Carnegie Mellon University
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PaymentWorks Frequently Asked Questions

PaymentWorks streamlines university procurement by giving vendors a secure, self‑service platform to submit and maintain sensitive information, such as tax details, ACH banking, and remit addresses. This eliminates manual collection by departments and reduces the risk of errors or data exposure. For the university, PaymentWorks strengthens compliance by validating vendor information and automating key checks—including sanction‑list screening—before a vendor is approved. The result is a faster, safer, and more consistent onboarding process for everyone involved.
Using your CMU credentials, you may access the PaymentWorks through CMU's PaymentWorks portal.
The Buyer (also referred to as the CMU initiator) is responsible for inviting new suppliers in PaymentWorks.
Suppliers should reach out to their university contact for questions.
No. The Independent Contractor Checklist will still be required. When completing the PaymentWorks onboarding questionnaire, you will need to include the reference number assigned on the Independent Contractor Checklist.
PaymentWorks sends notification emails to CMU initiators when their payees reach key events during onboarding. Please reference these instructions on how to change notification settings.
Once the supplier has completed their portion of the setup and all validations have been confirmed, the supplier should be set up in Oracle within seven business days. On average, it takes 25 days from the time campus iniates supplier onboarding to purchase order creation.
No. The Honorarium setup process occurs exclusively through PaymentWorks. The payment process has not changed. Once the supplier has been set up in Oracle, the Honorarium Payment Form must be submitted through the Accounts Payable PO Invoice Portal. 

There are several reasons why an honorarium payee’s registration is returned, including: 

  1. They are not registering as an individual. Honorariums are only paid to individuals, not businesses. 
  2. Since their tax classification is individual, they should select "Other" when selecting their Business/Organization type. 
  3. If the payee is a foreign national, registration may be returned for the following reasons:
  • • Incomplete W-8BEN form
  •  Not answering whether they were/will be physically in the U.S. for the event
  • Missing IBAN or other banking codes
  • Currency discrepancies. Honorariums can only be paid in U.S. dollars.

4. Banking information still needs verification. PaymentWorks is not able to verify most foreign bank accounts. Accounts Payable  will email the supplier to independently verify their banking. While this process occurs, the registration will be returned to the Honoree.

No. The Honorarium setup process takes place exclusively through PaymentWorks. The payment process has not changed. Once the supplier has been set up in Oracle, the Honorarium Payment Form must be submitted through the Accounts Payable PO Invoice Portal. 

If registration is returned to the supplier, both CMU initiator and supplier will receive an email from no-reply@paymentworks.com containing information about what needs to be corrected in the registration. 

The most common reasons registrations are returned to suppliers for correction include the following: 

  1. Mismatched legal entity selections: The tax classification (e.g., 'Individual') and the Business/ Organization type (e.g., C Corporation) must match the supplier's formal designation.
  2. Missing Accounts Receivable (AR) contact: All required information for the Accounts Receivable department must be fully completed.
  3. Missing or incomplete IBAN: For international suppliers in countries that utilize the International Bank Account Number (IBAN), the full and complete IBAN must be entered in the account number field. 
  4. Incorrect entity type for honorarium payments: Registrations submitted for an honorarium payment must be designated solely as an 'Individual' entity type. 
Yes. If you are working with a supplier that has been deactivated in Oracle, they will need to be onboarded again through PaymentWorks.
If a supplier receives a new Tax ID Number, a new PaymentWorks invitation will need to be sent. To complete this process, the supplier will need to provide either a different email address for the invitation or use an alias email.
If the supplier has not already been onboarded to PaymentWorks, CMU initiators should send an invitation to the supplier so they can be onboarded and provide updated information. Once a supplier has been onboarded to PaymentWorks, they may update their own information directly on their PaymentWorks account.
Yes. Once a supplier is set up in PaymentWorks, they can update their information via their supplier site.
The university's supplier onboarding platform, PaymentWorks, contacts the supplier directly to verify their banking information. CMU initiators can alert suppliers about this verification process to ensure awareness and timely responses to inquiries. PaymentWorks does not verify banking for international banks; Accounts Payable verifies all international banking information outside of PaymentWorks.
Yes. Because each company on PaymentWorks has their own vendor requirements, suppliers who created a PaymentWorks profile for another PaymentWorks customer will need to complete the questionnaire for CMU.
Yes, inactive suppliers in the Oracle Supplier Database will need to complete the PaymentWorks Supplier Questionnaire to be re-activated. Before the supplier is reactivated in Oracle, PaymentWorks will need to verify up-to-date information.

New vendors access PaymentWorks through an email invitation from their customer.

  1. Check your inbox for the invitation email.
  2. Click the link to create a PaymentWorks account or sign in if you already have one.
  3. After account setup, follow the prompts to complete and submit the New Vendor Registration form.

1. Log Into PaymentWorks at https://www.paymentworks.com/accounts/login/

2. Click on the text with the name of your customer.

3. Update the information that needs to be correct.

4. When the form is completed and reviewed for accuraty, click the "submit" button at the bottom of the page.

Once logging into PaymentWorks, users can access help resources by clicking on the ‘Help’ link, located in the upper-right section of the screen. Further assistance can be obtained by clicking on the ‘Contact Support’ option, where users can submit inquiries and/or report issues.

Yes. CMU initiators should bookmark https://paymentworks.com/login/saml/?idp=carnegiemellon. Vendors/suppliers should bookmark https://www.paymentworks.com/accounts/login/.

 In most cases, PaymentWorks is unable to verify non-U.S. bank accounts. The CMU Accounts Payable department will reach out independent of PaymentWorks via email to request information to verify banking details.

Foreign suppliers can expect the following process: 


1. The Finance Division’s tax department will review every foreign supplier. Their W-8 should be completed, signed, and dated. In addition, all questions about where services will be performed should be answered.

 2. The PaymentWorks registration will be reviewed for completeness. Foreign suppliers need to ensure they select the same currency in which they will invoice the university, and provide complete banking instructions, such as their full IBAN number (if their country utilizes IBAN) and any other banking codes, such as Swift Codes, that may be unique to their country. Once the registration is reviewed, it will be returned to the vendor while Accounts Payable reaches out to the vendor independently to verify banking.

 3. Once banking is verified, the vendor should resubmit their registration to complete onboarding.

The best selection will be 'Other.'