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The Procurement Services department within Financial Management Services is committed to purchasing practices and policies that are compliant, responsible and appropriately support the university's goals and mission. Accordingly, those who are making purchases on behalf of or doing business with the university must follow the applicable purchasing policies and guidelines. The Topic Overview: Purchasing and Policy Guidelines provides more information about purchasing at Stanford.

This article provides helpful guidance on recent updates and common questions that the Purchasing and Contracts Team receives about purchasing policies and processes. For recent business expense-related news, refer to the Business Expense Updates and Hot Topics article. For guidance on common questions that the Travel Team receives about booking travel, visit the Stanford Travel Updates and Hot Topics article. 

For general help with purchasing and contracts questions, contact the Financial Support Center

Added January 2025

Effective Feb. 10, suppression functionality has been removed from the Requisition and Purchase Orders Query tool. 

What is not changing

  • All previously suppressed commitments will continue to be hidden on Oracle Financial reports. Departments can Finally Close or cancel POs with suppressed PO lines. Please note: Suppression functionality prevents open purchase order (PO) line item balances (i.e., open commitments) from showing on Oracle Financials reports, but the PO remains open for invoice activity and any change orders.
  • Subaward PO lines can continue to be suppressed because of specific contractual requirements for subawards.

Best practices for managing a PO

Instead of suppressing PO lines, departments should use the following self-service tools, which are best practices to reduce risk and support accurate financial reporting. There is no need to first suppress any lines on a PO before taking the following actions:  

  • Finally Close can be used on eligible POs with previous and/or current invoice activity and relieves all outstanding commitments and permanently prevents any future invoice payments and change orders.  
  • Cancel PO can be used when the PO has no invoice activity and/or is no longer needed. Prior to canceling a PO, departments should notify the supplier.

Departments can refer to Reporting: OBI Dashboard: Procure to Pay Dashboard and Reports (P2P) to learn about several Oracle Business Intelligence (OBI) reports that can help preparers identify POs with open commitments.

For questions regarding this change, please submit a support request.

Resources

Added January 2025

After a successful pilot phase, the Stanford Mobile Approvals app is now available for iProcurement purchase requisition approvals. Enabling mobile approval as an additional option to using the Oracle Workflow Notifications web application interface can accelerate purchase request processing for departments. 

Key features include:

  • Easy Access: Quickly view and manage pending Oracle Financials purchase requisitions.
  • Secure Authentication: Ensure secure access with multi-factor authentication.
  • Real-time Notifications: Stay informed with instant push notifications about new workflow requests.
  • Detailed Request Information: Access detailed information about each requisition to make informed decisions.
  • User-friendly Interface: Navigate with ease using the app’s intuitive design in both landscape and portrait orientations.

Resources 

Added January 2025

Stanford requires all suppliers/payees to have an active record in the university’s database before a purchase or payment can be made. To ensure payments are processed correctly and in a timely manner, new domestic suppliers must complete a one-time registration through Stanford’s Supplier and Payee Registry. Foreign suppliers, visitors, and independent contractors must complete a one-time registration through the Stanford Supplier and Payee Request Portal.

On Feb. 14, 2025, Oracle is upgrading the Stanford Supplier and Payee Registry with a redesigned user interface that will only be visible to new domestic suppliers who are completing the registration process. The user interface updates are being implemented to improve the collection of profile details, meet accessibility requirements, and provide geographically responsive data entry.

Suppliers that did not start or partially completed the one-time registration process were emailed instructions to ensure their registration information is received. 

Coming soon: The Supplier and Payee Registry Quick Reference Guide will be updated to align with the launch of the redesigned user interface.

What is not changing

For questions about this upcoming change, please submit a support request.  

Added June 2024

Effective immediately, restrictions have been removed from purchasing computing hardware with a Purchasing Card (PCard), as well as through personal reimbursement (Expense Request). UIT’s preferred purchasing recommendations for hardware (desktop computers, laptops, mobile devices, and standard accessories) remain the same. However, now there are no more restrictions on using less preferred purchasing methods, such as a PCard, to purchase hardware.

These restrictions have been removed as the risks are now mitigated through alternative strategies. For example, senior leadership can access high risk business monitoring reports that provide visibility into hardware purchases within their schools and units. Additionally, Stanford University is managing the risk associated with hardware purchases through several measures. Minimum Security Standards for endpoints are designed to mitigate many of the risks associated with hardware purchases. Device enrollment, verifiable encryption, and high-risk data handling requirements are designed to ensure that Stanford University maintains a high standard of data security and compliance for all hardware used within its network.

As with the recent software purchasing guidance update, this change better balances risk reduction and administrative efficiency. Learn more about these changes on the University IT website.

For guidance on purchasing common types of goods for university use, visit Fingate’s Purchase Goods page, which describes best practices for purchasing hardware, home office equipment, lab supplies, and more. Visit the Purchase Services page for guidance on purchasing common types of services, including cloud computing, internet services and software.

Added February 2024

There are occasions when a department would like to request a rush, wire, or will call payment to wire or expedite the purchase order (PO) invoice payments made to a supplier. Rush, wire, or will call payments require a payment handling fee of $35, which must be charged to a non-sponsored PTA. 

When a rush, wire, or will call payment is requested, the department can upload the invoice on behalf of the supplier using the Upload an Invoice for Payment Processing button in the Requisition and Purchase Orders Query tool. If the department would like to request a rush, wire, or will call payment for an invoice that already appears on the PO as a pending invoice, they must contact the FSC. Uploading an invoice manually is the less preferred option for regular payment processing, instead suppliers should email invoices directly to Accounts Payable (suppliers should refer to Topic Overview: Do Business With Stanford for more information).

What is changing

On Feb. 26, 2024, to streamline and clarify the invoice upload functionality for rush, wire, or will call payments, two enhancements have been made:

  1. In the Enter PTA for Payment Handling Fees section, drop down menus for the Project, Task, and Award have been added. The drop down menus replace a previous open text field, which could result in an incorrectly entered PTA or a sponsored PTA. The Award drop down menu now only displays non-sponsored awards, which do not begin with P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W). See screenshot below.
  2. The invoice upload form is now a dynamic form and will only display the Enter PTA for Payment Handling Fees when Rush, Wire, or Will Call payment method radio buttons are selected. If the Standard payment method is selected, the Enter PTA for Payment Handling Fees will not display 

Please note: To request both a rush and wire payment, please submit a support request and there may be a $70 payment handling fee. 

Screenshot of invoice upload functionality and new drop down menus to support entering the correct non-sponsored Project, Task, and Award


For more information and to get help

Added November 2023

A supplier in Stanford’s database may have multiple locations (also called sites) and multiple contacts for doing business. When a Non-Catalog purchase requisition is created, a user is prompted to select the appropriate site to ensure email delivery of the purchase order (PO) to the supplier. As a result of user feedback, and in an ongoing effort to streamline the iProcurement purchasing experience, FMS recently made an improvement to how supplier sites are displayed and selected.

What is changing
Previously, when searching for the supplier name to indicate PO delivery from the Non-Catalog purchase requisition screen, multiple supplier sites and/or contacts may have displayed or for each supplier record. 

Because supplier contact names and representatives may frequently change, which could cause confusion when trying to identify the correct PO delivery method, those individual contact names have been removed and only the  PO Delivery Email will now display. These are typically email addresses that are less likely to change or vary (see before and after screenshot below).

In progress or past purchase orders will not be impacted by this change and it is not necessary to resubmit these purchase orders for approval. 

Please note

  • If the PO Delivery Email that is now displayed for the supplier is incorrect or missing, purchase requisition preparers can:
    • Submit a support request to update the PO Delivery Email. If the preparer knows the PO Delivery Email, it should be provided to the FSC. Also, a new supplier should not be requested if a supplier record already exists; or 
    • Refer suppliers to Topic Overview: Do Business With Stanford for guidance on how to update their own records.
  • With this change, there may be instances when duplicate supplier sites still display for the same supplier. If this occurs, preparers should select the supplier site based on the PO Delivery Email that the supplier provided. If the preparer does not know which PO Delivery Email the supplier prefers, please submit a support request

Screenshot of requisition supplier selection before the change:

Screenshot of requisition supplier selection before the change


Screenshot of requisition supplier selection before the change:

Screenshot of requisition supplier selection after the change


Since individual supplier contacts or representatives will no longer display, preparers can use the Supplier Query and Request tool in Oracle Financials to:

  • Search the database for active suppliers, including viewing specific supplier contacts and representatives
  • View and request activation of inactive suppliers
  • Update supplier information
  • Submit a request to add a new supplier/payee
  • Check the status of a new supplier/payee request that they have already requested

For further questions about this change, please submit a support request

Added November 2023/Updated May 2024

In order to support departments in purchasing software in a manner that safeguards the university and supports financial stewardship, FMS and University IT (UIT) have made recent updates to guidance and associated processes. These updates are documented in Topic Overview: Purchase Services and include the following changes:

To ensure alignment with UIT security protocols, before purchasing any software, including online software purchases with an accompanying “click-through agreement,” schools and units must consult University Information Technology's (UIT) Software at Stanford page. This resource can be used to search for specific software and how to obtain it. After searching through this directory of Software, purchasers can consult the Software Purchase Guide for next steps.

Learn more about the change on the University IT website.

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