Purchasing Procedures and Guidelines

ORDERS ARE USUALLY* PROCESSED WITHIN 2 BUSINESS DAYS, IN THE ORDER THAT THE APPROVAL IS RECEIVED**.

  1. Complete the Purchasing Request Form or Departmental Sales and Services Form (when a DOC ID is required for inter-departmental purchases)
    • All highlighted areas should be completed or your order will be delayed.
    • Orders over $1000 should always have an official quote from the vendor, less than 30 days old.
    • Please make sure you have the correct part numbers and pricing.  Generally, if you haven’t ordered these items withing 30 days, you should check to make sure this information is up to date.  Submitting forms with incorrect pricing and discontinued parts will result in an invalid Purchase Order being sent out.  Many vendors will require an updated PO before they will ship your order.  Updating a PO is a manual process, done through the Procurement Office, and can take up to two weeks to be completed.
    • Make sure you provide a brief but detailed business purpose .  Please see guidelines below regarding the business purpose.
  2. Submit it to your PI, via email, for approval.
  3. Your PI will forward to me with the project number.  I must have written approval before I can proceed with the order.  Sending order requests directly to me, will delay the processing of your order.
  4. I will process your order and send you a reply letting you know it is complete.
  5. Order and shipping confirmations will be forwarded as provided by the vendor.
  6. If you have questions or concerns about your order after your have been provided a confirmation and/or PO number, please reach out to the vendor first.

*Unless I am backed up or an urgent matter arises, you can expect orders to be processed within 2 business days.  Orders received after 5pm are considered to be received the next business day. 

URGENT ORDER Procedures and Guidelines

ORDER ARE USUALLY PLACED THE SAME BUSINESS DAY SUBMITTED*

Occasionally you will need your order processed right away.  In this case you should submit an Urgent Order Request.

Things to consider and keep in mind:

Frequent urgent order requests cause delays in your fellow labmates’ and other labs’ that I support orders and requests.  Urgent order request should be reserved for legitimate emergencies only, and typically should not occur every week or order request.

  1. Follow Step 1 above
  2. You must provide a brief explanation on how/why your order is considered urgent.  Auditors look for this information on p-card purchases.
  3. Follow Step 2 above and be sure to put “urgent” in the subject line. (Emails with the proper subject come are forwarded to special priority folder in my inbox)
  4. Follow Steps 3 -5 as listed above.

*To ensure same day approval, urgent orders should be sent to me no late than 3pm.  This is because the ChBE finance office closes at 4pm and their approval is also required before a PO is generated or a p-card order can be processed.

The Business Purpose…

Per new regulations from Internal Auditing:

The expectation and review Internal Auditing will look for is the following:

  • Is the business purpose of the purchase spelled out in language that an average professional could understand? If the business purpose is blank, the approver must not approve the purchase, and  should not make the purchase. It is unacceptable to have a blank reason for purchasing.
  • Proper language would mean a reasonable administrative person would understand the business purpose of the purchase. Again, this is not an all-inclusive list, but four examples of appropriate business purpose are:
    1. “this is for experiment “XYZ” on project “ABC””
    2. “this product needs to be purchased to meet the safety guidelines in regulation “XYZ””
    3. ”this is the raw material needed for building the “device” on contract “XYZ””
    4. “this is a special food the animals in our lab on research grant “ABC” eat”
  • If vague descriptions are used, this is unacceptable. Here are four examples (not an exhaustive list) of descriptions that have actually been used, but should have stopped the purchase:
    1. “Science”
    2. “My Research”
    3. “None of your business”
    4. “I need it”
    5. “General Lab supplies” – (This is only acceptable if being charged to a non-sponsored project)