eBuy Enhancements (09/2016)

By Bobbi McCracken (Associate Vice Chancellor for Business & Financial Services and Controller) and David Gracey (Director of Enterprise Application Development) |
Riverside, Ca –
As part of campus Organizational Excellence and Lean Thinking processes, Business & Financial Services and Computing & Communications are pleased to announce the following enhancements to eBuy.

PO Invoice Department Approval Threshold: UC policy requires explicit approval for the payment of purchase order-related invoices above a designated threshold. After discussing with Organizational CFAOs, the group overwhelmingly supported increasing our campus threshold from $5,000 to $10,000. This change will reduce the number of explicit department approvals by more than fifty percent. The Accounts Payable unit will begin using this higher threshold immediately.

Invoice Approval Tool: To complement the increase to the department explicit approval threshold, a new invoice approval tool has been created to allow for the electronic routing and approval of invoices requiring explicit approvals. This new tool will be utilized for both PO invoices $10,000 and above. In order to effectively utilize this new approval tool, the eBuy approver role must be assigned in the Enterprise Access Control System (EACS) by the unit’s Systems Access Administrator (SAA). This role should only be assigned to individuals with the authority to perform these approvals on behalf of the department; in the past, this approval has been designated via the Signature Authorization form. SAAs should consult with their department head and department financial & administrative officer to determine the appropriate individual(s) to perform these approvals. Department SAAs are asked to assign the eBuy Invoice Approver role to those individuals with the delegated authority to approve PO invoices above the designated threshold by October 14, 2016.

eBuy Change Orders: To streamline processes and reduce errors, several new business rules will be deployed in eBuy for both POs/Blankets and DAPOs this weekend:

  • FAU change orders will be limited to PO and DAPO lines with no associated payment voucher. This change should result in fewer payments against an incorrect FAU and reduce the need for cost transfers.
    • For example, if a PO line item is partially paid, an FAU change order cannot be processed for this line item; however, the eBuy transactor can process a change order to reduce the PO line by the unpaid amount and add a line for the remaining amount with the new FAU.
    • Vendor change orders will be limited to POs and DAPOs that have not previously been paid (i.e. there are no payment vouchers associated with the order). Care should be used when selecting vendors for use with a purchase order as PO/DAPOs are legal, contractual obligations and payments can only be issued to the vendor specified. If the erroneous vendor selection is not detected prior to AP vouchering the payment, the PO will need to be cancelled/closed out and a new PO created under the appropriate vendor.

In addition, logic will be added to eBuy to address new UC and state requirements:

  • UC Fair Wage/Fair Work: based on business rules in place in eBuy, in certain situations, buyers will be required to identify purchase orders subject to this requirement under the Selection tab.
  • State Prevailing Wage: eBuy transactors will be presented with a question when the purchase order appears to be related to maintenance goods and services or service requisitions where Prevailing Wage may apply (i.e. public works type projects greater than $999.99); if public works projects are involved, the transaction will need to be routed to Procurement Services for evaluation.

These new tools and business rules are intended to streamline processes and reduce processing errors. Please submit questions to ebuyhelp@ucr.edu.