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Payment of Invoices to Suppliers
Payment of Invoices to Suppliers – BV8
The target percentage of invoices for commercial goods and services which are paid by the authority within 30 days of such invoices being received by the authority (BV 8) is set by Government. As the targets are much higher than have been achieved by the Council, lower more achievable local targets have been set. This authority has been working from a low actual of 75% in 1999/2000 to a target of 98.8% in 2007/08, this is 1.2% below the Government target of 100%. Since 2003/2004 the Council has achieved a performance well above the top quartile for English authorities.
The following table shows the Authority’s achievement against the local and national targets from 2003/04:
2003/04 | 2004/05 | 2005/06 | 2006/07 | 2007/08 |
|
% | % | % | % | % |
|
| Government Target | 100.00 | 100.00 | 100.00 | 100.00 | 100.00 |
| Top Quartile Actual | 95.90 | 95.97 | 96.71 | 97.00 | N/A |
| North Herts Target | 97.00 | 98.00 | 98.25 | 99.00 | 98.80 |
| North Herts Actual | 96.73 | 98.44 | 99.03 | 98.62 | 99.13 (Feb) |
Since 1999/2000 the rate of improvement is as follows:
| 1999/2000 | 75% | |
| 2000/2001 | 83% | a 8% change in performance |
| 2001/2002 | 88% | a 5% change in performance |
| 2002/2003 | 93% | a 5% change in performance |
| 2003/2004 | 97% | a 4% change in performance |
| 2004/2005 | 98% | a 1% change in performance |
| 2005/2006 | 99% | a 1% change in performance |
| 2006/2007 | 99% |
Since 2003/2004 the Council has achieved a performance well above the top quartile for English Authorities.
Payment of Invoices Direct to Bank (BACS)
In July 2004 the Council introduced the BACS system of payment to suppliers. In 2006/07 we achieved a performance level of 87% of supplier invoices paid by BACS. Over the next year as part of our e-procurement targets the Council intends to increase the number of suppliers paid by BACS to over 95%.
Purchasing Cards
In October 2006, the Council introduced purchasing cards as a method of payment in order to help facilitate both prompt payment and increased quality of service to our suppliers.
The cards enable payments to be made to suppliers at the point of ordering, thus reducing the purchase to pay cycle and contributing towards the Council’s prompt payment targets.
The scheme will be expanded further across the Council in 2007/08 to encourage greater participation from suppliers.