Guidance

Contracting, Purchasing and Finance (CP&F) guidance for suppliers

Updated 23 August 2023

General

The Cabinet Office has issued the directive that all trade should be electronically conducted by 2017 therefore, all suppliers should comply to continue or to start doing business with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) via electronic means.

Suppliers will continue to use Exostar (or direct connections where agreed) to trade electronically with the MOD.

The MOD will be communicating via its GOV.UK webpages. See below for links. Our pages will be updated with any new information as the Contracting, Purchasing and Finance (CP&F) programme is developed. We will work with suppliers to ensure that any disruption to business operations is kept to an absolute minimum.

Announcements and updates will continue to be made through such as Defence Contracts Online and Sell to the MOD. Notices will also be placed on remittance notes and as a banner message on Exostar.

MOD Commercial Officers and/or Contract Owners will also play a part in communicating with suppliers.

Supplier guidance

Supplier onboarding

Once a contract has been awarded the MOD contract manager will activate the on-boarding process. This process will then be managed by Defence Business Services (DBS) who will progress the initial supplier connection via Exostar. For potential costs, please visit the Exostar website.

Note: Exostar is suitable for the vast majority of businesses working with the MOD. However, if this connectivity is deemed unsuitable by the supplier, please contact your MOD contract manager for more details on how to proceed.

On-boarding process

The process will be as follows:

• all new suppliers must have a relevant contract and commercial sponsor within the MOD to be processed for connection onto CP&F
• the MOD contract manager will raise and complete the relevant supplier nomination form on CP&F and forward to Defence Business Services (DBS)
• the form will contain details such as organisation name, address, DUNS number and contact details
• the form will be processed by DBS and an email confirming the start of the process will be sent to the supplier; this will include details on how to access the Exostar website
• Exostar will determine the suppliers account status:
  • if an account already exists, Exostar will progress the application accordingly, communicating with the supplier directly and advise DBS
  • if an account does not exist, Exostar will set up an account and communicate directly with the supplier
• the supplier will then be enabled to trade directly with the MOD’s CP&F system, with purchase orders and invoices being processed electronically

VAT guidance

CP&F utilises a tax engine based on a set of pre-defined rules linked to product and service categorisation, the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC). The tax engine rules use attributes such as categorisation, place of supply; supplier location; and whether the purchase is for goods or services in order to determine the most appropriate VAT from the following tax rates:

• standard: standard rated supply at 20%
• zero: zero rated supply
• reduced: reduced rate supply at 5%
• exempt: supply is exempt from UK VAT
• out of scope: supply is outside the scope of UK VAT
• COSVAT: contracted out service eligible for VAT recovery
• R: purchase is linked to an onward business supply made by MOD

The tax engine then applies a series of rules based on four data elements to arrive at the final VAT code. The VAT code is calculated from:

• Category code (UNSPSC) + product category + delivery address + supplier location = VAT code

Invoices submitted by the supplier in Exostar should have tax applied that matches the tax treatment in CP&F. If tax on the invoice does not match the tax treatment in CP&F then the Invoice will be placed on hold, investigated and the supplier advised.

In order to avoid delays in payments suppliers must ensure that default user preferences on EXOSTAR, such as GAX core and TAX category code, are entered correctly as these will be applied to the invoice during the add taxes process.

Please note: failure to enter the correct GAX code on an invoice will result in the invoice being rejected by CP&F.

Tax can be added to the invoice by expanding the middle section of the invoice page at the line called ‘Tax applied to all checked line items’.

Learn more about how to set up default account preferences on the Guide to Setting Your Defaults for MOD CP&F in Exostar SCP-MOD.

You can also see how to add VAT to an invoice on the SCP-MOD Quick Reference Guide: Invoices.

DUNS number

In order to improve the experience of dealing with the MOD and in support of on-boarding new suppliers, the MOD requires all suppliers to provide their DUNS number. This is to ensure a consistent and standardised database of suppliers that are being transacted with is maintained. This requirement also retains the MOD’s commitment to the government digital agenda.

DUNS numbers are a globally recognised means of identifying suppliers and is mandated by the UK government Cabinet Office to uniquely identify each supplier who is transacting with a government department.

If you don’t have a DUNS number you can get your Dun & Bradstreet (D-U-N-S) number here. The process should take no more than 5-10 minutes.

e-Catalogues

The e-Catalogue service allows MOD and Crown Commercial Service ‘Managed Service’ category suppliers with suitable contracts to have their goods and/or services hosted as a catalogue in an electronic format and hosted on or via the CP&F system. This enables MOD employees to view and purchase these items online via the Government E-Marketplace (GeM) through CP&F. GeM went live for MOD employees on 22 June 2020, starting with the Technology Product catalogues, and will be followed by Furniture and Office Solutions late 2020 or early 2021.

Catalogue load process

The steps below outline the process for the catalogues held within CP&F.

A catalogue load template with pre-defined fields will be sent to suppliers to complete with both inventory and non-inventory catalogues being uploaded by the commercial officer or contract manager:

• the template is in a pre-defined .txt file format

• the received template should be completed with the catalogue details in readiness for loading onto CP&F

• the completed template should be saved from ‘Excel 97-2003 Workbook to ‘Text (tab delimited).XLS’ format.

Once completed, the template should be sent to the MOD contract manager for uploading onto CP&F. For support and guidance on technical issues when completing this template, please contact Defence Business Services (DBS) at: dbscs-ecfinanceteam@mod.uk

Where catalogue images are required, these should be submitted by the supplier in an email to the MOD Contracts Manager who will arrange for them to be uploaded onto CP&F by DBS, further guidance on the naming convention can be obtained from your MOD Contracts Manager.

Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Managed Service e-Catalogue for certain categories will continue to be hosted in Basware, with MOD end users accessing them via CP&F.

For the creation of ‘Price Breaks’ further guidance is available from your MOD contract manager.

e-Catalogue process

Supplier guidance is still currently being drafted. Details will be added here when it is available.

Latest update to suppliers

e-Catalogues:

The E-Catalogues functionality went live on 22 June 2020. Technology Products catalogues are now available to MOD users on the Government e-Marketplace. It is planned that additional catalogues will be transitioned from existing MOD infrastructure to the Government e-Marketplace during 2020 and 2021. Further details on this will be shared in due course.

Access to the e-Catalogues provides iProcurement Users with real time pricing, so out-of-date catalogue item pricing and information will no longer cause additional processing. For Suppliers, content only needs to be held in one system, updates to content can be made quickly and easily and MOD Customers are able to view detailed information on the products available for purchase.

e-Sourcing:

The Contracting Purchasing & Finance (CP&F) Programme is delighted to announce that MOD are working with Jaggaer to provide an e-Sourcing solution. The solution will include Advertising, Tendering, Evaluation and e-Auctioning of MOD’s market opportunities. The plan is to deliver the capability in early 2021.

A detailed Delivery and Implementation Plan with key milestone dates will be produced and communicated in due course. The contract has been placed using a CCS Framework for e-Sourcing and will continue until December 2024.

Contact us (enquiries only)

The Defence Business Services (DBS) enquiry centre will deal with all CP&F technical issues. On making an enquiry:

• you will need to provide as much information as you possibly can to allow the enquiry centre agent to record your query
• you will be allocated an “Issue ID” which will be your query reference number and must be quoted in subsequent follow up enquires
• the team will either answer the query direct or refer it to another part of the MOD where further specialist information and knowledge can be obtained

The DBS enquiry centre details are:

• email: dbscs-ecfinanceteam@mod.uk

• telephone: +44 (0)151 242 2000

The DBS enquiry centre is open 8am to 4pm Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Contract specific queries & queries on the above guidance should be dealt with by your MOD Contract Manager in the first instance.

For further information on the CP&F Programme, processes and/or policy please contact the CP&F Business Transformation Team via email at DefComrcl-SystemsGuidance@mod.gov.uk.