Finance Sytems

1. Does the council outsource their transactional services to another authority or shared service?

No

2. Which Finance system is used by the authority (Oracle, Agresso, Sage, E-Financial, SAP etc.)

Finest – supported by Software AG

3. Has this finance system been used for the last 6 years?

Yes

a. If no, what finance system was previously in place?
b. When did this system change take place?

Please see our answer to question 3 above. The system has been in place for more than 6 years.

4. Please state the total number of Accounts Payable invoices processed by the authority in the last financial year (16/17)

281,145

5. Please provide a breakdown of the total value of Accounts Payable invoices (3rd party supplier spend) for each of the last 6 years.

We have interpreted your question to mean 3rd part payments as defined by the CIPFA standard subjective analysis ie “payments to an external provider in return for the provision of a service”. These figures are shown net of VAT:

16/7 £328,259,542.86
15/6 £304,497,922.24
14/5 £292,153,494.30
13/4 £275,493,157.25
12/3 £255,213,101.82
11/2 £243,649,211.95

6. How many active suppliers are currently on the Supplier Masterfile?

15,776

7. How many inactive suppliers are currently on the Supplier Masterfile?

70,955

8. Is 3rd party pre-payment software utilised by the authority to prevent invoice payment errors from occurring?

Yes

a. If so, please provide contract period

Recently renewed to run to 2020/21

9. Over the last 6 years, please state the name(s) of all external organisation(s) used to review Accounts Payable transactions and identify and recover erroneous payments (Duplicates, Overpayments, VAT input errors or credits on statements), and the period(s) reviewed by each.

We have not used external organisations and therefore we do not hold the information you have requested.

a. Please state the total value of moneys recovered by each provider in the period(s) reviewed.
b. Please state the total amount paid to any external parties/ total cost to of utilising these services, for this review work.

Please see the answer above.

10. Do you use any external provider to ensure invoices correlate to the
contract charges i.e. checking volume discounts have been applied (please state name)

a. What % fee or rates does the authority pay for this service?

Please see our answer to question 9 above.

11. Please provide a contact list for finance & procurement departments at the authority

Our email contact details are finance@devon.gov.uk & procure@devon.gov.uk

12. What internal controls does the authority have to prevent payment errors occurring (3 way matching, no PO no PAY, invoice scanning etc.)

3 way matching on goods PO’s, duplicate invoice number checking, No PO No Pay, invoice scanning

13. Does the authority conduct supplier statement reconciliation exercises on any suppliers?

a. If so, what selection criteria is adhered to?

Devon County Council does not pay on statements and therefore does not hold the information you are seeking.