All purchases, with the exceptions of those listed in HBP 7.7.7., https://afm.utexas.edu/hbp/part-7/7-7-purchases-that-do-not-require-a-purchase-order, do require preapproval. As employees, we do not have the authority to obligate the university as such we must go through the proper channels to get the necessary approvals before we can use university funds. These preapprovals come in different forms, and depend on what you are trying to do. For travel it can be an RTA, for entertainment an OOEF, for purchasing a PO or contract, etc. This applies regardless of the dollar amount or if we are purchasing a good or service. All purchase require a valid ten-digit university account number.

The School of Human Ecology has a No Exceptions Policy related purchases and reimbursements of purchases. For all units within the School of Human Ecology, exception requests to UT policies will no longer automatically be generated by the business services team. Exception requests will only be generated on rare occasions where there exist no possible way to comply with UT policies. Below are guidelines that reflect the most common exception requests generated in the last fiscal year and align with the no-exceptions policy. Failure to comply with this policy will result in the expense being an out-of-pocket expense for the individual, unless there exists a rare occasions where there was no possible way to comply with UT policies.

1. No reimbursements for office supplies purchased using personal funds will be allowed.  Office supplies must be purchased through Today's Business Solutions (TBS) UT Market or by using the procard at Office Max in conjuction with the UT System Store Purchasing Card.
2. No reimbursements for furniture or equipment using personal funds will be allowed. Equipment and furniture must be ordered though the proper purchasing channels, completing and submitting a SoHE Purchase Request Form being the preferred method.
3. No reimbursement from purchases that are over 60 days from the transactions date or travel receipts that are over 60 days from return date on an approved RTA will be allowed.
   
4. No reimbursements for purchases made using gift cards, credits, or reward points will be allowed.
5. No sales tax will be reimbursed on purchases. Sales tax will only be reimbursed for business meals paid from personal funds when dining occurred at the restaurant.  Also, the university is not exempt from the mixed beverage sales tax and those can be reimbursed.  

The best way to ensure compliance and avoid a potential out-of-pocket expense for staff and faculty needing to purchase or order items, such as chemicals, supplies, or equipment, would be to complete a Purchase Request Form (PRF) and send the completed PRF along with any supporting documentation related to the purchase to your department administrator for review with as much lead time as possible. After your department administrator has reviewed the PRF and supporting documentation they will email the request to the Business Services Team, he-business_services@utlists.utexas.edu, for processing.

If you need assistance on completing an PRF please first review our "PRF Completion - How To" document. You can also see a "Completed PRF - Example" for reference. When submitting emails for purchases the Business Services Team, to aid in prioritization of work and any future searches, it is a best practice to include a descriptive subject line to your email. For instance, Purchase Request Form: Vendor Name - Requestor Name - Date Needed. It also helpful to include any relevant context in the body of your message related to the purchase.

UTMarket Purchasing:

 When ordering from a UT Market Punch-Out Provider you should first assign your finalized cart to your department administrator. Your department administrator will review the cart for accuracy and assign you cart to Brandi Bankhead for processing. UT Market shoppers and department administrators should review our "UTMarket Cart Examples Guide" for SoHE specific guidance related to the necessary data during the cart submission process. Additional general guidance can be found in the UT Market for Shoppers Manual.

Once the items have been shipped to your office or lab you will need to verify that all items listed on the packing slip have been received. Once you have verified that all items have been received you will then sign the packing slip and email it to he-business_services@utlists.utexas.edu, to have a receiving receipt created and payment issued to the vendor.

Purchases coordinated with CNS ITS:

CNS  provided centralized IT services for the college, as such their approval of our technology purchases is required as they are responsible for maintaining and servicing these technologies. The Business Services Team does not and has not maintained department Adobe VIP numbers, CNS ITS should have this information in their records. Please follow the below steps when coordinating technology purchases with CNS ITS:

1. Submit a CNS help ticket to request assistance with a purchase, please let them know what item(s) you would like to purchase. They may respond with alternative option(s), a quote for the item, or assign a UTMarket Cart to you. If an alternative is provided and you have a business justification for your original requested item, do let CNS ITS know why the alternative will not work and why the original item was requested. Please note, certain technology purchases will not be supported by CNS ITS.
2. If you were assigned a UTMarket cart, skip forward to step 3. If a quote was provided review the quote for accuracy and that this item(s) meet your needs and budget. When you are ready to move forward with the quote, log into the UTMarket and enter the store from which you are purchasing the item(s) from. Once in the store's punch-out site search for a purchase from quote option and upload the quote to generate at the UTMarket cart.
3. Review the UT Market cart and updated your cart information as need to align with our "UTMarket Cart Examples Guide" to ensure your cart contains the SoHE specific necessary data.
   
4. After your cart has been updated and reviewed, assign the cart to Brandi Bankhead for processing. When purchasing equipment please include the end user's EID and the location for the equipment.
   

Depending on your technology purchase, you may received an email with information about downloading software. If hardware was ordered, once it arrives you will likely need to coordinate the deployment of that hardware with CNS ITS. This can be accomplished on from your original CNS help ticket or if it has been closed, you can submit a new CNS help ticket. Please note, some purchase will require a UT Inventory TAG.

Any UTMarket cart assigned to Brandi directly from CNS ITS, will be reassigned to the requestor for review and cart submission data updates. UT Market shoppers and department administrators should review our "UTMarket Cart Examples Guide" for SoHE specific guidance related to the necessary data during the cart submission process.

Procard Purchasing:

Some purchases are allowed on university procards. All procard holders have undergone training prior to receiving their procard. As the procard holder is personally liable for any non-reconcilable transactions on their procard they can refuse to share their card with anyone whom is not willing to follow university policies. It is the procard holder's responsibility to remain up-to-date on procard policy in order to verify if the purchase is allowed on their procard. When in doubt about proper usage of their procard, they should reach out to the university's Procard Office for guidance, purchasing-procards@austin.utexas.edu. All procard resources, including the disallowed lists and other training, can be found at https://procard.financials.utexas.edu/. Any approvals from university offices related to procard purchasing should be included as part of your supporting documentation during the procard's monthly reconciliation process. 

Professional Services Purchasing:

SoHE units needing to purchase professional services should work with their department administrators to first determine if the vendor providing the professional services will be classified as an Independent Contractor or Employee by the university. Please note, a prior approved work authorization should always be in place before any professional services are received. In cases where a prior approved work authorization did not occur, we will need an exception request which will route to the Dean for approval due to the after-the-fact nature of the work authorization. Exception requests can be denied on any of the multiple levels of approval. Below is the process for securing professional services:

Professional Service Procurement Process:

Professional services can be acquired by a variety of methods Contract, Purchase Order (PO), or workday employee job depending on various circumstances. To narrow down the proper method your department administrator will need to complete an Employee/Independent Contractor Classification Checklist (EICCC) for the potential vendor to determine if the university classifies them as an employee, meaning they must be hired via workday; or as an independent contractor, meaning their services should be acquired through a purchasing mechanism.

Before an EICCC can be completed, the potential vendor must first have university Vendor ID. The department administrator can verify if an Vendor ID already exists for the potential vendor. If a Vendor ID is needed, the department administration will need to  complete a Payee Information Form (PIF) to generate a vendor ID. Detailed guidance on this can be found on our "Vendor ID-Payee Information Forms" page. A PIF is only needed if the potential vendor has not been paid by UT in the past or would like to have their vendor ID updated. Once a vendor ID has been created or updated the department administrator should complete the EICCC to determine the potential vendor’s university classification. 

If the EICCC classifies the potential vendor as an employee, the completed EICCC along with the hire details should be sent to HE-HR via a hire request form located the online request system. All HR online request forms should be assigned to the SoHE-Human Resources group as opposed to an individual EIDs.

If the EICCC determines the potential vendor is an Independent Contractor, please review the Purchase Order vs. Contract Matrix to determine the correct purchasing mechanism. If a contract has been determined as the best purchasing mechanism, please follow the guidance on our "Contract Request Submissions" page. If a PO has been determined as the best purchasing mechanism, please submit a completed PRF and itemized vendor quote to he-business_services@utlists.utexas.edu. For both, you should include the completed EICCC as part of the supporting documentation for your request.

When the total purchase is greater than $15K additional quotes or an completed, but editable, Exclusive Acquisition Justification (EAJ) form will be needed. A total purchase greater than $15K is considered a large purchase. Large Purchases require additional information and need more approvals than POs totaling $15K or less. This leads to a longer than average processing time. If you have a large purchase coming up it is better to start as soon as possible. Please email he-business_services@utlists.utexas.edu with the details of your purchase for guidance on how to proceed.

EAJs should be not be our go to method for acquiring goods or services. If you must use an EAJ as there are absolutely no other vendors who sell the item(s) being purchased that total over $15K, you must have an completed, but editable, EAJ as part of the supporting documentation you submit to the Business Services Team for processing.

EAJ: https://afm.utexas.edu/hbp/part-7/5-3-exclusive-acquisition

Non-complaint Purchases:

When our university’s procurement policies are not followed, we must request approval to process an after-the-fact purchase order (PO) for this non-complaint purchase in order to move forward with the payment request. This process is a request and can be denied at any level due to the non-complaint nature of the expense. Approval for non-complaint purchases are made at the college level or by the university’s purchasing office depending on the dollar amount. This approval is obtained by the business services team, all you need to do is provide the business justification for the non-complaint purchase in your payment request form after you've discussed the proper purchasing process with the buyer to help ensure future non-complaint purchases.

Most commonly non-complaint purchases are associated when professional services are procured without an approved work authorization (workday appointment/contract/PO) in place before receiving the goods or services. An example of this is hiring a consultant without a signed contract in place first. We also see a significant portion of non-complaint purchases related to purchases made from a vendor for a goods or service that the university has a standing contracted vendor for those exact goods and services. An example of this is the purchase of office supplies for any vendor other than Today’s Business Solutions (Office Depot/Max).

Once a non-complaint purchase is approved the business service team will internally request an after-the-fact PO be created. To speed up the process remember to include a completed Purchasing Request Form (PRF) as part of the supporting documentation in your payment request. If there is any additional clarification needed the business services team will follow-up with the payment requester via email. We will do our best to get these non-compliant payments resolved as soon as possible; however, we do prioritize work that avoids future non-complaint purchases first. 

After-The-Fact Purchase Orders (PO):

All after-the-fact POs are associated with non-complaint purchases that have been approved by the college or university’s purchasing office related to a payment request received by the business services team via an online payment request system. The business services team will use this information to complete the non-complaint purchase form which routes through docusign for approval. The buyer and the unit leader will be required to sign off on this form via docusign to confirm they are aware of the non-complaint purchase and have put measures in place to avoid similar future non-complaint purchases.

Following the directions listed in our Handbook of Business Procedures 7.2.D.3, we are required to notify the supplier of this non-compliant purchase that any future work performed without a properly approved purchase order or contract shall be at the sole risk and expense of the supplier. This notice must go out prior to issuing the payment and will be sent by the business services team with the payment requester copied. Once the after-the-fact PO has been approved and the non-compliant notice has been sent to the supplier, the business services team will move forward with the payment.

Non-Compliant Purchase Payment Procedure for Non-Business Services Staff:

1. Submit a Payment Request Form via the online request system: be sure to outline the business justification for the non-complaint purchase and included a completed PRF as part of the supporting documentation
2. Sign the non-complaint purchase form once routed to you via DocuSign: this form is signed by the buyer and unit leader
3. Keep an eye out for messages from the business services team related to any additional information needed to process the request.

If you have any questions about purchasing, please send an email to he-business_services@utlists.utexas.edu.