Vendor Payment Help

How do I begin a search for vendor payment summaries? You can make an entry or selection in one, two or three of the search items.  The following are examples of some of the possible combinations: Type a name in the vendor name box and leave the other two boxes set to 'All'.  This will show you all the activity for the City and County with that vendor. Leave the vendor name box blank, select Airport and Port in the Departments list, and leave the Types of Goods and Services list set to 'All'.  This will show you payments for all vendors and all types of goods and services for these two departments. Leave the vendor name box blank, leave the Department list set to 'All', and select Fuels and Lubricants in the Types of Goods and Services list.  This will show you all vendors and all departments with payments for fuels and lubricants. Make entries in all three boxes.  For example, enter ‘I B M Corp’ in the vendor name box, select Telecommunications & Information Services from the Departments list, and select 'Maintenance Svcs-Equipment' from the Types of Goods and Services list.  This will take you directly to the lowest level of detail for that combination of items. How do I refine my search? For Vendor Name Searches: Typing IBM Corporation in the Vendor Name field does not return any data because the name is stored as I B M Corp. Type the first few letters to broaden your search. Type as many as you are sure of.  Typing I will return any vendor name beginning with I; you can then scroll through the list to find I B M Corp and I B M Global Services.  Typing I B would find vendor names like I B I Group and I B M Corp while limiting the number of names substantially. Use asterisks before a partial name.  Typing *healthcare will find any vendor name with healthcare at the beginning, end, or anywhere in the middle. For Department and Goods and Services Searches: Select one or more items from the list. To select a range of items, select the first item, hold the shift key down, the select the last item. To select multiple items that are not next to each other, hold the control key down while clicking multiple items. Helpful Hints: Click the reset button to clear any search criteria you have entered. Don't accidentally select 'All' for Departments or Goods or Services in addition to other selections for those fields. Don't choose too many things upon which to search (e.g. 20 departments). If you want to see large quantities of data, download a report from the reports page. Please note that while the City attempts to be consistent in identifying payments to types of goods and services, there may be some variation.  There may be more than one acceptable type for a given payment, and departments may have different procedures. Once I retrieve the initial search result, how do I drill down to get more detailed information? Click on any department, type of good or service, or vendor name that is blue and underlined to get more detail on that item. How do I get information on nonprofit vendors? Click on the reports button and select the checkbox for 'Nonprofits Only'. You have a choice of several city-wide reports at various levels of detail. Or you can search for specific vendors with the search option; The result pages will show you whether the vendor is a nonprofit vendor or not. Vendors are classified as nonprofit through the business tax registration process. What does a document number represent? A document is used to post one or more financial transactions into the City’s accounting system, and a number identifies each document. The documents shown on this website are either Encumbrance or Direct Payment documents. Encumbrances set aside City funding for the purchase of specific goods and services from a specific vendor.  One or more payments are made using that funding once the goods and services have been provided by the vendor and accepted by the City. Direct Payments are small or non-recurring payments that do not require an encumbrance. What do the different columns represent? The three payment columns for the current and two prior fiscal years show the total payments made to vendors during that fiscal year. The In Process column under Payments represents payments that have been requested but not yet paid. The Remaining Balance column is the unused portion of an encumbrance document.   Example of Columns for Encumbrances: Assume the Water Department is buying $10,000 worth of widgets from vendor A in two groups.  First an encumbrance document would be created for $10,000; at this point the remaining balance column would show $10,000. The vendor delivers $4,000 worth of widgets, so the Water Department requests a payment of $4,000 against the encumbrance.  Now the remaining balance would be $6,000 and payments in process would show $4,000. A few days later, the check or electronic payment is issued to the vendor.  The remaining balance is still $6,000, but “payments in process” becomes zero and “current year payments” shows $4,000. Example of Columns for Direct Payments: Assume the Water Department is paying $95 to fix a fax machine.  Once a direct payment request has been approved and posted into the system, the “Payments In Process” column will show $95. Once the check or electronic payment has been issued, “Payments In Process” will be $0 and the current year Payments column will show the $95. Activity related to a direct payment will never appear in the “Remaining Balance” column. Why would I see a vendor appearing more than once? The database groups vendors by the 40 character vendor name field, but if one department uses Pacific Co and another uses Pacific Co. each will appear as a separate entry.  We are trying to reduce the number of multiple vendor names in the accounting and purchasing system through revised procedures.   Why would there be a negative payment or remaining balance? A negative amount could be a correction of a previous payment, or the result of an incorrect entry that hasn’t been corrected yet. How do I save my search result so I can use it later? Use the following instructions, or view a demonstration. On the toolbar just above the search result, click the arrow at the right of the list box with the text “select a format”.  Select either Acrobat (PDF) File or CSV (comma separated values) and click Export (this appears just to the right of the list box).  Use CSV if you want to open your file in Excel or other spreadsheet program. Click save on the "File Download" box, then select the file location and name you want and click save on the "Save As" box.  When it is finished, click the close button on the "Download Complete" box.  You may also have to close an extra, blank window that does not close automatically by clicking the "X " in the upper left corner of that blank window. What format should I use when I save my search result or download a report? PDF (Portable Document Format) can be viewed and printed with the free viewing software that you can download from the Adobe website if you don’t already have it. Choose PDF format if you don’t want to reformat the information.  You can email PDF files to someone and they will be able to view or print the search result or standard report that you created from the website. To create a file with rows and columns suitable for , choose the CSV option and use the "File, Open" menu choice in Excel to start the Text Import Wizard which will put it into Excel format. CSV (Comma Separated Values) is a commonly used file format that can be used with most spreadsheet and database programs, and also with other less commonly used software.  It uses a specially coded comma to separate each column of information. You would want to use this format if you want to use Excel or another spreadsheet program to sort, sub-total, and filter the data. How do I import the CSV (Comma Separated Values ) file I exported from the website? Each program may behave somewhat differently.  Typically you will select a function like File Open or File Import to start a “wizard” process that will lead you through the required steps.  Consult the help function of the program you are using for details, or view a demonstration  of how this works in Excel. Why does the HTML/browser view not look correct? This website has been designed for Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 6 or higher and the application may not function properly with other browsers.  If you do not have Internet Explorer, it can be downloaded for free from Microsoft's Web Site at http://www.microsoft.com.