Skip to main content

Oregon State Flag An official website of the State of Oregon »

Oregon.gov Homepage

Vendor Coordination


DAS created an OAM policy to guide state agencies in their efforts to recover liquidated and delinquent debts from entities to which state agencies are remitting significant payments. OAM 35.30.90

The Vendor Coordination training is available here. 

The following are frequently asked questions associated with implementing the coordination of vendor payments process in the Statewide Financial Management Application (SFMA).

​No, the coordination of vendor payment process assumes a one-time garnishment of the pending vendor payment even if the amount of the garnishment is more than the pending vendor payment. DOR is responsible for monitoring collection of the total debt.

Example: Agency ABC notifies DOR of a pending vendor payment in the amount of $500. DOR sends a garnishment to agency ABC in the amount $6,000. Agency ABC remits the $500 vendor payment to DOR (refer to training instructions) and files the garnishment paperwork in the agency files with the payment paperwork. This transaction is completed. 

If agency ABC receives another invoice from the vendor and the vendor profile is still inactive in SFMA, the agency notifies DOR of the new pending payment (refer to training instructions) and DOR will provide a new garnishment (if necessary). 

If agency ABC receives another invoice from the vendor and the vendor profile is active in SFMA, the agency should proceed with issuing payment directly to the vendor.

​Garnish the payment as directed by DOR (refer to training instructions). 

Once an agency notifies DOR of a pending payment amount and DOR issues a garnishment, DOR is expecting to receive the pending payment amount.  ​​

DOR provides a debtor list daily to SFMA. DOR does factor in any pending payment amounts expected to be received from agencies when determining if a vendor/debtor will remain on the list. If the vendor/debtor is no longer subject to be on the debtor list, DOR will remove the vendor/debtor from the debtor list, then SFMA will activate the respective vendor profile during the nightly batch processing cycle. 

Please note: The coordination of vendor payment process is not the only method used to collect these debts. Additionally, a vendor/debtor may be removed from the debtor list for reasons other than payment in full (e.g. garnishment appeal, payment plan).

​No, do not pay the vendor directly until you receive a response from DOR (unless it has been more than 5 business days since you notified DOR). 

DOR has been responding within 2 business days (or less); therefore, if you haven’t received a response, double check your Revenue Online messages (refer to training instructions) to verify a response was not missed.

​DOR must issue the garnishment for the total amount of the vendor’s garnishable debt.

​​If you have questions regarding the garnishment you received from DOR, the Revenue Agent’s direct line can be found in the body of the Revenue Online web message where the garnishment was attached. If you are unable to reach the Revenue Agent via the direct line listed in the Revenue Online web message please send an email to

​No, please send email correspondence to statevendor.matching@oregon.gov to ensure a timely response.

​​Yes, when a state agency receives a “Notice of Garnishment” from DOR, the state agency is the “garnishee” and must complete the “Garnishee Response” as per the “Instructions to Garnishee” provided in the “Notice of Garnishment”. The attachment provided in the Revenue Online message includes the “Notice of Garnishment” (~pages 1-2), “Garnishee Response” (~pages 3-5), “Instructions to Garnishee” (~pages 6-10), “Special Instructions for Banks” (~pages 11-12), “Supplemental Garnishee Response” (~page 13), and “Wage Exemption Calculation” (~pages 13-15). State agencies must review the “Instructions to Garnishee” to determine how to complete the “Garnishee Response” and who to mail it to.

​​If a garnishment was issued incorrectly please send an email to statevendor.matching@oregon.gov to correct the issue. ​​​​

​​DOR must issue a garnishment for the total value of the outstanding debt. The Revenue Agent who sends the garnishment to the paying agency will include in the secure ROL web message if a lower amount is to be garnished. For example, the garnishment amount is $10,000 but the secure ROL web message says "do not garnish more than $5,000". It is imperative that agency's review the secure ROL web message in totality to ensure the vendor/debtor is not over garnished. ​​​

​​Two payments will need to be processed. Remit the garnishment amount to DOR using vendor mail code 444 and remit the remaining amount to the vendor using the appropriate mail code for that vendor.

For example, agency ABC notifies DOR of a pending vendor payment in the amount of $1,000. DOR sends a garnishment to agency ABC in the amount of $700.  Agency ABC prepares voucher payable VP123456 with multiple suffices to vendor number 1234567890. On VP123456 suffix 001, agency ABC remits $700 of the vendor payment to DOR using mail code 444 (refer to training instructions) and files the garnishment paperwork in the agency files with the payment paperwork. On VP123456 suffix 002, agency ABC remits the remaining $300 to the vendor using mail code 001 following the agency’s regular vendor payment process.  ​​​​​​​​

​​​​Answer: Vendor payments garnished by DOR are not eligible for reimbursement with bond proceeds. This is because Oregon Bonds are issued with language that prohibits payments to state agencies. As such, even though a garnished payment is issued for the benefit of the debtor, because the payment is issued to DOR, this payment is not reimbursable with bond proceeds.

When a state agency, who needs to pay a vendor providing goods or services for a bond financed project, learns that the vendor's profile is not active because the vendor owes debt to the state, the agency should first determine if the agency has another source (other than the bond proceeds) for paying the vendor.

          a. If the agency has another source, they should notify DOR that they have a payment subject to garnishment.
          b. If the agency does not have another source, they should notify SFMS to request temporary activation of the vendor and make the payment on the same day.

Note: If the agency notifies DOR, they may receive a garnishment order that is less than the agency's payment. In this situation, the agency may pay the garnishment from the non-proceeds and pay the remaining portion from the bond proceeds source and submit this portion for reimbursement. Please review OAM 35.30.90 for more information on Vendor Coordination.

Regardless of which route the agency uses when encountering this situation, we request agencies email SWARM at ​swarm@das.oregon.gov and inform us of the amount of the payment and which solution was chosen.