Raise and manage debts

The council operates a Debt Recovery Policy to ensure its customers are clear on how we collect debt, debt enforcement and methods of support.

Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service have introduced a new finance system from 1 April 2024 (Civica Financials) and therefore any requirement to Raise a Debt for Cumbria Fire should be directed to debtors@cumbriafire.gov.uk.

The council expects budget managers to identify, raise and monitor debt for their service in a timely and efficient manner.  It is the responsibility of budget managers to ensure that debt is both appropriate and correctly evidenced to ensure timely collection.  To ensure debt is managed effectively by budget managers, directorate debt is reported monthly via DMT's.  

Supporting budget managers is the councils centralised debt recovery section (Purchase to Pay) which monitors and chases both commercial and non-commercial long term debts.  They will also escalate cases to either our external debt recovery solicitor, or the council's legal department if required.  The recovery team will meet debtors and has successfully mediated in disputes.

Debt is raised by directorate leads via the council's financial management system e5 if you have the correct access, otherwise an E86 form will need to be completed as per the instructions.

The Purchase to Pay Team currently receive over 3,500 paper E86 forms per year, which require inputting manually .

The 'Purchase to Pay go digital' project will replace paper E86's with a new digital process. The new process will:

• improve efficiency by streamlining the way we process invoices with less touchpoints
• reduce paper, printing and postage, improving our carbon footprint and saving money
• make submitting and processing invoices more secure and will automatically acknowledge receipt of invoices

Please read the guidance before completing an E86 form, this will provide you with the help you need in order to complete the form correctly

User guide - Authorisation to raise an invoice (PDF 220KB) 

An additional step you will need to do to complete the E86 form is provide the Customer number this can be found on the customers reports:

Customer report for Cumberland (Excel 1.4MB).

If the Customer is not on the list you will need to complete an authorisation to raise a customer form (DOC 83KB) and send it to AR@cumbria.gov.uk - to be sent up in the E5 system, once the customer has been raised the AR team will email you with the reference number so you will be able to create your invoice.

To raise an invoice from Cumberland Council please complete E86 Cumberland (Excel 187KB).
 

Purchase to Pay Contacts:

Email: AR@cumbria.gov.uk 
Telephone: 01228 221069