The heat is on! As we come back from vacations and gear up for school, we need to remember that the fiscal year ends September 30 for all government agencies. It's time to start cleaning up those past-due invoices before the end of the year if you want the invoices to be worked promptly. Don’t hold off for tomorrow what you can accomplish today.

DFAS News
Starting in October, DFAS-Rome will take over as payment office for the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. The work will be taken over from DFAS-San Diego. Do not submit your invoices to DFAS-Rome unless you receive an MOD on an existing contract. Always send your invoices to the "PAYMENT TO BE ISSUED BY" box on your contract. Most Navy vendors need to submit their invoices to the activity. The activity then sends them to DFAS to be paid. If you send your invoice directly to DFAS, which is not stated in your "PAYMENT TO BE ISSUED" box, this will delay your payment.

DFAS-St. Louis workload has been moved to DFAS-Columbus.

BSM’s New Name
Business System Modernization (BSM) has a new name. Accenture has taken over the current system and the name has changed from BSM to Enterprise Business System (EBS). The change should have little effect on the vendor.

Subcontracting Opportunities With DoD Major Prime Contractors
Click here for a directory of Prime Department of Defense Contractors by state.

Veterans Affairs Vendor Inquiry System (VIS)
VIS interactively provides information on invoices submitted against VA contracts that the Financial Service Center is responsible for paying. VIS consolidates invoice status and payment contract data obtained from the Document Management System into one central repository containing data information, plus any payments made since fiscal year 2000.

VIS can offer the vendor valuable information on their payment status for invoices submitted to Austin for payment. Payment Information Status reads as follows:

Scheduled Payments: Provides vendors information regarding payments scheduled to pay at a future date (ex: 09/01/2007, add two working days for payment processed date).

• Vendor ID — Vendor's Tax Identification Number
• Amount — Schedule amount to be paid
• Scheduled Date — Request for payment date
• Invoice Number — Vendor invoice number
• PO Number — VA purchase order number
• Station — VA facility initiating payment

Payments Found
Payments: Provides vendors information regarding invoices* paid. This date will reflect the date a check is mailed to the vendor or an EFT payment is deposited to a bank account.

*Note: Payments made with discounts will reflect two payment lines, one line for the invoice total and a second line for discount taken.

• Vendor ID — Vendor's Tax Identification Number
• Amount — Schedule amount to be paid
• Payment Issued Date — Date of payment
• Check/Trace Number — Check or trace number assigned to payment by Treasury Department
• Invoice Number — Vendor invoice number
• PO Number — VA purchase order number
• Station — VA facility making payment to vendor
• Facility phone number — Point of contact number for vendor
• Patient Name — Name of person receiving services (Fee or Champ VA only)
• Date Service — Date medical services were provided (Fee or Champ VA only)

Payments Not Found
Vendors querying VIS may also receive a message indicating "Payments Not Found." VIS will provide vendor one of three messages showing the status of invoice:

• Message One — Your invoice is in our accounts payable file. Please verify status in VIS in one week.
• Message Two — Your invoice is in our accounts payable file. Our staff will contact you within two business days.
• Message Three — If your invoice is mailed to Austin, TX, please contact our Customer Support Help Desk at 1-877-353-9791 for assistance. If your invoices are not sent to Austin, TX, please contact your submitting facility.

GBG Member Spotlight
(A new monthly GBG newsletter feature!)

Michael J. Meyer, CCE
Jofco Inc.

My employment with Jofco Inc. started in 2000. Jofco began operations in 1922 as the Jasper Office Furniture Company at its current headquarters in Jasper, Indiana. In 1965, the company's name was abbreviated to become what it is today-Jofco, Inc. A company highlight was the development of the seating division that began operations in 1986. Jofco presently operates two production facilities in Jasper totaling over 600,000 sq. ft. and has over 300 employees.

In 1990, Jofco began selling to the U.S. Government. A sample of our government customers include GSA, all DOD branches, federal and district courts, the White House, Pentagon, Veteran's Affairs, National Institute of Health, Department of Labor, Homeland Security, CIA and FBI.

In 2003, after struggling with government invoices and payments for a few years, Jofco joined NACM's Government Business Group (GBG). The biggest push for joining GBG was the introduction to WAWF. GBG has offered many "How to Get Paid by Uncle Sam" seminars, which include education and hands-on instruction for WAWF, CCR, VA, DFAS, GSA, government purchase cards, and many more subjects. After attending a few seminars, I was able to help Jofco get paid quicker by invoicing different government agencies electronically. We started electronic invoicing to: GSA Fed Pay, WAWF, GovWorks, VA Financial, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Department of Treasury and the U.S. Department of Energy. The information from GBG was a big help in finding these electronic invoicing websites.

Jofco's government business continues to grow, and with the help of the GBG, we will find better & easier ways to get paid.

Respectfully submitted,

Michael J. Meyer, CCE
Jofco Inc.
Credit Manager