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502.1.2 Domestic Payment Options

General Requirements

The Senior Accountant is responsible for ensuring that:

• cheques are signed only by officers empowered to do so as recorded in the Register of Bank Accounts and Signatories;

• there are sufficient funds at bank to meet payment;

• the payment is despatched directly to the payee, or to a bank account nominated by the payee;

• each transaction for which a payment has been drawn has systems status of paid;

• all paid claims and related documentation are properly archived; and

• the points system requirements of banks for all new cheque signatories are met.

Signatories, University Payments

Cheques drawn against University bank accounts may be signed only by officers so empowered. The schedule of University bank account signatories operates under the authority of the Council.

Finance Committee has approved that, subject to audit concurrence, mechanical cheque signing be used for all computer drawn cheques and that the authorised signing officer be the Chief Accountant.

Centralised and exclusive control is exercised by the Division of Finance and Accounting over all payment activities including the:

• issue and dispatch of all payments, whether by systems driven processing or by manual means;

• obtaining signatures to cheques and drafts;

• control of cancellation procedures; and

• monitoring and reconciling cheque, EFT, Draft and Telegraphic Transfer usage.

Payments are produced by the Accounts Payable System to pay amounts owing by the University to its creditors. Only claims which have been authorised, verified, posted to the ledger, and are due for payment are assigned to payment production. The due date for payment is calculated automatically by the system, but can be overridden.

For all claims that are posted to the ledger and are due for payment to a creditor, one payment is produced for that creditor during a regular cheque run. A payment remittance advice for each creditor, detailing the transactions and adjustments comprising the payment amount, is printed concurrently with the cheque, but separately for drafts and EFTs. EFT remittances may be automatically faxed or produced as paper copy for mailing if no fax number is available. Remittances are not sent for telegraphic transfer.

At the end of a payment run, a special attention report is produced detailing those payments requiring action such as the attachment of documents, collection of cheques/drafts, or cashing (for staff, official visitors, or the purchase of bank drafts for fixed Australian dollar amounts).

EFT Payments

Bank Account Number

the account number consists of only numeric characters with a maximum of 9 numbers. Blank forms, to be used where possible to obtain bank account details for new vendors, are available from the Finance and Business Manual. These forms allow authorisation of direct crediting of the creditor’s bank account and should be forwarded to Finance and Business Services for retention.

BSB (Bank State Branch) Number

This is the bank-state-branch number and consists of 6 numbers. All 6 numbers must be entered with no spaces.

Advantages of EFT

• Cleared funds available for vendor the next day

• No postage if the remittance is faxed to the vendor

• Lower transaction costs for ANU

Remittance advice slips provided for EFT payments (excluding ANU employees)

Once the EFT has been sent, it cannot be recalled. If it does not reach its destination, it will be returned by the bank, investigated by Ledgers, then resent with the correct details.

Related Sites

Telegraphic Transfers

Cheque Presentation, Stop Payment, Voiding Payment

Approval and Preparation of Accounts for Payment

Urgent Manual Cheque/EFT Payments