How we pay suppliers

We set out our arrangements for paying suppliers within our contract documents and with any orders that are placed.

We have been committed to paying all suppliers within 30 days of receipt of a correct invoice. More recently however, we have been working hard to reduce this payment period and we currently try to pay our suppliers within 13 days of receipt of invoice.

We monitor all of our payment times.

Help us pay on time

To help us pay your invoice on time we ask that you:

• Submit the invoice in the format agreed in the contract or purchase order
• Quote the order number and contract title
• Address it to the correct officer and location
• Ensure that it adds up correctly
• Include as much information as possible about what payment is for
• Only include requests for payment of supplied goods or services

We make payments by BACS only in order to ensure that payment goes directly into the supplier's bank account.

You can also email your invoice to invoice@oxford.gov.uk. This email address is checked daily and invoices are immediately sent to the correct officer for payment. 

We also use Visa cards to pay for low value frequent purchases. The officer paying the order will advise you if they are able to pay you with a Visa card.

Prompt Payment Code

We are committed to supporting our suppliers fairly and paying them promptly to help suppliers with their cashflow. As part of our commitment we have signed up to the Government Prompt Payment Code.

We are also encouraging our current suppliers to also sign up to this code. More information can be found in the document below:

Prompt Payment Code document (97kB PDF)

Page last reviewed 16 Sep 2009