When entering into a contract, State agencies should reference the contractor’s legal name in the contractual agreement. In certain instances it may be appropriate to reference an alternative name or alias (e.g. Doing Business As “DBA”) for a contractor in a contractual agreement. Should an alternative name or alias be used or referenced, the contractual agreement must include both the contractor’s legal name and the alternative name or alias.

Process and Document Preparation:

State agencies can only create a procurement contract transaction in the Statewide Financial System (SFS) if the vendor is registered in the Statewide Vendor File and has a valid New York State Vendor ID. The Statewide Vendor File identifies a vendor by a New York State assigned ten-digit vendor number instead of its Federal Tax Identification Number. In most cases, the Vendor ID for contracts and purchase orders will be a Regular Vendor ID, where the first two digits are either “10” or “11”. There are some exceptions for Special Use Vendor IDs. (See Chapter X, Section 6 - Special Use Vendor Identification Numbers of this Guide, for additional information.) It is essential that the correct Vendor ID is used for the contract transaction on the SFS. (See Chapter X, Section 1- Guide to Vendor/Customer Management Overview of this Guide, for more information about Vendor IDs and the Statewide Vendor File.)

Revenue and repayment agreement contractors must be registered in the Statewide Vendor File and have a valid Vendor ID. In addition, they must be registered in the Centralized Corporate Customer File and assigned a Customer ID. (See Chapter X, Section 1- Guide to Vendor/Customer Management Overview of this Guide, for more information about New York State Vendors/Customers.)

A vendor is registered in the Statewide Vendor File and Centralized Corporate Customer File using its legal business name, not its alias (e.g. DBA). When an alternative name or alias is referenced in the contractual agreement along with the contractor’s legal name, the transaction is created in the SFS using the contractor’s legal name and its 10-digit vendor number as contained in the Statewide Vendor File or its 15 character New York State Customer ID. Inconsistencies between the legal name referenced in the contractual agreement and the entity’s name in the Statewide Vendor/Centralized Corporate Customer File should be reconciled by the agency prior to submission of the transaction.

Guide to Financial Operations

REV. 03/13/2015