Penn Marketplace’s supplier portal has been in place for over a year, and more and more suppliers are adopting the additional tools and invoicing the University directly. With the transition to more automated processes, centralized processing, and common payable practices, Penn is adjusting payment to suppliers based on invoice receipt date.
As of October 1, 2019, the timing of payments made to suppliers will be based on when an invoice is received and entered in Accounts Payable. As was previously communicated with the suppliers and within Penn, this transition is applicable regardless of whether payment terms are Immediate, Net10, Net 30, or Net 45. For those suppliers following best practice and using Penn’s supplier portal, the invoice date, and invoice receipt date are essentially the same; therefore, it will be seamless to those suppliers.
This change also does not affect suppliers/payees who are individuals currently paid on Immediate terms and the timing of their payments will not be impacted by this transition. Furthermore, those suppliers that have been onboarded since the launch of the supplier portal are already on receipt-date timing.
Those suppliers most impacted by this change will be those businesses that continue to mail invoices to Penn. Time will be added to their end-to-end invoice-to-payment cycle, particularly if there is a delay in moving the invoice through the physical receipt and approval process. This change will help drive direct, electronic invoicing, while also eliminating excessively early payments to those suppliers that back-date invoices to expedite payment.
Additional communications will be sent to suppliers, and should you field any questions or concerns from suppliers or payees with whom you do business, please direct those inquiries to SupplierSupport@upenn.edu.
Penn Procurement Services