Invoices, and what a questioned cost stops

This page is for anybody who records an invoice against a grant, and for
suppliers waiting to be paid. It explains the step between "we promised
to buy this" and "we paid for it", and the one thing that stops it.

An order is not an invoice

Holding budget, raising a purchase order and recording an invoice are
three separate records. The money moves between them; it is never
counted twice.

• Reserved. Budget is held for a request. Nobody has promised anything to anybody outside LEAT.
• Committed. A purchase order, contract or subaward now stands behind it.
• Obligated. A specific invoice, accrual or payroll charge has been recognised against that order.
• Actual. The expense has been posted to the books.

A payment is prepared against an obligation. Until an invoice is
recorded, there is nothing to pay.

An invoice cannot exceed the order

If an invoice comes in above the order it is refused, and it names the
amount left. The order has to be varied first. That is a decision
somebody makes, not one an invoice makes on their behalf.

The same invoice cannot be recorded twice

The same reference from the same supplier for the same amount is refused
by the database, not by a search. Two people entering the same invoice
at the same moment is exactly how a supplier gets paid twice, and a
search would let both through.

If you meant to record a genuinely separate second invoice, give it its
own reference.

What a questioned cost is

A questioned cost is one somebody has challenged: a donor, an auditor or
Finance. Marking it questioned does not delete it or reverse anything. It
does two things:

• it stops the cost being prepared for payment; and
• it stops the cost being posted as an expense.

It also counts against the award at closeout. An award cannot close
clean while one is open.

Clearing a question takes a second person

Whoever raised the question cannot be the one who clears it, and clearing
it needs a written resolution. Both the original question and the
resolution stay on the record for ever.

A questioned cost that quietly disappeared would be the audit finding.

Tax and withholding are not a discount

The gross, the tax and the withholding are recorded separately and the
net follows from them. What is withheld is money LEAT owes a revenue
authority, and it appears on the books as that rather than as a smaller
payment.