At the Finance Fall 2013 What’s Up? presentation held on October 4th, we announced some new changes to the way purchase orders are set up and how PO invoices are to be submitted.

A purchase order is issued for goods/services by Contracts & Purchasing Services based on a department’s requisition. Before submitting a requisition in FTS, departments are asked to review available Procurement Pathways for alternate methods of buying products/services. For example, many products can be easily purchased with the ProCard.

Receipt and/or Inspection of Purchase Orders
In the past, purchase orders were set up to require a receipt and sometimes, an inspection action. Receipts were primarily entered in CFS by Distribution Services, while an inspection was entered by the department end user.

Now, department end users:
1.  are responsible for entering receipts in CFS for purchase orders for itemized goods, printing orders, and Public Works.
2.  do not need to perform an inspection action in CFS for orders other than itemized, printing, or Public Works.
3.  may receive an emails notice from Accounts Payable to review invoices and respond to them with the CFS PO Receipt Number.

Blanket Purchase Orders
A blanket purchase order allows for multiple purchases from a single vendor when the quantity or frequency of delivery cannot be determined at the time the purchase order is initiated. A blanket PO is good for one year; however, the time period is not constrained by fiscal year. As with regular purchase orders funds are encumbered upon the issuance of a blanket PO.

In the past, departments did not factor tax and/or shipping on their requisition for a Blanket Order. These charges were added into the PO by the Contracts & Purchasing Services Buyer. The amount represented in the PO line was for the cost of products/services only. When a department performed a receipt entry in CFS, the amount they entered was only for products/services without the tax and/or shipping.

Now, department end users:
1. can determine the amount they wish to spend with a single vendor in their requisition. This amount will include the cost of products/services, tax, and/or shipping.
2. do not need to enter a receipt for blanket order POs in CFS.
3. may receive email notices from Accounts Payable to review invoices and respond to them with an approval to pay.
4. can modify a PO (e.g., decrease/increase amount or close entire PO) by submitting a Change Order Request to Contracts & Purchasing Services.

End users will perform the above mentioned receipt action for purchase orders issued in the current and past fiscal years.

Coming Soon e-Invoice
e-Invoice is a quick and convenient method for vendors and departments to sent purchase order invoices electronically to Accounts Payable. Department end users will be able to view submitted invoices in FTS by locating the original requisition. A dedicated portal for e-Invoice will be located in the Accounts Payable section of the Finance website.

e-Invoice is scheduled to go live in November 2013. Stay tuned for more info!!