by Angela Sarno

VP Marketing

Risky Business with PaymentWorks: E4–Where’s My Vendor?

This blog was initially published in 2020 but was updated in February 2024 for accuracy and comprehensiveness – and to re-emphasize how much happens behind the scenes to make the vendor payment process possible.

The vendor payment process is like a tree. Sure, there are plenty of “branches,” aka functions that happen above the surface to ensure payments happen. But there are also deep roots supporting the vendor payment process – functions and processes that occur well before any payment occurs.

It can be hard to communicate this with other stakeholders in your organization. It’s especially tough when those stakeholders need things “ASAP.” Managing multiple departments that want to hire multiple vendors right away is no easy feat, but our guests today have fine-tuned their methods for keeping the vendor payment process secure.

You don’t want to miss it!

Listen to the Full Episode

About Our Guests

Episode Takeaways on the Vendor Payment Process

Requirements vary, but they’re always complex
A lot more goes on behind the scenes than people realize
Efficiency and security may seem at odds but go hand in hand

Check Out an Excerpt

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Listen to the Full Episode

Listen to the episode below or here.

You don’t want to miss this podcast episode on the pressures procurement teams face from all angles when it comes to onboarding and managing vendors. We walk through how to keep the vendor payment process secure and let me tell you, it starts long before the payment ever happens.

Wendy Grayauskie, Assistant Director for Procurement at Villanova University, and Miguel Silva, Procurement Assistant for CSU Monterey Bay, discuss what keeps them up and night and the most popular question people ask them.

PaymentWorks Presents Risky Business Episode 4: Where’s My Vendor

About Our Guests

Wendy Grayauskie is the Assistant Director for Procurement at Villanova University and is in charge of all the accounts payable, disbursements, procurement card, and vendor information.

Miguel Silva is the procurement assistant (a.k .a. the “vendor guy”) for CSU Monterey Bay. He is responsible for onboarding all the vendors, reviewing their information, and putting it into the system as part of the vendor payment process.

Episode Takeaways on the Vendor Payment Process

1. Requirements vary, but they’re always complex

The vendor payment process is a mix of process and compliance. The latter can get fairly complicated, considering there are state, federal, and local regulations to consider. Miguel points out that it can become even more complex for state agencies, which are under additional scrutiny regarding state law and legislation.

What’s more, these laws can get tedious. Miguel points out that in higher education, the law slices things in many different ways. The ins and outs of compliance can differ based on whether a vendor is an LLC versus an LLP versus a corporation versus a DBA. Depending on which box you check, there are different requirements for tax reporting and the overall vendor payment process.

Wendy seconds that, noting that higher education is much different than being a corporation. At the same time, she doesn’t have the exact same considerations as Miguel because they’re not a state university. Though, she still has to abide by federal and state rules. Additionally, with five different colleges that often want to do things in five (at least!) different ways, it can be like herding feral cats when it comes to following a standardized vendor payment process.

Wendy adds color to that, saying, “They don’t realize that we’re not sitting in our ivory tower trying to make up rules just to annoy them. Our job is to protect the university and our resources, and making sure that we’re using proper people.”

2. A lot more goes on behind the scenes than people realize

Even with automated tools to streamline the vendor payment process, folks like Miguel and Wendy are tasked with keeping things moving and in order. This is where it’s super critical to highlight that vendor onboarding, vendor management, and the vendor payment process is more than just a clerical role (one more time for the folks in the back!)!

As Miguel points out, it’s about more than just typing things in and moving information around. He notes, “There’s still analysis that I have to do on my end before I can just move information from one side to another…what’s the tax withholding on this? I have to make that determination. If the address is put in a certain way, where do I put it into our system? I don’t think department people…quite understand.”

In other words, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered – and those answers determine next steps.

Wendy agrees with this sentiment and adds that she’s not trying to make everyone’s life harder. She says, “We do things for a reason, and we need to protect where we are working. Some of the decisions that we make are not popular. It’s not supposed to be what’s popular, it’s supposed to be what’s right. Just because you want something doesn’t mean I’m able to give. I need to do what’s right, and not just because you want to do it.”

3. Efficiency and security may seem at odds but go hand in hand

When asked about what keeps them up at night, Wendy and Miguel had two different but very relatable answers. Wendy emphasized her fear about securing the vendor payment process and making sure that everything is done correctly.

She says, “A few years ago we did have an attempted fraud of a very large amount of money, and so those kinds of things are always on my mind… to make sure that Villanova is secure.”

For Miguel, it’s about efficiency and the pressure from other folks about getting vendors onboarded.

“Am I going to have a bunch of emails from people saying, ‘Why isn’t my vendor in yet? Where’s my vendor? I want to hire this person, let me hire them.’ There’s a lot of little fires that I’m putting out,” he adds.

Both efficiency and security are important, and you shouldn’t have to sacrifice one for the other. That’s why automating the vendor payment process (and onboarding and management) is essential. It allows organizations to remove human error, increase security, mitigate risk, and speed up the entire process from end to end.

Check Out an Excerpt

Taylor Nemeth: You both are counterparts in higher education institutions, one on the West Coast and one on the East Coast. Could you please tell us about your roles at your respective schools.

Wendy Grayauskie: I am the Assistant Director for Procurement at Villanova University, so that means I am in charge of all the accounts payable, disbursements, procurement card, the vendor information and everything else.

Miguel Silva: I’m the vendor guy at California State University Monterey Bay. I have to onboard all the vendors, review their information, and put it into our system for payment so that they can get paid. I help people get paid.

The vendor payment process in higher education

Taylor: We hear quite a bit around the different types of people you pay in higher education, whether it’s speakers, individual, foreign, domestic. How much of a challenge is that for you?

Miguel: We are a state agency, so obviously we have to be at the forefront of following state law and state legislation. There are a lot of rules that say in the banking world, you’re either a person or you’re a business, A or B. That’s pretty straightforward. When you come to higher education,” hotel rooms” is a thing. If someone’s doing something that may have to do with legal counsel that’s a whole other thing. LLCs versus LLPs versus corporations versus DBAs. There’s a lot of, “If they check Box A, we go this way. If they check Box B, we go a completely different way.” Helping them, paying them, tax reporting, you name it. There’s a lot of ins and outs.

Wendy: I’ve always said higher education is our own little monster. It is not like being in a corporation. I have different challenges than Miguel does because of his state having to worry about certain regulations where I don’t have that. Just because we’re private doesn’t mean we get to do whatever we want either. We still have to follow federal and state rules on certain things. We’ve got five different colleges, and every college is going to want to do things differently. You always have the people who want to get around what you want to do. They don’t realize that we’re not sitting in our ivory tower trying to make up rules just to annoy them. Our job is to protect the university and our resources, and making sure that we’re using proper people.

Impacts of remote work

Taylor: Has remote work changed any expectations about timeliness from your constituents’ perspective or any of the rules that you do on a daily basis? Has anything been relaxed? How has that process changed since you’ve been working from home?

Miguel: Actually, I would say that COVID has benefited that for us, at least for CSUMB. Honest to God, before we went into lockdown, we were still faxing. I mean, we were faxing documents. We were faxing POs. Having to make a sudden shift to everything’s got to be able to be done from home has been great because now everything’s electronic. It is faster. We did pretty well. Departments still expect the same turnaround that we had.

Wendy: We went from in the office to remote pretty seamlessly. Before we did PaymentWorks it was on paper and then you had to [physically] take it down somewhere else. Now with PaymentWorks, we’ve got the vendor filling our information. The way we set PaymentWorks up with having anything that needs risk management’s view I don’t have to fax it or take it down the hall. We’ve got that going right to risk management and they can look and say, “Yes, we have a contract for this, yes, they have the right insurance to be on campus.”

Everybody having access to be able to see where it is in the process has been huge. I remember years ago when we had paper everybody was like, “Whose desk is it on?” Now they can see whose desk it is on and who they can complain to. Instead of me getting a lot of those phone calls, when they see it’s in Risk, they know to call there. If they see it’s in IT, it’s somebody else.

Everything happens for a reason

Taylor: What’s the one thing that you wish everyone knew about what you do on a daily basis?

Miguel: It seems like an easy thing to say, “Hey, this vendor filled out this form, put them in your system.” You know, “You’re typing. Just type some things in.” There’s still analysis that I have to do on my end before I can just move information from one side to another. PaymentWorks does a lot of the heavy lifting, which I really appreciate. [But] what’s the tax withholding on this? I have to make that determination. If the address is put in a certain way, where do I put it into our system? I don’t think departments, people — my girlfriend! — quite understand. There’s a lot of analysis. It’s there for me and it’s vetted and it seems easy, but there’s still things I have to just know and do.

Wendy: I would say that I’m not here to just think about how I can make your life harder. We do things for a reason, and we need to protect where we are working. Some of the decisions that we make are not popular. It’s not supposed to be what’s popular, it’s supposed to be what’s right. Just because you want something doesn’t mean I’m able to give. I need to do what’s right, and not just because you want to do it.

“If I ever wake up at two in the morning and have any issues it’s going to be making sure that payments are secure. Are we getting them out there right? Did we do it right?” – Wendy Grayauskie, Villanova University

Keeping the vendor payment process secure and efficient

Taylor: What keeps you up at night as it relates to your job?

Wendy: If I ever wake up at two in the morning and have any issues it’s going to be making sure that payments are secure. Are we getting them out there right? Did we do it right? A few years ago we did have an attempted fraud of a very large amount of money, and so those kinds of things are always on my mind of making sure that Villanova’s secure.

Miguel: I’d say what keeps me up is am I going to get in 10 vendors that I’ve got to get in. Am I going to have a bunch of emails from people saying, “Why isn’t my vendor in yet? Where’s my vendor? I want to hire this person, let me hire them.” There’s a lot of little fires that I’m putting out.

Taylor: I’ve got one final question. We have a Philadelphia native and a coastal Californian. What’s better, the West Coast or the East Coast?

Wendy: Oh, come on. Seriously? We do have changing of the seasons which makes it absolutely beautiful. The first snowfall of the year you can’t beat it. The fall leaves coming out. When you watch everything die, it gets upsetting. It’s like we get to know that in the Spring you get to watch everything come back to life. It can be really cool to watch trees get buds and the dogwoods come out, so I win.

Miguel: I’m not ready to concede the victory yet, but if anyone would like to do maybe the best burrito versus the best cheesesteak, I don’t know if there’s a winner, but I will sacrifice my body to make that determination.

Wendy: We can make that work.

Miguel: Yeah, let’s do it!

Get Ready For Vendor Management Appreciation Day 2024

The party lives on! Don’t forget to sign up for the 2024 Vendor Management Appreciation Day (VMAD) celebration. It’s our way of creating one giant love letter to our favorite people: vendor managers!

Why? Because we know it’s one of the most critical, under-recognized roles across industries.

VMAD is a brand-new holiday geared toward unifying vendor management professionals and celebrating innovation in the field.

We’ve released gifts each month to help you supercharge your vendor management efforts. We’re also planning some awesome events so everyone can connect and celebrate the important, strategic role of vendor management.

Learn more here, and grab some free vendor management goodies.