Purchasing at Purdue - an Overview

There's a large variety of factors between submission of items to the price queue and PO being issued to the vendor. 

1. price queue item is created (ECN specific step)

2. Ariba PR is entered with the line items of the order, the documentation with approval and the internal account number(s) necessary

3. There can be a variety of different approvals that have to take place depending on dollar amount, funding type, vendor type

3a. If under $1k and the order has no errors (like the recent missing part number), the order goes out right away unless Procurement has set up that vendor as needing their approval.

3b. If over $1k, the account owner's Business Office has to approve. If on general funds, they usually just look to make sure there's a positive balance on the account. If it's on research funds, they not only look at the account balance but also the grant funding rules and how long the grant is valid. Sometimes they have to get documentation from the PI about how they intend to use the items being purchased. Sometimes they have to go to SPS and get sponsor approval and/or change the budgeting on the grant for the purchase. This is usually done by an account clerk in the BO. Depending on the dollar amount, the BO manager then may also need to approve.

3c. If over $10k, Procurement always has to approve the order. If it was bid out, they will be looking for the Doc number, starting with WS to verify. If it's under contract like for Dell servers, they know that and will approve the order. If it's a special circumstance, there's a Special Purchases Document that needs to be filled out and included with the order.

3d. Over $10k, after Procurement, it has to go through higher level approvers depending on dollar amount. I think under $250k stays within Engineering, higher than that has to go through the Comptroller and/or Treasurer.

3e. All orders over $5k have to go through Property Accounting. They're looking for capital assets over $5k and almost always approve the order within one business day.

4. And that's about it, then the PO is generated and sent to the vendor according to what is set up in Ariba. If that information changes (i.e. if it's an email of a person no longer around or a fax machine number that doesn't work) then the vendor won't receive it and further work will be required causing further delays. The process of obtaining needed approvals can take from 1 business day to 4+ weeks.

Note, a PO is just an order sent to the vendor, there is no money exchanged when a PO is generated. The PO has what is called NET 30 or NET 60 terms which means the vendor knows they won't receive money until 30 or 60 days after they invoice for the product. The vendor then "ships" the product to Purdue and upon receiving it, we have to document that the product has been received (either an email about license generation or a packing slip). Once the vendor invoices Purdue for the product and we've received it correctly, then a payment is set up, paid, and the process is complete.