ITS, Accounts Payable, and the Office of the Bursar are providing the University with flexible and secure vendor payment options.
Kuali Financials is the central system that serves as the backbone for the University’s fiscal operations, and one of its functions is to support the process for paying vendors. This involved verifying and securing the corporate bank account information of our vendors and printing and mailing paper checks. ITS collaborated with Accounts Payable and the Office of the Bursar to transition the University to a new electronic payment solution. We integrated Kuali Financials with the Comprehensive Payables service offered by Bank of America (BoA). This service verifies and stores corporate bank account information, instead of the University, and provides a virtual card option, where a subscribed vendor receives University payments on a dedicated credit card. This part of the service was enabled in December, and we have continued to pursue enhancements. Accounts Payable was recently able to discontinue local check generation altogether and instead have them printed and mailed directly by BoA. IT systems are essential to the business and academic functions of the University, and partnership is essential for identifying and implementing well-aligned improvements. More information about this initiative is available in an announcement released by Accounts Payable.