Purchase order policy

All invoices submitted for payment must clearly quote a University of Bristol Purchase Order number. Our Purchase Order number consists of eight numbers beginning with an eight (e.g. 81234567). Purchase Orders from our Estates Services Division consists of six numbers, a dot and then two numbers (e.g. 123456.78).

If you do not have a Purchase Order, please do not proceed with the order, please contact the university department making the purchase and ask them to provide one. Failure to quote a Purchase Order number on your sales invoice will result in the invoice being rejected no payment will be made.

To avoid your payment being delayed please ensure you are given a Purchase Order number when accepting an order from the University of Bristol.

Electronic invoicing

All supplier invoices should be sent to purchasing-invoices@bristol.ac.uk. These should be sent as a PDF as we cannot process invoices submitted in Word (.docx) or Excel (.xlsx) format. 

Please note: There are a number of suppliers who send both electronic and paper copies of invoices. This leads to delays in payment as duplicate invoices require manual processing once identified. We therefore request suppliers no longer send paper copies and that PDF invoices are emailed to purchasing-invoices@bristol.ac.uk.

If you are contacting us to follow up on late payment, please do not resend the invoice unless this is specifically requested by one of the team.

Payment terms

Our standard payment terms are 30 days from the date of invoice.

Public Contracts Regulations 2015 - Regulation 113

Payments of valid and undisputed invoices within 30 days

Invoices paid outside of 30 days include those where payment was delayed due to non-compliance with the University's invoicing policy, which may include sending them somewhere other than Accounts Payable, or where a valid Purchase Order number was not quoted.

Model invoice

Accounts Payable have created a Model invoice (PDF, 94kB) for any self-employed individuals/companies requesting payment from the University of Bristol. The model invoice demonstrates what must be included on any invoices, and also provides explanatory notes on best practice. Ensuring your invoice has all the necessary components will ensure faster, more efficient processing/payment. Please note this is not a template invoice.