Purchasing

Purpose

A Purchasing Pathway indicates that a University employee has specialized knowledge required to:

• Explain how funds for purchasing are allocated, managed, and dispersed
• Demonstrate working knowledge of related policies, regulations, and terminology
• Properly handle transactions using appropriate University systems and tools
• Effectively and efficiently gather, process, and report information related to purchasing activities

Guidelines

• Pursuit of a pathway is primarily for building knowledge and skills related to success in current position
• To ensure effective learning experiences, pre-requisites may be identified for some courses
• Employees not in a purchasing-related role can still participate in the program if pre-requisites are met
• Employee and supervisor should discuss requirements and options prior to beginning a pathway program
• Employee and supervisor should discuss how learning from the various learning experiences will be applied
• Participation in pathway programs and professional development activities should be discussed regularly
• A pathway does not mean that a person has all skills required for a position. Experience is also important.

Core Requirements

Participants must complete all of the following courses:

BobcatBUY Fundamentals

Overview of the standard purchasing process, navigation of the BobcatBUY e-procurement system, and basic functionality for the shopper/requestor/approver roles. Topics include: basic search, creating and modifying carts, setting up default accounting codes and shipping locations, setting notifications, shopping in catalogs, making non-catalog purchases with an existing supplier, and submitting requisitions and workflow.

Pre-requisites: None

Chart of Accounts Fundamentals

Overview of the Chart of Accounts (COA) which provides the structure for all financial and management related reporting. Specific topics include General Ledger (GL) COA, Grants COA, segment values, object codes, functions, hierarchy, creating new values, and tools.

Pre-requisites: None

Concur Expense Reporting

Overview of navigating and using Concur. Includes setting up and managing the user profile, setting Delegates and Proxies, alerts and itineraries, creating reports, costing, per diems, and an overview of Approver structure.

Pre-requisites: None

Purchasing Card (PCard) Policies & Processes for Users

(Currently Unavailable)

Overview of Purchasing Card policies and procedures. Specific topics include, P-card controls, cardholder responsibilities, P-card do's and don'ts, allowable and unallowable purchases, overview of approval process, sales tax, audit process, and travel policy & process overview.

Pre-requisites: None

Travel Policy and Procedures

Policy overview, transportation, lodging, meals and incidentals, receipt requirements, cash advances, as well as other compliance related topics. 

Pre-requisites: None

General Electives

In addition to Core Requirements, participants must complete six additional courses from the following list:

Accounting Fundamentals

(Currently Unavailable)

This course is designed for administrators and staff who have accounting or financial responsibilities, or those that would like an accounting refresher course. Topics include: assets, liabilities, equity, revenues and expenses; balance sheet and income statement, debits and credits, and accrual vs cash-basis accounting. In addition, this class will also include an overview of the fundamental accounting practices of the university.

Pre-requisites: None

Approvers of Financial Transactions

(Currently Unavailable)

This course provides training that includes the role of the financial approver in the internal control structure, responsibilities of the financial approver and signature authority. An overview of the purpose and functionality of the Financial Approvers & Related Metadata (FARM) system will be covered. Finally, the class will review how these processes, policies and tools work in practice to ensure financial transactions are properly authorized in Concur and BobcatBUY, and contract templates and signature authority are properly executed in practice.

Attendance is restricted to participants who are set-up as approvers in the Financial Approvers and Related Metadata (FARM) system OR have signature authority to approve financial transactions.

Pre-requisites: None

Booking Group Travel

This course shows users how to book group travel with the University’s travel management company and how to use preferred provider(s). Topics include airfare, lodging, meals, transportation, expense reimbursement, international travel, and meeting space.

Pre-requisites: None

Booking Individual Travel

Shows users how to book individual travel via the travel solution and how to use preferred provider(s). Topics include airfare, lodging, meals, rental car/transportation, expense reimbursement, conference dues/memberships/registrations, allowable and unallowable charges, and International travel.

Pre-requisites: None

Contracting and Buying 

(Currently Unavailable)

Overview of how the University contracts and buys good & services including competitive bidding, review of the RFP/RFQ, quotes, and contracting processes, and the application of signature authority in the contracting & buying processes.

Pre-requisites: None

Distributed Journal Entry Preparation

Shows users how to download and fill out an Excel Journal Entry Template.  Also reviews pertinent areas of the Chart of Accounts. Course is available to everyone responsible for journal entry preparation. CFAO permission is not required for this course.

Pre-requisites: Chart of Accounts Fundamentals

Distributed Journal Entry Processors

Shows users how to Login to Oracle Ebiz and Stage, Validate, and Upload a Journal Entry using the Journal Entry Tool (JET).  Also explains how to monitor the Posting process.

Please check with your CFAO prior to taking this course.  This course is for those individuals designated to be Journal Entry Processors in their Planning Unit.

Pre-requisites: Distributed Journal Entry Preparation

Grants Accounting Fundamentals

Provides a more in-depth look at the Grants Chart of Accounts (COA) and the Grants Management System. Topics include Grants COA and how it is used, segment values, understanding dates, auto-accounting, and tools & reporting.

Pre-requisites: Chart of Accounts Fundamentals

Higher Education Business Model

(Currently Unavailable)

This course guides participants through an examination of the financial models of higher education institutions, external challenges facing higher education institutions, and the implications of these challenges at OHIO University.

Pre-requisites: None

Oracle Business Intelligence (OBI) Navigation

The Oracle Business Intelligence (OBI) Navigation eLearning course is a self-study course that will introduce users to the basics of OBI Reporting.  In this course, you will learn how to select prompts, save customizations, export and print reports and dashboards, as well as drilling down on specific information and changing the report view in the search results.

Pre-requisites: None

Oracle Business Intelligence (OBI) Reporting Fundamentals

This course will review the dashboard pages contained on the Finance dashboard (available to all faculty and staff).  The course will focus on reviewing prompts available for selecting data; segment value hierarchies utilized in the dashboard prompts; and understanding the drilldown options available from each page.  This course will provide information about the purpose of each dashboard page and how to use the various pages most effectively.  While most dashboard pages ultimately end up displaying transaction details, we’ll discuss which page gets you to your information most efficiently.  Participants should be familiar with pivot tables and vlookups in Excel prior to attending. An OBI Navigation video is required pre-work.

Pre-requisites: Chart of Accounts Fundamentals, OBI Navigation

Preferred Supplier

(Currently Unavailable)

Participants will learn what our preferred suppliers are, and why we purchase from them.  Participants will also learn about related tools and reporting guidelines related to purchasing from preferred suppliers.

Pre-requisites: None