Purchasing Reference Information

Purchasing Reference Information includes information about a purchasing process that is used repetitively in a fixed format on purchase orders. Such information includes Ship-To, Deliver-To, Ship-Via, FOB Terms, Freight Terms, Purchase Commodities and Standard Phrases. Their description and usage are described below.

6.5.5.1 Requisition Entities

Requisition entities are user-defined identifiers for a set of processing options and defaults that control how requisitions are generated and processed. At the University of Ottawa, 45 requisition entities are defined to identify various administrative units. These entities were created by using the Unit element of the accounting key as defined in SM ARTStream Ledger. The following table shows a few examples of requisition entities with their corresponding descriptions. A complete list can be found in Appendix B of this manual.

Requisition Entities Description

0101 Faculté d’administration / Faculty of Administration

1301 Bibliothèque / Library

2001 Éducation permanente / Continuing Education

3501 Service des finances / Financial Services

4001 Service des immeubles / Physical Resources

5001 Affaires étudiantes / Student Affairs

7001 Cabinet du recteur / Rector's Office

Every requisition entity includes the following defaults:

• Identifying information: the description of the requisition entity, which is the name of the Unit as defined in SM ARTStream Ledger;

• Ship-to: the value that is most often used with this requisition entity. (see section 6.5.5.3 - Ship-to, Deliver-to and Ship-via Codes for a list of default Ship-to codes for each requisition entity); • Deliver-to: is not used at the University of Ottawa and is therefore left blank;

is associated to his requisitions. The policies specified for a requisition entity apply to all of the requisitions which were created using that entity.

6.5.5.2 Requesters

A requester can be associated with one and only one requisition entity per Site. When processing requisitions, the requester ID will be picked up automatically from that person’s SM ARTStream User ID. SM ARTStream

allows us to define default Ship-to and Deliver-to codes at the requester level; if used, these defaults override those that are defined for the requisition entity. However, at the University, requester based defaults such as the Ship-to codes are not being used since they are likely to change from one requisition to another.

6.5.5.3 Ship-to, Deliver-to and Ship-via Codes

A Ship-to code is the address used on the requisition and purchase order indicating to the vendor where the ordered goods are to be shipped. At the University of Ottawa, most Ship-to codes are identical to the location where the items are used.

Ship-to codes have a maximum length of 8 alphanumeric characters. A naming convention was established to help SM ARTStream Purchasing users select the appropriate Ship-to code among a list of available values. A partial list of Ship-to codes can be found in Appendix C of this manual.

To illustrate the naming convention, refer to the example below:

Ship-to code:

01 J 347D

First 2 digits of the unit

(accounting key) Room number

e.g. Faculty of Administration e.g. room 347D

First letter of the street name e.g. Jean-Jacques Lussier

Deliver-to codes indicate the location where goods are distributed after delivery by the vendor. Since the University of Ottawa uses Ship-to codes as the point of use address, Deliver-to codes are not used.

Ship-via codes indicate the shipping method used by the vendor. A ship-via method can identify a form of transportation or the name of a specific carrier. Buyers often prefer one ship-via method or one specific carrier, depending on their needs or on the goods ordered.

SM ARTStream Ship-via codes also have a maximum length of 8 alphanumeric characters. A few examples of the 13 Ship-via codes defined in SM ARTStream are listed below and a complete list can be found in Appendix D of this manual.

Code Name

AIR Air

BES Bestway

FEDEX Federal Express

6.5.5.4 FOB Terms and Freight Terms

Free-On-Board (FOB) terms are important since they are used to pinpoint the location where liability for the goods being shipped is transferred from the seller to the buyer. Establishing who is liable for the goods determines which party should file a claim if the goods become damaged or lost during transportation. A complete list of SM ARTStream FOB term codes follows. Note that the code is only 2 alphanumeric characters long.

Code Name Description

DE FOB Destination The vendor maintains responsibility for the goods until they are physically delivered to the point specified by the buyer. Buyers prefer this term.

OR FOB Origin The buyer assumes responsibility of the goods ordered as

soon as they leave the vendor’s loading dock. Vendors prefer this term.

Freight terms are used to determine which party must pay for the freight charges. For example, the freight term of Prepaid/Charge back means that the vendor pays the freight on behalf of the buyer and will charge back that cost to the buyer on their invoice. SM ARTStream Freight terms have a maximum length of 8 alphanumeric characters and are listed below.

Code Name COL Collect INCL Included NA Not Applicable PPD Prepaid PPD/CHBK Prepaid/Chargeback

6.5.5.5 Commodities and Purchase Commodities

A commodity can be described as a group of items that share common characteristics. A commodity code is assigned to each commodity and subsequently to each vendor item. For example, when purchasing a Digital Video Disk player (DVD) you would choose the Audio-Visual Equipment & Supplies category. Code “1000” is associated with this category. Other examples of commodity codes appear in the following table:

Code Description

1600 Books, Manuals, Magazines

3100 Computers

4000 Furniture

6700 Printing, Forms & Design

The complete list of commodity codes currently in use at the University appears in Appendix E of this manual.

SM ARTStream uses commodities to route requisitions to buyers. Once a commodity is assigned to a specific buyer, the commodity becomes a purchase commodity. For commodities to be used in a workflow, they must be mapped to vendor items.

6.5.5.6 Buyers

SM ARTStream buyers are defined by Site and are mapped to Purchase Entities. Materials Management Services, Financial Services (using the process, Central invoice entry with a Purchase Order for encumbrance only), and regional buyers represent the buyers defined in SM ARTStream Purchasing. W ith the exception of regional buyers, SM ARTStream buyers can process purchase orders for all requisition entities.

6.5.5.7 Cataloged Vendor Itemsand Uncataloged Vendor Item

Cataloged Vendor Items are used for repetitive purchases and are usually associated to preferred suppliers for a specified period of time. These items are defined in the SM ARTStream vendor item database. They are mapped to a vendor and include the vendor’s item or catalog number, a description of the item, the unit price and the unit of measure. The unit of measure is the standard quantity used by a vendor for counting items that can be purchased from this vendor. To simplify matters, the unit of measure “EA” (each) is used throughout UO - SM ARTStream for vendor items. The actual vendor’s unit of measure is included in the Vendor Item description field. For example, the description for Vendor Item # 28450-026 with VW RCANLAB is: FILTER PAPER NO.1, 4.25 100/PK. The Unit of Measure for this item would be each (EA) Pack (PK) of 100.

All cataloged vendor items are also mapped to a purchase commodity which in turn routes requisitions to the appropriate buyer. However, since purchase orders are not required for purchases under $5,000.00 (excluding restricted items), vendor items are mostly used for informational purposes to obtain prices for negotiated contract items. For this reason, all existing contracts with negociated vendor items are loaded in

SM ARTStream.

Uncataloged vendor item is an item that you enter on a requisition or a purchase order but that does not exist in the vendor item database. Uncataloged vendor items can be added automatically to the vendor item database during the purchase order process if the option in turned on in the purchasing entity policy. The option is turned off.

6.5.5.8 Description Only Item

They represent the high value and non-repetitive purchases of an organization. Description Only Items are frequently used by requesters at the University of Ottawa. They qualify as exceptional purchases and for this reason no identifier is attached to the Description Only Items in SM ARTStream Purchasing. This results in a requisition line exception for every Description Only Item used on a requisition.

Since they are not attached to anything in SM ARTStream Purchasing, requisitions with Description Only Items are always routed to the buyer workgroup once approved. Sourcing will usually be done prior to entering the requisition line information.

6.5.5.9 Standard Phrases

Standard Phrases are statements frequently used by buyers on documents such as purchase orders. Standard phrases can be shipping instructions, tax information, a legal statement or some other notice. Standard phrases can be assigned to an entire purchase order or to a specific purchase order line. A complete list of

SM ARTStream standard phrases can be found in Appendix F of this manual.

Here are a few examples of standard phrases:

Code Description

S01 All Items P.S.T. Applicable

S04 Items Used Exclusively For Research Purposes

S06 All Items Duty Applicable

6.5.5.10 Purchase Entities

Purchase Entities include default options and controls required when purchase orders are processed by buyers. Purchase Entities are defined for each Site, which in turn may have their own set of default options and controls. At the University of Ottawa, only one Purchase Entity was defined for each Site with the same default options and controls for both Sites. The single Purchase Entity was defined as UOFO; it is mapped to Payable Entity CHQ and is then assigned to all buyers.

The default options and controls that were defined are:

• Payable Entity: CHQ;

• Allow for requisition date to default to PO; • Allow for Description-Only Items;

• Accounting Key validation in Ledger;

6.6

Payables