Office of Business Operations

Purchasing

Campus Supply

Campus Supply provides an economical source of supply for a variety of campus needs including office supplies, janitorial products, tools and paper. The President's Cabinet has designated Campus Supply to be a "Vendor of First Contact". By using Campus Supply the entire University community realizes significant savings from volume purchasing, and assures that mandated Board of Regents requirements are complied with regarding purchase of certain supplies. Please refer to the Campus Supply website for further information.

Budget/Budget Year

The university operates on a fiscal year of July 1 to June 30. Each department requesting to purchase goods or services must have an account that is budgeted and funded within the university system. No expenditures may occur against accounts that have insufficient funding. Refer to University Policy 9.22 for more information on budget.

Blanket and Contract Orders

Blanket and contract orders are purchase orders which are good for a specific period of time and allow departments to purchase frequently used items as needed without writing a requisition for each occurrence. Departments may specify a "not to exceed" dollar limit on blanket orders. Call Purchasing for more information.

Authorization

Each account code combination within the University system is required to have an approval hierarchy as a means of regulating expenditures. Each department is responsible for establishing who within their organization shall have authority to purchase, and the dollar limits at which various approvals are required. This is done by completing the Authorization for e-Business Access form and submitting it to Information Technology Services, mail code 0381.

ATM's

Purchasing periodically bids and negotiates an agreement for ATM machines on campus. The contracted vendor has the exclusive right to provide money machines on the UNI campus. The current provider is listed on the UNI Contracts page.

Air Travel

Purchasing periodically bids and negotiates a contract for University air travel. All air travel reservations and arrangements should be made by the traveler or traveler's department directly with the contracted agency. UNI’s preferred travel agencies are 1) Direct Travel  2) Short's Travel (Athletics only) and 3) Humble Travel. Please refer to Purchasing Contracts for more information.  Agencies are capable of 1) online e-travel reservations, 2) e-mail reservation requests and 3) phone reservations.

Overview

The Board of Regents affirms that the best interests of the State of Iowa and the Regent institutions are served through implementation of a full and free competitive purchasing system fostered by the use of open specifications, competitive bids or quotations and awards to the lowest bidder consistent with the quality and service required. Nothing contained in these guidelines shall be construed to mean that inferior or inappropriate goods should be purchased.

Short's Travel will no longer call or email for approval before authorizing travel bookings

Effective April 2, 2012, Short's Travel will no longer call or email for approval before authorizing travel purchases. Instead, Short's will email a copy of the ticket invoice to the traveler, and also email a copy to the person(s) currently listed as the department approver. The traveler or approver will have 24 hours to call Short's to void the ticket (only applies to new tickets and not exchanges).

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