several hours; you will want to check with the vendor and ask when they made the update.  

Note:  Please keep in mind that the batch job completion times are estimates only and will vary on the total amount of data that is submitted for processing in a given cycle.  The schedule may also be adjusted over time based on volume or other factors.

Departments will create vendor or customer records.  To set up a new vendor or customer in CORE, contact your department-appointed CORE VCC Entry person or your Department Controller's office.  Vendors may also register through ColoradoVSS to set up and modify their vendor account.

Per the Vendor Customer Creation Policy, Cabinets will be allowed to have 2 employees assigned the security role to create new vendors. Exceptions can be granted for large Cabinets and Cabinets that have non-centralized locations. These employees must have passed, at minimum, a criminal background check within the last year or upon hiring by your Department before being granted this security.

To reduce the cost to the State, Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) should be used for payment rather than a warrant whenever possible.  All EFT data will be set up at a central level but verified by the Department with the vendor to reduce the risk of fraud.

For employee records, the VCUST record number shall be the employee identification number followed by an E (i.e., 9971111111E). 

The registration will add the vendor code to the VCUST table with inactive as the status and create a VCM transaction to activate it.  The vendor will not be immediately activated. The VCM transaction will need approval from the Central Management Unit before the VCUST record can be used for any transactions.  Within three business days, but usually sooner, the status will be updated to "active" or "VSS Rejected/Discontinued".

A TIN is a Taxpayer Identification Number. It can be several different things, with the two most commonly used being the EIN Employer Identification Number or SSN Social Security Number. TIN can refer to either SSN or EIN in the vendor setup process.

TIN Type (either EIN or SSN) must be specified when setting up a vendor. Use the TIN Type indicated on the vendor's W-9. We do TIN matching with the IRS, so whichever the vendor provides gets checked, and a match/no match/TIN not issued flag goes on the account. If a vendor's TIN and name do not match per the IRS, then payments are delayed until the issue is resolved.