How we pay our suppliers

We set out our arrangements for paying suppliers within our contract documents and with any orders that are placed.

We are committed to paying all suppliers within 30 days of receipt of a correct invoice, or 14 days for small and medium enterprises.

We monitor all of our payment times to ensure we comply with these standards.

If you are a business or organisation with a query about receiving a payment, please contact us on 01865 252851. 

Help us pay on time

To help us pay your invoice on time we ask that you:

  • Submit the invoice in the format agreed in the contract or purchase order
  • Quote the purchase order number and contract title
  • Address it to the correct officer and location
  • Ensure that it adds up correctly
  • Include as much information as possible about what payment is for
  • Only include requests for payment of supplied goods or services actually supplied - our financial regulations prohibit the Council paying for goods and services in advance

We make payments by BACS only in order to ensure that payment goes directly into the supplier's bank account.

You can also email your invoice to invoice@oxford.gov.uk. This email address is checked daily and invoices are immediately sent to the correct officer for authorisation before being passed for payment.

We also use Visa cards to pay for low value frequent purchases. We will advise you if you are able to pay you with a Visa card.

If you have a query about a payment, please contact us 

Prompt Payment Code

We are committed to supporting our suppliers fairly and paying them promptly to help suppliers with their cashflow. As part of our commitment we have signed up to the Government Prompt Payment Code.

We are also encouraging our current suppliers to also sign up to this code.