Polaris is New York City’s automated payment system. City agencies and NYC Public Schools pay vendors through it, and every vendor uses it, on every contract.
It checks each invoice against a set of rules and either passes it forward or holds it. If your invoice doesn’t clear Polaris, you don’t get paid, no matter how good the work was.
The good news: there is one process to learn. Whether the invoice is $500 or $5 million, the steps and the rules are the same. Two habits make the difference:
- Gather before you build. Collect every document first, then create the invoice.
- Match exactly. Numbers, formats and amounts match what’s already in the system, character for character.