Purchasing FAQ

Topics

Computer Software & Vendor Risk Assessment (Now on Purchasing Types Page)
Gift Card Policies: Employees and Non-Employees (Now on Purchasing Types Page)
Procurement Card (P-Card) Policies
Purchasing Acronyms
Sole Source Purchases  (Now on Purchasing Processes Page)
Supplier Agreement Signature Request Process

P-Card Do's and Don'ts

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Purchasing Acronyms

Supplier Agreement Signature Request Process

A department may receive an agreement from a supplier to sign on behalf of the university. Situations when this might happen include:

• Supplier agreement for terms and conditions when arranging an off-campus conference venue. 
• Credit agreement to do business with a supplier
• Agreement to sign for terms and conditions associated with a piece of equipment or software

Please note that departmental staff and faculty are not authorized to sign any supplier agreements on behalf of the university.  The buyers in Procurement and Contracting Services are authorized to sign, with the Agreement Request forms in Aggie Enterprise used to route applicable requests to them.

Steps 

There are four (4) Agreement Request forms that can be attached to supplier agreements requiring university signature approval of Procurement and Contracting Services. 

• Agreement Review - Catering, Lodging, or Event Agreement (card payment)
• Agreement Review - Non-Disclosure
• Agreement Review - Online Subscription (card payment)
• Agreement Review – No Cost Agreement – Other 

The agreement request forms are considered no-cost agreements as the associated expense is generally made outside of the Aggie Enterprise system, such as on a Travel Card or Procurement Card. There is no cost transaction processed in Aggie Enterprise. 

1. Most of the fields on the No-Cost Agreement forms are the same as those on the Quantity Based Requisition but automatically default the necessary data. Only the Item Description and Supplier fields are required.
   • The Item Description should be a summary of the agreement being requested.
   • The complete business purpose for the agreement signature request should be entered in the Description field in the Header of the Requisition document.
      
2. The supplier agreement requiring the university signature is to be electronically attached to the document.
   1. You need to put a note on the document that the vendor requires our signature on the their attached agreement.     
      **If the agreement will be sent as a DocuSign agreement then you also need to put that in the notes along with the email address that the document will be coming from.
       
3. The No Cost Agreement requires approval from the chart string approver, as well as a buyer in Procurement & Contracting Services.  Note: Chart of Accounts is only used for Financial Department approval, the encumbrance of $0.01 can be released once this agreement is no longer needed by requesting closure of the associated PO.
    
4. The buyer negotiates with the supplier to finalize the terms and conditions for the purchase agreement before signing. The resulting Purchase Order is considered the official "agreement," and the PO number should be cited when purchases are initiated against the agreement.

What About Vendor Credit Applications?

When requested by a supplier to do so, consider the following:

• You may provide the supplier with an unsigned but otherwise completed copy of the application along with a copy of our credit information. The supplier may be satisfied with this. Our UC Davis Credit Reference Letter contains this information. Contact Procurement & Contracting Services if you need a copy of the credit reference letter.  Send a copy of a current W9.
• Does your department have a Procurement Card? If so, try using that with the supplier.
• If the supplier refuses to accept either of the above two options, consider other sources for the same or equivalent product.

If you’ve tried the above options with no success, and absolutely require the product and cannot get it from another source, you will need to:

• Submit the application to your Business Partner/Business Manager: They will submit it as an attachment to the appropriate type of Agreement Review document as described above.
• Include a note on your document that you attempted to get the supplier to accept the UC Davis credit reference letter without signing their agreement and that you were unable to locate another source.
• In the item description area of your Agreement Review document, please indicate what types of items you intend to purchase from the supplier on future Requisitions.

Download this information here:

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