Guidance

DBS finance invoicing guidance

Updated 20 August 2024

Reading this guide and acting on it will help DBS Finance achieve our objective of prompt payment.

Please also refer to the MOD Contract Payment Guide.

Having paper remittance sent direct

We regret that due to the number and frequency of payments made by DBS Finance, we can no longer post a paper Remittance Advice to you. We wrote to all suppliers in January 2012 requesting a contact point and central business email address, so we can provide a Remittance Advice for each payment we make to you.

To nominate an email address or change an existing email address, contact us at DBSFin-IR-ERemit@mod.gov.uk quoting your Supplier Codes and Supplier Site codes.

As soon as the details are verified, we will arrange for all future Remittance Advice forms to be emailed to you at that address.

Prompt Payment 5 Day Target

The Ministry of Defence is fully committed to supporting the Government’s drive to improve the payment culture in the United Kingdom. In DBS Finance, our aim is to pay 80% of correctly presented invoices within 5 working days of receipt and all correctly presented invoices within 11 calendar days.

It is important to ensure that invoices are accurate, payment terms / prices have been agreed and the invoice has been receipted / certified prior to submission to DBS Finance. A unique invoice reference number should also be provided. This should help ensure processing can commence without undue delay. Should an invoice include a disputed amount the DBS Finance will make every effort to clarify and resolve the issue. In some cases the undisputed amount will be paid, although this is not always possible, and it may be necessary to send the full claim back unpaid.

It is important to note that the contractual terms under the late payment of Commercial Debts Act of 1998 remain unchanged at 30 calendar days. Any question that you may have on Prompt Payment should be directed to the DBS Finance Contact Point.

MOD’s current prompt payment performance

See the MOD Payment Performance guidance notes.

What do to when you expect a payment in the post

DBS Finance regret that suppliers who opt to receive Payable Order payments may on occasion experience delays beyond our control, for example during periods of disruption to normal postal services due to industrial action or extreme weather. To avoid such delays you should consider changing to electronic arrangements, which we will set up as a priority.

Arranging a payment by BACS electronic bank transfer

Requests should be made on Form BX177 (DBS Finance Nominate Bank Account Details), which can be found by following the DBS Finance Forms and Publications link. Please ensure the form is fully completed and includes your company stamp or an attached letterhead. The completed form may be faxed to DBS Finance Contract Management on 0151-242-2809.

Postal address for receipted claims

Suppliers are advised of the correct address to be used for invoice submission, once receipted (as per normal contract procedures). The address is:

Ministry of Defence
Tomlinson House
Norcross
Thornton Cleveleys
FY5 3WP

Payment may be delayed if invoices are not correctly addressed.

The time it takes for DBS Finance to make payment

Our aim is to pay 80% of correctly presented invoices within 5 working days of receipt and all correctly presented invoices within 11 calendar days.To help maintain this excellent performance, please do not contact the DBS Finance with queries regarding payment during this period, as we will only advise patience.

Method of payment

Bankers’ Automated Clearing Service (BACS) is our standard method of payment (except for Foreign currency, for which separate arrangements will apply). You will be asked to supply your bank details when a contract is let. If you change your bank details, you must inform DBS Finance immediately in writing. Please read nominate bank account details for more information.

Payment delays in the post

DBS Finance regret that suppliers who opt for payments by post may on occasion experience delays beyond our control. To avoid delays, suppliers may wish to change their payment method to electronic bank transfer. Please refer to nominate bank account details for more information.

Request for additional copy of the DBS Finance Remittance Advice

A remittance can be emailed, to the nominated address in your organisation; if you require further copies, we would expect you to arrange this internally with your nominated recipient.

I do not understand the payment reference on the Remittance Advice - can you explain?

We will quote your reference number as stated on your invoicing forms. Do not leave the invoice reference field blank.

Guidance on invoice reference numbers:

• always complete with something meaningful to yourselves
• always use a unique reference each time you submit a claim
• if you have a number of claims that relate to the one order and you wish to use the same reference, please suffix with a, b, c etc, to make it unique
• maximum length of field is ten characters
• do NOT use any of the following symbols: £ $ € = @ % & < > [ ] { } é ÷ É, or any that require the use of the ‘shift’ or ‘control key’. These cannot be accepted by our IT accounting system and may result in a delayed payment.

Remittance Advice states that money has been debited from the payments I expected. Why?

Any debit amounts will show an invoice reference. A separate notification will have been sent to you quoting this reference to advise why money is being recovered from monies due to you. This could be due to a pricing adjustment, recovery of a previous overpayment or set-off of an overdue MoD invoice.

MoD regards debt as being due from the registered company, not from individual sites within that company. Any accounting adjustments should be arranged internally within your company.

Invoice rejected or reduced

An invoice, or part of an invoice, will not be paid unless it has been submitted in accordance with terms of your contract with the MoD.

The most common discrepancies are:

• incorrect company title. The title must match that in the contract. MoD contracts cannot be transferred to another title without MoD’s prior agreement
• incorrect contract number or no contract number quoted
• item/part number not in contract or not at price quoted. Any changes to the contract price must be agreed by the relevant contracts branch detailed in the contract
• commercial invoice submitted rather than the MoD form quoted in the payment clause of the contract
• invoice form or MoD F640 delivery note not receipted/certified by the consignee
• claim submitted for goods or services outside the timescales defined in the contract

Should we disallow or reduce your invoice we will always send you a letter explaining why. In each case, the problem must be rectified before resubmitting your invoice for payment.

Making additional claims against a previous payment

If you have previously under claimed or if there has been an agreed price increase on an AG173 form, mark “Supplementary” across the top in red ink. Cross-refer the details to the previous payment, include the previous invoice reference and quote the date and reference of any letter or contract amendment which authorised the extra payment. The supplementary AG173 does not need to be certified and can be submitted directly to DBS Finance. However, if your additional invoice is for service provision for which you have not previously made a claim, certification by the consignee will be required to confirm the services were satisfactorily delivered before payment can be made. AG forms are available for download, please see Invoicing Forms page on GOV.UK.

MoD form 640

The address to write to is:

MoD Forms and Publications Commodity Management PO Box 2, Building C16, Lower Arncott, BICESTER OX25 1LP

Email requests to: DESLCSLS-OpsFormsandPubs@mod.uk

Fax: 01869 256824 Helpdesk number: 01869 256197

All other billing forms are available on GOV.UK.

For detailed information on using MoD form 640, please follow the CMT Commercial Guidance for the Defence Acquisition Community.

DBS Finance invoicing Forms

You can access all of the relevant forms at the following link on gov.uk DBS invoicing forms.

MOD 640 gone missing

Before requesting a replacement F640, and to ensure that the original form is not just delayed in the post, suppliers must check with the consignee to gain confirmation that the original has either not been received or has been receipted but subsequently lost in transit.

If the endorsed brown copy of the MOD Form 640 is confirmed as lost, you mayapply for a substitute by writing to DBS Finance and enclosing a photocopy of the Yellow copy of the form. DBS Finance will then dispatch a Form 639 (replacement 640) to the consignee for endorsement. We will advise you within 10-working days that this action has been taken, please do not query your submission during this time.

When the consignee has endorsed the MoD Form 639 it will be returned to you for submission to DBS Finance for payment.

AG173 form gone missing

If you need a replacement AG173 or AG210, raise a new form and clearly mark “replacement” on it in red. The new form must be stamped and signed again by the consignee to confirm that the service has been received.

A DEFFORM 148 (Statement of Sales)

This and other DEFFORMs can be found under CMT Electronic DEFFORMs in this section:

• DBS Finance
• MOD Commercial

Related pages/documents

Invoice Processing

Ministry of Defence supplier invoicing and payment information

MOD Payment Performance

Contact DBS Finance