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Checking Vendor Hold Status

If a vendor (including state employees and university students) has a delinquent debt with a state agency or university, the state agency or university must report it to the Texas Comptroller’s Office. The vendor is considered to be “on hold” with the state and state agencies and universities may not issues payments to the vendor until the hold is released.

The UHS Finance System receives a nightly feed from TINS (the Comptroller’s vendor database) that automatically updates the hold status of UHS vendors. If a UHS vendor is on hold with the state, The Open for Ordering box for that vendor will be unchecked (see screen shot below). If a vendor is not on hold or changes from a hold to a non-hold status, the Open for ordering box will be checked. Comptroller’s Office policy in conjunction with state law requires state agencies and universities to verify a vendor’s hold status for local voucher payments over $500 and for local P-Card purchases over $500.00. In addition, we are required to verify a vendor’s status prior to signing a written contract that will be paid with local funds. Comptroller’s policy:

https://fmx.cpa.texas.gov/fm/pubs/purchase/restricted/index.php?section=indebted&page=persons_indebted

The policy does not require the verification for state voucher payments or prior to entering into contracts that will paid only with state funds since the Comptroller’s Office has a mechanism to hold a and apply state payments to the vendor’s liabilities. Also, this policy does not apply to emergency purchases.

The requirement for verifying vendor hold status on local voucher payments over $500 is handled by the UHS Finance System, which automatically verifies vendor hold status before issuing payments. The system will not issue a local fund payment to a vendor on hold. Likewise, USAS (the Uniform Statewide Accounting System) will not issue a state fund payment to a vendor on hold. When the hold is released, the local or state fund payment is issued automatically.

The UHS Finance System also does not allow UHS departments to create requisitions for vendors on hold. This is an additional control to prevent POs from being issued to vendors on hold. The following matrix shows when departments are required to verify vendor hold status: 

Purchase Method
(Fund Type)		 Vendor Hold Status Verification Requirement
Voucher
(State and Local)

No Verification Require

The vendor’s hold status is verified automatically before issuing a
payment and will not issue payments to vendors on hold.
P-Card
(Local)

Purchases over $500
Verification is Required Prior to Making Purchasing.

  • Vendor hold search documentation is required for each
    transaction meeting this limit to be uploaded with the expense
    report in the finance system.
  • Screenshot must include the date and time vendor hold search
    was conducted. For Searched in PS Finance, you must use the
    following: a PDF Dynamic Stamp with date and time include, or a
    Screenshot that includes the desktop date and time from your
    taskbar.
  • Verification may occur no earlier than the seventh day before the
    transaction.
  • Verification may not occur the date after the transaction is made.
  • Multiple transactions for the same vendor which in total exceed
    $500 on the same day may be reviewed and questioned by state
    auditors. Per the State Comptroller’s guidelines, it is best
    practice to perform the vendor hold check if cardholders are
    processing such multiple transactions. E.g. if a cardholder
    processes conference registration payments for multiple
    employees in the department ($500 each), the cardholder would
    check the vendor hold status of the conference organization and
    upload the verification documents to the finance system. You
    may perform one vendor hold check and use that check for all of
    the transactions (provided it is within the required timeframe).
  • For vendor hold checks completed via TINS through Vendor ID
    for companies not in UHS Finance System, you must include an
    e-mail chain with Vendor ID noting that there is no hold for the
    vendor

Purchases of $500 or less
No Verification Required 
Contract
(Local)

Verification is Required Prior to Signing the Contract

Verification may occur no earlier than seven days before the contract is
signed and no later than the date the contract is signed. 
Contract
(State)

No Verification Required

The vendor’s hold status is verified automatically before issuing a
payment and will not issue payments to vendors on hold.

 

To determine the vendor's hold status, you can:

  • Run the UHS_AP_SEARCH_FOR_VENODRS query or
  • Run the UHS_AP_VENDORS_ON_HOLD query in the UHS Finance System
  • Reivew the Vendor File
  • If a vendor is on hold they will need to contact: TX Comptroller Vendor Hold Payment Services Phone:
    (800) 531-5441 or 512-936-8138

You can search by vendor name, tax ID, zip code, or the UHS vendor ID number. Enter a % (wildcard) for fields that are not in your search criteria.
Example: You want to place an order with Tejas Office Products. If you knew the vendor ID number, you would search by the vendor ID and enter a % in the other search criteria. This would be the fastest way to search. If you did not know the vendor ID, you could search by vendor name as follows:
speadsheet with information
The criteria “tejas%” (without quotes) means find a vendor name that begins with “tejas.” If you typed “%tejas%”, it means find a vendor name with “tejas” anywhere in the name. Typing “%tejas” means find a vendor name that ends in “tejas.” All of the criteria in this query can use a wildcard in this way.
spreadsheet with information
The query results appear below. Note that vendors with multiple addresses appear more than once. When Open for Ordering is “Y,” the vendor is not on hold. Therefore, you can place an order with Tejas Office Products, since Open for Ordering is “Y”. However, you cannot place an order with Tejas Boiler Services because Open for Ordering is “N.”

You can search by the UHS vendor ID number. Enter a % (wildcard) if you want to see the result for all vendors.
Example: You want to see all vendors on hold. Enter a % (wildcard) in the field “Vendor ID Like” and click View Results.
vendor results
The query results appear below. Note that vendors with multiple addresses appear more than once. All vendors listed here are on hold.
spreadsheet with vendor results

You can also tell if the vendor is on hold by looking at the Open for Ordering box in the Vendor Identifying Information page. If the box is checked, the vendor is not on hold and you can place the order.

If a vendor is on hold they will need to contact: TX Comptroller Vendor Hold Payment Services Phone: (800) 531-5441 or 512-936-8138

Example results

results example

Sequence of Steps

Departments should use one of the following sequence of steps to determine if a vendor is on hold:
Vendor is an Individual or Company

  1. Search for the individual in the UHS Finance System in on of the following ways:
    1. Run the UHS_AP_SEARCH_FOR_VENDORS query.
    2. . Look at the Open for Ordering box on the Identifying information page.
    3. . Include dynamic stamp via. Pdf or desktop taskbar with time and date include.
  2. If you cannot find the company in the UHS Finance System, contact Accounts Payable for
    assistance [email protected]
    1. The department will have to provide the TINS number to AP via email (W-9).
    2. TINS number and company name in the subject line