To introduce a new report - Check Payments To ACH Enrollees (VOU081) - explain its purpose and provide instructions on its use.

Currently the Central Accounting System (CAS) automatically initiates electronic payments over the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network for over 1,100 vendors who have specifically requested this payment option. While this process does not require special voucher coding by agencies, it does require that the voucher address match the address on the CAS Payee Name and Address (PNA) file. The CAS uses the voucher information and postal approved software to generate Zip Plus 4 codes. Payee ID and Zip Plus 4 combinations that match the CAS PNA will result in ACH payments.

Recent analysis of ACH vendor transactions has revealed that many paper checks are being printed for vendors who have requested electronic payment. To reduce the number of checks sent to vendors participating in the Electronic Payments program, agency vouchers must contain Payee ID's, Names and Addresses identical to those on the CAS PNA file.

To assist agencies in identifying the addresses they have used that result in checks being printed for ACH vendors, OSC has developed a new report, Check Payments to ACH Enrollees (VOU081), that will be transmitted to agencies daily. (See attached exhibit.) For each payment to an electronic payments vendor that could not be sent via ACH, the report will show the corresponding CAS PNA file information and the voucher payment information.

Agencies should review the report and take the following actions for each entry on the report:

• If the payee name and address stored in your agency system is different from the payee name and address listed in the Payee Name /Address File column, change the name and address in your system to match exactly the data in the Payee Name/Address column. For example:
  
  • The first entry on the attached report exhibit requires "9th Floor" to be abbreviated and to be entered after "25 Broadway" on the first address line.
  • The second entry should not have "County Area Inc." on the first address line. Instead, "2331 Fifth Ave" should appear on the first address line.
  • The fourth entry should have "PO Box 470" on the first address line, and "44 West Main Street" should be omitted.
    
• For payee names and addresses that are entered from invoices, take the necessary steps to ensure that you use the name and address that matches the address in the Payee Name/Address File column, regardless of the vendor 'remit to' address.
  
• Please note that the CAS PNA file contains the payment 'remit to' name and address specified by the vendor on the Electronic Payments Application form.
  
• The Easy Contract Payment and Scheduled Contract Payment functions in the CAS use the address stored in the CAS Contract Master file rather than the PNA file. If your voucher payment on the VOU081 was generated from one of these processes, please consider changing the contract address to match the ACH vendor address in the Payee Name/Address File column on the VOU081. Contract address changes must be processed on an AC340, audit approved by OSC, and must not violate the payment terms in the contract.

Payee ID Numbers - All vendor ID's for ACH payments are stored in the CAS Payee Name and Address file which can be accessed by logging into the CAS Inquiry Menu 016 and selecting Conversation 020 - Payee Name & Address Inquiry. The conversation has full and partial key Payee ID field lookup capability.

Reference/Invoice Number - Use this voucher field to provide accurate, meaningful information (e.g. account number, invoice number) to the vendor so payments are credited correctly. Failure to do so could delay the proper crediting of not only your payment but also the payments from the multiple agencies that may be included in a combined payment.

The OSC website address explaining the electronic payment program for vendors is: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/epay/index.htm

The OSC Payment Information Inquiry website for state agencies and payees is: https://wwe1.osc.state.ny.us/pay

Direct questions on this bulletin to the Bureau of Accounting Operations, Warrant Control Unit epunit@osc.state.ny.us or (518) 474-4032.