Accounts Payable

One of the opportune areas that we need to focus on, and where we need your support with, is ensuring the completeness and quality of invoices that we receive, so that we can avoid inefficiencies and ensure that timely payments are made to you.

Regulatory and/or Compliance requirements:

• The invoice/document must bear the correct and complete City of Las Cruces name and address
• The document MUST be an invoice or a valid substitute (Note: Purchase Orders, Statement of Accounts, Sale Order, Packing Slip, Reminders, Letters, etc. are not allowed for processing)
• Copies of invoices will not be accepted as documentation without verification that the original invoice has been lost or destroyed and the vendor has not received payment.
  • If a copy of Original Invoice must be submitted, invoice copy must be marked and initial off that it is a valid copy of the original invoice by the vendor.
• The invoice/document MUST be readable
• The invoice MUST NOT be dated before the delivery of goods and services
• Invoice/document must have a reference to a valid Purchase Order Reference OR CITY OF LAS CRUCES contact person 
• Duplicate invoices must not be submitted (double submission)
• The invoice MUST NOT contain a duplicate invoice number (all invoice numbers must be unique)

 Other Minimum Requirements that will avoid erroneous payments:

• YOUR complete Tax ID Number
• Invoice/document must have the breakdown of the gross and net invoice values (Tax/Freight amount provided)
• Invoice/document must state the currency

Make sure that the invoice is legible and readable

It is important that the invoice is legible and includes complete and correct attachment(s).  Overwritten invoice details are not acceptable and will be rejected.  Handwritten and/or manual invoices are generally not encouraged as these may cause errors & inefficiencies in the process.

Send your invoices through the appropriate transmission channel – DO NOT send invoice(s) twice

If you are submitting via email, please do not submit hard-copy invoices.  They will be rejected automatically by Accounts Payable scanning team and may cause delay in payment processing.

Know and indicate your Purchase Order number on the face of the invoice

The City of Las Cruces requires invoices reference a Purchase Order (PO), which is transmitted to your sales department per email.  PO Numbers are required for us to process your invoice, therefore please make sure to consider the following:

• The Purchase Order is indeed listed for the purchase you are invoicing.
• The City of Las Cruces entity, which issued the PO, should match the City of Las Cruces entity indicated on your invoice.
• Purchase Orders should use the correct format.

Know your contact person at the City of Las Cruces

Invoices submitted should always bear the name and city department of the contact person you work with at the City of Las Cruces. This is especially critical for invoices that cannot be processed using Purchase Orders – as the absence of this results in delays or errors in processing.

Include and indicate Your Tax ID Information

If the data on the invoice does not match our vendor master data record, your invoice will be put on hold for investigation.  Therefore, if your company’s name, address or Tax ID number has changed, please notify us and include a copy of the invoice with the vendor update forms you were previously using in unchangeable format (pdf), so that we can update our database before your invoices reach due date.

Check if invoice is correct and the breakdown of the total invoice amount is provided

Incorrectly calculated invoices, will require further coordination and may result in delays to the process.  The correct tax rate should be reflected on the face of the invoice.