Procurement and Contract Services Education Forum
September 30, 2016
Purchasing Thresholds and Cooperative Purchasing
Discussion Notes
· Only one (1) No Bid is allowed on informal bids ($10,000.01 - $30,000.00)
· All fields are required for bid information. If fields are not completed, the requisition will be rejected and cause a delay in your process. Purchasing will no longer complete bid information for blank fields.
· Cooperative purchasing allows you to avoid purchasing thresholds and negates the need for bids or quotes.
· The following co-ops require you to have a login.
o Educational & Institutional Cooperative Purchasing (E&I)
o Buyboard - Contact to obtain login information for Buyboard.
· Purchasing thresholds are cumulative and apply to all purchases made by all departments with a particular vendor.
o To see if purchasing thresholds have been met for your desired vendor:
§ Sign into iProcurement
§ Click on the Requisition tab
§ Click the Search button
§ Clear all fields
§ Search vendor’s name
o You will see, as shown below, all purchases made with that vendor and be able to tell if a purchasing threshold has been met within the current fiscal year. A glance at the purchase dollar amounts and their corresponding dates tells you that this vendor has not yet exceeded the $10,000 threshold for fiscal year 2017. You can also see that the vendor did exceed it for FY16 purchases (circled in red).
· You can see monthly reports that list totals for money spent with vendors.
o Those are found here.
· Even if a vendor has not reached a purchasing threshold, obtaining several quotes is good business practice as it can result in your finding a lower price with a different vendor.
· Remember to always use the forms that are posted on the website under Forms and Instructions rather than a version previously saved to your desktop. These forms change as rules and policies do. Using an outdated form can result in delays.