University of Florida Purchasing

Revised: October 3, 2008

PeopleSoft Purchasing-Related Assistance

For further information about requisitions or purchasing's policies, attend the following classes:

PST070 Intro to Purchasing - Designed for employees who initiate, enter, or approve requisitions. This workshop may also be useful for employees who will need to inquire about the status of requisition and purchase orders.

PRO305 Purchasing Policy-Purchasing 101 - This is an overview of the purchasing policies, regulations and statutes that govern purchasing at the university. This workshop is for requisition initiators and department approvers who work with requisitions and purchase orders.

You can also go to myUFL Toolkits which is designed to provide, in one place, the key resources you need to learn and use the myUFL system.

Click here for more information on:

*PeopleSoft Category Codes & Corresponding Buyers
(rev. 09/08/2008)

Purchasing Reconciliation Process (updated 09/25/2008)

Purchase Order Rollover Process (updated 8/01/2008)

The YEAR END DOCUMENT is available on the UF Administration website

For Year End deadlines please see the Year End Schedule available on the F&A website

Contents of This Page:

Requisitions

Asset Category/Account Combination Errors
I Checked the Workflow Icon in Manage Requisitions and My Requisition is Not Pending with Any Approver
My Requisition is Showing a Budget Error. How Do I Find Out What is Wrong?
My Requisition Has ' Disappeared ' From My Manage Requisitions Screen
My Requisition is ' Stuck ' or ' Has Not Yet Made a PO '
Requisitions With No Vendor
Is Your Requisition DENIED or ON HOLD?
Where Can I Find the PO Number Associated with a Requisition?
What is the Life Cycle of a Req to PO?

Purchase Orders

Amount Only PO's for Goods
How Do I See When and How My PO Was Dispatched?
How Much Is Left To Be Paid On a Purchase Order?
Is my PO really in the negative?
Why Can't I Finalize a PO That Has Been 'Fully Liquidated'?
Why Can't I Get My PO to Complete?
Where Can I See the Statuses of All Purchase Orders in My Business Unit?
How Can I Update My Default Ship To Location?
Changing ChartFields On Encumbrances (Purchase Orders)

Change Orders

What Do I Do if My PO Has the Wrong Chartfield Information?
Can I Use the PO Change Request Form to Make Changes to Requisitions or TA's?
Can I Use One Change Request Form to Make Changes to multiple POs?
How Will I Know My Change Order has been processed and how long will my request take?
Change Orders

Vouchering

Whose charge is this? (Erroneous vouchering of PO's)

Commitment Control (KK) and Enterprise Reporting

When I run my Open Encumbrance Details, it doesn't agree with what KK is telling me. Which is correct?
Budget Inquiries

Other Resources

Instruction Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
Bridges Alert Notices

Purchase Order Rollover Process (updated 6/30/2008)

Purchase Orders on APPROP and STUGOV ledger groups were relieved from the 2008 budget period over the weekend in the first step of carrying purchase orders on these ledger groups forward into the new fiscal year. On the Budget Details screen this results in the appearance of having no funds encumbered. However, the purchase orders are actually in an intermediate step in the rollover process. The relief of prior year encumbrances in order to re-establish carry forward encumbrances is a normal and anticipated process of PO Rollover and is not cause for concern.

The encumbrances on appropriated funds that had a balance as of June 28th will be rolled onto 2009 budget once the budget is loaded and becomes available. At that time encumbrances will show on the Budget Details screen in the new budget period and reference. Purchase order numbers and PO line numbers will not change and will be available on the appropriate budget when vouchering returns to campus (projected for on July 7, 2008).

Please do not submit requisitions in an attempt to re-establish these purchase orders. Do not submit any requisitions on appropriated funds until July 7, 2008.

Saving requisitions for later or on other funds will not affect the rollover process.

PO ROLLOVER QUICK FACTS

POs are still visible under Purchasing > Purchase Orders > Review PO Information > Purchase Orders.
No action is required on the part of departments to carry forward POs from last year.
No requisitions may be submitted on appropriated funds until July 7, 2008 (Funds 101, 102, 103, 111, 112, 113, 191, 221 & 222).
Please save any requisitions created on the funds listed above before 7/07/08 "for later" regardless of the method in which they were created (Search Catalog, Templates, or Special Request).
Budget Exceptions and Budget Warnings related to 2008 budgets created during year end processes will not affect the loading of your new year appropriation and do not require action by departments. Please ignore email notification of budget warnings for appropriated funds until July 7, 2008.
Requisitions and purchase orders will continue to be generated on all other ledger groups (cash, auxiliary, grants) as usual.

Asset Category/Account Combination Errors
(revised 01/18/08)

Several scenarios can result in receiving an error message when attempting to save a requisition in the eProcurement module:

1. You selected a category for an asset (often the category description shows '' > 1000 '' ) and changed the account code.

Please replace the account code you are attempting to use in your requisition with an asset account code; one that starts with 78XXXX and you will be able to save and submit your requisition.

2. Non-asset category selected but GL account code in chartfield string starts with 78XXXX;

Please replace the account code you are attempting to use with an non-asset account code; one that starts with 7XXXXX and you will be able to save and submit your requisition.

3. You have split the chartfield distribution into multiple funding sources and didn't copy the asset information into the additional field.

If you are purchasing an asset and have multiple distribution lines, please click on the "More Details 2" tab in the distribution line (under the truck) and make sure the Profile ID and AM Unit have populated onto each line. You may have to fill in these fields manually for additional distribution lines. The AM unit will always be UFLOR and the Profile ID is tied to asset account codes. You will be able to copy the Profile ID from the first line onto each additional line. Profile IDs are listed on the Purchasing website PeopleSoft Category Codes & Corresponding Buyers spreadsheet located Here .

If you need additional assistance, contact Asset management at 392-2556 or Purchasing at 392-1331.

For more information on creating a requisition for assets with multiple funding sources refer to the HR website at http://hr.ufl.edu/training/myUFL/instructionguides/AssetsWithMultipleFundingSources.pdf
and/or take the PST120 Asset Management class.

If you have multiple lines, please double check each distribution line to make sure you have filled out your chartfield information correctly.

I've Been Notified About Problems with My Default Ship To Address: How Can My Profile Be Updated?
added 11/17/05

To update the Ship To address that defaults into your requisitions, have the Departmental Security Administrator (DSA) for your department update your Requisitions profile in the Access Request System. To find out who the DSA for your department is, navigate in the PeopleSoft left hand menu to My Account > My Roles and click on the link called Department Security Administrator List. Your DSA should also ensure that your profile contains the correct UFID of your requisition Departmental Approver.

To assist DSA's with these updates, click here for an instruction guide to updating ARS profiles. Security questions should be directed to the UF Help Desk at 392-HELP.

Changing ChartFields On Encumbrances
(Purchase Orders)
revised 5/8/06

Changing the chartfield on an encumbered voucher to something different from the chartfield on the purchase order causes problems with commitment control and budget errors.

Best business practice is to establish an encumbrance on the specific ChartField string which will be used to make the payment. When this is not possible, there are two options:

1) Voucher the payment on the encumbered ChartField string. Then process an E2E correction voucher to move the expenditure to the appropriate ChartField string. For information on processing E2Es, see the instruction guide Expense to Expense Vouchering.

2) Cancel the encumbrance and create a new one on the correct ChartField. Be sure to enter into the description area:
"This PO replaces PO XXXX-XXXXXXXXXX - CONFIRMING DO NOT DUPLICATE".
If you enter this into the comments, do not forget to check the "Send To Vendor" box found when you click on the comment icon.

Change Orders
revised 6/23/08

To request changes to existing Purchase Orders, complete the Change Request form available from the F&A Forms website and the Purchasing forms website.

Please take care in completing the form. In order to assure changes are made appropriately, it is necessary for each request to include the action to be taken, the vendor, and complete contact information. Requests are generally processed within 2 business days. Requests can be submitted by email to purchasing@ufl.edu or faxed to 392-8837.

What you can change:
-Quantity, unit price, due date, description and ship-to location

What you cannot change:
-Vendor, any chartfield information (this includes account code, department id, flex code, project number, etc.)

To change the vendor, cancel the PO and create a new requisition.

You also cannot:
-Add PO lines or distribution lines to existing purchase order
-Cancel a PO that has been vouchered against
-Make changes to purchase orders generated using the "Search Catalog" feature
(Per Bridges Advisory #33, dated 10/29/04.)

When requesting a purchase order be cancelled, please make sure there are no receipts or vouchers against that PO. To release the remaining encumbered funds on a PO that has been vouchered against, "finalize" the last encumbered voucher paid and then budget check the voucher.

For help with finalization of vouchers please contact disbursements@ufl.edu or call 352-392-1241.

Amount Only POs for Goods and Services

To assist UF departments with certain recurring purchases from some of our most frequently used vendors, Purchasing and Disbursement Services allows the use of what was formerly known as "Blanket Purchase Orders." In myUFL, these orders are called "Amount Only POs for Goods or Services." See the Training and Organizational Development Instruction Guide website for details.

Because Amount Only POs do not provide detailed purchasing information, the University's use of them will limit Purchasing and Disbursement Services' ability to negotiate the best possible prices from our vendors. Therefore, once the myUFL/PeopleSoft systems are stabilized, Purchasing will begin identifying specific commodities for which the university could generate significant savings through the negotiated process. At that time, the use of Amount Only POs for Goods for those commodities will be discontinued.

The staff at Purchasing and Disbursement Services is dedicated to excellence in customer service in support of the purpose and goals of the University of Florida. Please do not hesitate to contact any Purchasing Coordinator with questions you may have.

Amount Only PO Specifics

The minimum amount that an Amount Only Purchase Order for Goods or Services will be opened for is $1,000.

For purchases above $5,000 we require 2 or 3 verbal price quotes. For purchases above $25,000 we require 2 or 3 written price quotes. The information needed is: what are the item(s) being quoted, who quoted the price, and the date the price was quoted. Ifyou only obtained one quote, please provide a justification as to why.

Please see the Finance and Accounting website for the Purchasing Directives and Procedures regarding monetary levels and limits.

Please see the HR Toolkits website for instruction guides on creating and using Amount Only POs.

Template for Requisition Description:
Amount Only PO for the purchase and delivery of lab supplies such as gloves, petri dishes and pipettes, with a unit price of less than $1,000 each.
Effective: 7/1/08 - 6/30/09
This is for encumbrance purposes only, releases will be made as needed by authorized department personnel to include: Dr. A Gator, Dr. Ima Genius

Remember: Amount Only POs for Goods are for non-capital (non-Asset) supplies only.

Requisitions With No Vendor? Here's How to Find the Vendor Information

Each line of a requisition must have a vendor and every requisition may only have one vendor.

If the vendor is not in the system, do a Save for Later and follow the instructions below.

NOTE: Do not use the Suggest Vendor page in the requisition as it does not send information to the AddVendor team. Requisitions cannot be processed if you use Suggest Vendor.

Search the myUFL vendor files by navigating to Vendors > Vendor Set Up/Maintenance > Vendor Information.

For more information, download the Instruction Guide Finding Vendors located online.

If you do not see the vendor or vendor address that you need to use, please email addvendor@ufl.edu.

To ensure that your request is processed within our 3 business day goal, please be sure to always include the following with each vendor request:

1. What type of transaction is prompting this vendor request? Which is the vendor providing, Goods or Services? (If this is a reimbursement, please specify)
2. Vendor Name
3. Identification Number: FEID, TIN or SSN (If you are requesting a Consultant, Employee or Student,etc. to be added, please specify)
4. Address (Both Purchasing and Remit address)
5. Phone number (If available, email and web address)

If you have any questions about the procedures to find a vendor or add a vendor, please email addvendor@ufl.edu.

Please note: Vendors will need to complete a vendor application; EFT form (if EFT payment is desired); and the University's form W-9.

These forms can be found on the Purchasing website under Information for Vendors

After September 30, 2004, invoices received from vendors that have failed to supply the University with a complete and accurate form W-9 with all necessary data to determine 1099 status will be deemed insufficient for payment until such information is received. University departments will be allowed to create an encumbrance to this vendor but a payment for an invoice will not be generated.

Is Your Requisition DENIED or ON HOLD?

When an approver "denies" or puts a requisition "on hold" it stops the process until the problem is resolved, usually at the Requestor's level.

If you have requisitions Denied or on hold, go into eProcurement > Manage Requisitions, click on the workflow icon (yellow paper sheet with blue checkmark) and slowly move your mouse over the approver that put the requisition on hold to see the message of what needs to be corrected.

Make the necessary corrections and hit Save and Submit to send the requisition back through the approval process.

Where Can I Find the PO Number Associated with a Requisition?

If you are the requestor of the requisition, you can find the PO number in your Manage Requisitions Screen in MyUFL under EProcurement.

Please see the instruction guide for Using the Manage Requisitions Screen on the HR Toolkits website.

Otherwise you can navigate in MyUFL to Purchasing > Requisitions > Review Requisition Information > Requisitions and type in your 4 digit business unit and requisition number and search. Down at the bottom of the page click on Show PO to get the PO number.

Helpful Tutorials

The Bridges website has many helpful Instruction Guides and Web Tutorials that can assist you in your daily Purchasing duties.

Some useful Instruction Guides include:
Creating a Requisition
Creating a Multiple Line Requisition
Finding Vendors in PeopleSoft
Using Item Templates (for frequently ordered items)
Grant Account Purchases
Amount Only Purchase Orders for Goods
Requisition for Services
Creating Change Requests
Where Is My Available Balance?
Paying UF Vendors for Goods and Services

These Guides and Tutorials are updated regularly, so please be sure and refresh your screen upon each visit to the site.

What is the Life Cycle of a Req to PO?

The life cycle of a requisition to purchase order is as follows:

The department initiates a requisition, then the Department Approver approves the requisition. Part of the approval process is a system budget check. If it passes budget check the requisition is routed through the system to the appropriate buyer in Purchasing.

Under IDEAL conditions and normal workload the buyer will work the requisition the day after the department approved it. Once the buyer has worked the requisition and approves it, the system will (during a batch process that evening) assign a purchase order number, budget check one more time and if successful will dispatch the purchase order to the vendor.

Therefore under IDEAL conditions if a department approves a requisition on Monday, the Purchasing Buyer will work and approve no later than Tuesday, and the system will create and dispatch a purchase order Tuesday evening. If the vendor has requested a hard copy purchase order via US Mail, the purchase order will be placed in an envelope and transmitted to UF Mail Services within 2 business days.

Where Can I See the Statuses of All Purchase Orders in My Business Unit?

Purchasing > Purchase Orders > Review PO Information > Purchase Orders
enter BU and click search.
To narrow to a specific status (such as to see all POs that are Complete in a given BU, drop down the PO status menu and choose a status)
Then click search.

Help with Budget Inquiries

Budget Inquiry for Grants
Budget Inquiry via KK
Budget Inquiry via Manager Self Service

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bridges site also maintains a list of Frequently Asked Questions that you should review often.

Bridges Alert Notices

These Alert Notices are updated continuously and will help you stay apprised of important issues and status of the PS system.

Requisitions

My Requisition is 'Stuck' or 'Has Not Yet Made a PO'

A requisition must be approved by both your Department Approver and by the Purchasing Department (if the vendor is external) before it will create and dispatch a PO.

You can check the status of your requisition by clicking on the workflow icon in your Manage Requisitions screen. This page will give you information such as, whom the requisition is pending approval with or what date and time the requisition was approved.

I Checked the Workflow Icon in Manage Requisitions and My Requisition is Not Pending with Any Approver

If you check the workflow screen and the requisition does not seem to have routed anywhere or is not pending approval with either your department approver or Purchasing Department, then you should re submit the requisition. This is done by clicking on the red edit pencil in Manage Requisitions and hitting the yellow 'Save and Submit' button again.

To follow up please click the workflow icon to be sure the requisition has routed properly.
If the requisition still shows it has not routed anywhere, please contact your Department Security Administrator and review your roles and security.
Please be aware that once a requisition is fully approved it takes overnight for the requisition to create, budget check and dispatch a PO. If the PO is not created overnight, please see below or contact purchasing@ufl.edu.

My Requisition is Showing a Budget Error. How Do I Find Out What is Wrong?

You can see your requisition budget errors in myUFL by navigating to Commitment Control > Review Budget Check Exceptions > Requisitions. Look up your requisition by business unit and requisition ID. Click on the yellow paper 'Go To' icon next to your ledger group. Click on Go to Budget Exceptions. This screen will tell you what type of budget exception you have.

Some common exceptions:
Exceeds Budget Tolerance : this means you will have to either have more money put into this budget or you will have to change the chartfield to another funding source.

Budget is Closed/Budget Date Out of Bounds : This means that you are using a chartfield string that is no longer open. If this is a grant that was extended please contact Contracts and Grants and make sure they have extended the KK date of the grant.

Budget Does Not Exists : This means that something in the chartfield information is incorrect. Please check your entire chartfield line, including department ID.

My Requisition Has 'Disappeared' From My Manage Requisitions Screen
If the requisition in question has an input date of more that a month ago then you will need to change the dates in your Manage Requisitions screen to include the date of the requisition. The Manage Requisitions screen defaults to only show requisitions up to 1 month old. After the dates have been changed click on the yellow 'Go' button at the top of the page to refresh the screen. Your requisition should now show up.

Please see the instruction guide for Using the Manage Requisitions Page for further information.

Purchase Orders

How Do I See When and How My PO Was Dispatched?

In myUFL, navigate to Purchasing > Purchase Orders > Review PO Information > Purchase Orders and enter your business unit and PO number. Next, click on 'Search'. In the lower right corner, click on the button and then click on the 'Display PO Dispatched' link. This will give you the date, time and method of dispatch. Please note that if the PO was dispatched by Print it will be put in the regular mail within 2 days of the dispatch date. POs dispatched by fax or email would have been sent to the vendor in the overnight batch processes.

How Much Is Left To Be Paid On a Purchase Order?

In myUFL, navigate to Accounts Payable > Review > Interfaces > Purchase Order Inquiry. Click on advanced search and enter your business unit and PO number. This screen displays the PO by line (make sure you click on 'View All' to see multiple lines), including any change orders to the original PO amount and any vouchers and receipts input against the purchase order. Don't forget to remove the amounts for deleted vouchers. This screen will also tell you if a PO has been finalized at a voucher. The finalized voucher will have a 'Y' under the heading Finalized Distribution.

There are also 2 Enterprise Reports to assist you with identifying open POs:

Delivered reports are placed under the Enterprise Reporting menu item in myUFL each month. Hover over the report types to see the funds included.

Or you can run the prompted Open Encumbrance Summary report at Enterprise Reporting > Access Reporting > Public Folders > Monthly Financial Reports. Choose the type of report that best describes your budgetary cost center (department report, fund report, sponsored program report). Complete the prompts and click OK to run the report. This report is updated every couple of days. Please see the Alerts page for the last update.

To learn more about reporting tools available to assist with monthly reconciliation, attend training on PST130 Departmental Reconciliations by signing up through the Training and Development link under My Self Service.

Is my PO really in the negative?

On occasion, when looking at the Open Encumbrance Summary Report or in Activity Summary, a PO will look like it has been 'over-vouchered' and has gone into a negative balance.

This can happen on POs to internal (UF) vendors such as CNS or PPD that do not go through match manager. When the internal vendor vouchers against a PO for over the amount encumbered on the PO, the voucher will use the unencumbered funds from the department's budget to cover the difference.

When this happens the PO is not in the negative and no action on the department’s part is required unless they wish to increase the PO for future invoices.

Why Can't I Finalize a PO That Has Been 'Fully Liquidated'?

A Liquidated PO is no longer encumbering any money. You can't finalize it because the PO has already released all the funds back to your budget. This means the PO has either been closed, cancelled or finalized on the last voucher.

Why Can't I Get My PO to Complete?

In MyUFL, PO's are completed (closed) through the PO Reconciliation Process. For more information on this process, please refer to the purchasing website at http://www.purchasing.ufl.edu/porecon.asp#Contents.
If you are seeing an open amount in PO Activity Summary for a PO that is completed, please refer to KK or your Open Encumbrance Report to see if the PO is truly holding an encumbrance. PO activity Summary is not an appropriate tool to see if your PO is open or closed. This screen is connected to AP and will only show the difference between the original amount of the PO and the vouchered amount and should not be used to see your open or closed POs.

For an active PO that has not been vouchered against please send a change request to Purchasing asking that the PO be cancelled. There is a two business day turn over time for processing requests. Rush requests should be sent to purchasing@ufl.edu.

If your active PO has been vouchered against, please finalize the last voucher on the PO to release any remaining money. For help with the finalization process please contact Disbursements at disbursements@ufl.edu.

If your PO is already closed/cancelled/finalized, but is still showing in KK or on your Open Encumbrance Report please contact purchasing@ufl.edu.

Change Orders

What Do I Do if My PO Has the Wrong Chartfield Information?

Changing the chartfield on an encumbered voucher to something different from the chartfield on the purchase order causes problems with commitment control, reporting and budget errors.

Best business practice is to establish an encumbrance on the specific Chartfield string which will be used to make the payment. When this is not possible, there are two options:

1) Voucher the payment on the encumbered Chartfield string. Then process an E2E correction voucher to move the expenditure to the appropriate Chartfield string. For information on processing E2Es, see the instruction guide Expense to Expense Vouchering.

2) Cancel the encumbrance and create a new one on the correct Chartfield. Be sure to enter into the description area:
"This PO replaces PO XXXX-XXXXXXXXXX - CONFIRMING DO NOT DUPLICATE".
If you enter this into the comments, do not forget to check the "Send To Vendor" box found when you click on the comment icon.

Can I Use the PO Change Request Form to Make Changes to Requisitions or TA's?

No. A PO Change Request form can only be used to make changes to existing POs.

Can I Use One Change Request Form to Make Changes to Multiple POs?

No. Please use a separate form for each PO you wish to change.

How Will I Know My Change Order Has Been Processed and How Long Will My Request Take?

Navigate in my UFL to Purchasing > Purchase Orders > Review PO Information > Purchase Orders and search for your PO by business unit and PO number.

Next to the PO number you will see the change orders have been done against that PO and you can also see the new total(s) on the PO. If you click 'Select' box next to the line the change was made to and then click on Line Comments you can see when the change was made.

Change Requests are generally processed within 2-3 business days.

Vouchers

Whose charge is this?? (Erroneous vouchering of PO's)

*Before navigating through PeopleSoft, make sure that you have the appropriate role of UF_AP_INQUIRER. If you do not, you will not be able to follow the navigation. Contact you DSA and have this role added for you.

If you do have the appropriate role, navigate to AP > VOUCHER > ENTRY > REG ENTRY. Enter the questionable voucher number under the Find Existing Value on AP Voucher page. Click the link 'Voucher Attributes' to find the UFID of the person who created the voucher.

If the voucher truly doesn't belong to you, you will need to contact the Disbursements Department at disbursements@ufl.edu and explain the situation.

Commitment Control (KK) and Enterprise Reporting

For more information on Commitment Control and Reporting please attend the classes PST130 Departmental Reconciliations and PST050 Budget and Commitment Control available through the myUFL portal under Self Service > Training and Development.

When I run my Open Encumbrance Details, it doesn't agree with what KK is telling me. Which is correct?

Commitment Control is always your most up-to-date source for information.
Enterprise Reporting (Open Encumbrance Details) depending on the data type, is updated at different times. There is a timestamp directly under the title line at the top that tells you when the data 'cube' was last updated.