Making Payments With Candex
Training and Policy Guidance
Beginning February 2025, all honoraria and related expense reimbursement payments will be processed through Candex, a supplier available in the CU Marketplace. Review the following information to avoid delays in processing.
Columbia will onboard additional payment types using Candex in the future. This page will update with new information as those payment types become available to the University.
For Requesters Paying With Candex
The following questions are a guide for Columbia employees to facilitate the collection and organization of information required to process payments for honoraria and related expense reimbursements. Please note this is not an all-inclusive list and other information may be needed from payees based on School or Department requirements.
What is the name and email address of the honorarium recipient?
Is the honorarium recipient a US citizen?
If the recipient is not a US citizen or legal resident, what is their visa status?
- Please see the visa chart to determine if honorarium payment and/or reimbursement is allowed for the recipient.
What is the event or seminar title?
Describe the event or seminar.
- A business purpose and supporting documentation, such as an abstract or brochure, must be submitted for review in your CU Marketplace requisition.
What is the amount of the honorarium?
- The total payment for honoraria, including any expense reimbursement, must be included in Candex in the CU Marketplace.
What type of expenses cannot be submitted through the Candex requisition process?
- Expense that need to be segregated are not allowed. This includes expenses considered exceptions to CU Business and Travel Policies, e.g., airfare, hotel, alcohol, etc.
- Such expenses have to be submitted via a check request or through Concur Outside Party reimbursement.
- If airfare and/or hotel is part of the honoraria, it is strongly recommended that the department book and pay for travel arrangements prior to making a payment commitment.
What is the amount of the expense reimbursement, if any?
- Along with the honorarium, certain expense categories as indicated in the Non-Employee Expense Reimbursement Form are considered for reimbursement. You must acquire the recipient’s itemized receipts and submit them with the Expense Reimbursement Form in your CU Marketplace requisition.
What supporting documentation is needed?
- Fliers, emails, or other documentation reflecting the recipient's participation in a Columbia event or seminar. For expense reimbursements, the detailed form along with associated receipts are needed.
- For expense reimbursements involving a foreign currency transaction, you must include with each receipt a screenshot of the conversation rate to American dollars using Oanda.
Refer to the Honorarium Policy above for more information regarding when an honorarium payment is appropriate or not appropriate.
You can log into the Marketplace from My.Columbia or from the Buying and Paying section of the Finance website.
From the welcome page, look for the Candex button listed under Payment Requests. This will launch the Candex platform within the Marketplace.
- Select the Category of the payment. If you are including a reimbursement with your honoraria payment, complete the honoraria details first.
- Enter the Description for the payment along with the Name of the individual who provided the service and the payee’s Vendor Email Address. The email address must be for a specific person, not a general mailbox.
- Enter the correct payment Amount.
- Read the Allowable Payments by Visa Type page. Click the checkbox ensuring you confirm the recipient qualifies for payment.
- If you are including a reimbursement with your requisition, click the Add Line-Item button and complete additional fields similar to what you completed above for honoraria.
- To send the requisition to your Marketplace shopping cart, click the Checkout button.
Complete the Shipping/Billing Addresses and Accounting Codes entries as needed, then attach documentation such as a memo and/or flyer describing the event, business purpose, and reason for payment.
Reimbursements will require an attached Expense Reimbursement Form. It must be completed in USD.
Click Place Order to submit the requisition.
For Payees Receiving Payments From Candex
The Columbia employee requesting a payment for a payee is responsible for providing Candex onboarding instructions to the payee.
The payee will receive an email invitation via Candex sent by the requesting employee at Columbia University. From this email the payee must create a Candex account and complete their payment information. Payees must complete this step to proceed with receiving a payment.
- On the Request Payment screen, the payee should click the Add Details button beside Pay to to bring up the Personal and Bank Details screen. Complete the fields.
- Payees who are US citizens and legal residents are required to upload a completed W9 form. Click the Add File link to upload. Payees who are foreign, non-US residents are required to upload a completed W8 form. Click the Add File link to upload.
- When the payee is finished entering the above information, they must click the Add button. The payment details will appear on the payee's Request Payment screen.
- Click the Submit button at the bottom to request payment.
Payees can log into their Candex accounts to view individual requests under the Orders header in the lefthand navigation.
Click a request, then click View in the righthand panel labeled Payments to see a timeline and information about your payment status.
If payees have questions about a payment, they can click Add a message to your buyer in the message field at the bottom of the payment information screen to submit an inquiry to Columbia.
If payees require technical assistance with the Candex application, click Candex Support in the message field to send an email to Candex.