Prompt Payment – Comptroller Policy
Submitting Due Dates
Agencies must submit each payment’s due date to the Comptroller’s office:
- Only one payment due date, one vendor and one invoice number can exist for each payment transaction.
- Agencies can combine transactions if the transactions are not subject to the prompt payment law AND the payments are due at the same time (i.e. transactions have the same payment due date).
- An agency must accurately document the date that it first receives an invoice. This is true regardless of any mailing instructions given to the vendor through a purchasing agreement or any other means. Emailed invoices are considered received when the email is received; if receipt occurs after business hours, it is considered received the next business day. For proof of receipt date, maintain the email as part of your documentation.
Agencies are responsible for ensuring that each payment is treated correctly in the Uniform Statewide Accounting System (USAS) in respect to the prompt payment law. Agencies are solely responsible for correctly entering computed payment due dates into USAS.
For the purpose of interest computation and payment, the Comptroller's office considers a payment to be late if the payment is distributed after the payment's due date. For each payment transaction, USAS will compare the payment due date and the payment distribution date to determine whether a payment is late. The Comptroller's office considers a payment distributed when:
- A direct deposit transaction is available to be transmitted from the Comptroller's office, or
- A warrant is available at the Comptroller's office for distribution.
Note: Agencies should remember that payments due on weekends or state holidays need to be submitted into USAS two business days before the weekend or the holiday so that distribution will be on time. Do not alter any due dates.
See also: Payment Due Date and Requested Payment Date
Definitions
- Payment
- Money owed to a vendor.
- Prompt payment law
- Chapter 2251, Government Code.
- State agency
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- A board, commission, department, office or other agency in the executive branch of state government created by the constitution or a statute of this state, including an institution of higher education as defined by Texas Education Code Section 61.003.
- The Legislature or a legislative agency.
- The Supreme Court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, a court of appeals, a state judicial agency or the State Bar of Texas.
- Vendor
- A person who supplies goods or a service to a state agency or another person directed by the agency. The term does not include a state agency, except for Texas Correctional Industries. The term includes an officer or employee of a state agency when acting in a private capacity to supply goods or a service.