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Home : Purchasing : Purchasing Tips

Purchasing from State Funds Basic Tips

General Information | Allowable Purchases | Food & Hospitality | Prohibited Purchases | Source of Funds
Purchasing Methods | Vendor Selection | Tips for PeopleSoft Data Entry | Year End | Other Tips | Tax Information

General Information

For all funds managed by the KU Medical Center, including restricted fees, fee, and appropriation funds, the Medical Center operates under a business practice policy that all procurement of supplies and services must be reviewed and approved prior to the procurement. This review and approval is conducted by the KUMC Purchasing Department. Because of this business practice policy, it is mandatory that a requisition/purchase order be created by the individual department through the PeopleSoft system prior to the ordering of any supplies, services or equipment. Departments are not authorized to commit state funds without creating and receiving an approved KUMC purchase order.

The University of Kansas Medical Center maintains a policy of centralized purchasing. All orders placed by or on behalf of the University of Kansas Medical Center must be processed through the KUMC Purchasing Department and receive a purchase order number.  Requisitions are created by departments and KUMC purchasing staff will review them for compliance with state-wide or University contracts, adherence to purchasing statutes, and the need to seek competition from alternate vendors. 

Purchasing administers the Business Procurement Card Program, which allows cardholders to make purchases using the card, in accordance with state and university requirements, without a purchase order.  (KUMC Purchasing Home page)

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Allowable purchases from state funds

  • Postage for official state business. 
  • Telephone and audiovisual services
  • Copies, printing
  • Travel – vicinity, in-state and out-of-state.  Subject to expense limitations
  • Contracted services -
  • Institutional dues, memberships or subscriptions - must be in name of university and state that the membership is institutional and transferable
  • Office supplies
  • Printer Toner
  • Computer hardware and software
  • Equipment

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Food & Hospitality - Caution

  • KUMC uses the guidelines set by the State of Kansas for the Official Hospitality Reimbursements located on the State of Kansas website http://www.da.ks.gov/ar/ppm/ppm03351.htm (KUMC purchasing web site). 
  • For the Wichita campus, food can be purchased for an official function sponsored by a department, e.g. conference, as long as a fee is charged to all participants.  The department must have a restricted fee account/speedtype to collect/deposit the fees and subsequently pay expenses.

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Prohibited purchases from state funds

  • Individual memberships or subscriptions
  • Goods/services purchased from personal funds and submitted for reimbursement are generally not allowed and should be avoided
  • Postage for holiday greeting cards (KSA 21-3911) and offsite gatherings, e.g., student parties, holiday parties

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Source of Funds

  • To determine how to make a purchase, first determine the source of funds, e.g. state (APP, RFF) or private (KUEA, KUMCRI). 
  • Purchasing with state funds (KUMED) and KUMCRI (RINST) takes place via PeopleSoft financials.  
  • For PeopleSoft KUMED purchases, the following are the most common speedtype accounts. 
    • General use (APP) – APP#####
    • Restricted fee (RFF) – RFF#####
  • Purchasing with private, KUEA $ takes place via a KUEA check request and ultimately process by KU Endowment in Lawrence. 

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Purchasing Methods

  • If using state funds, there are two methods to purchase goods and services:  purchase order (PO) or Business Procurement Card (BPC).
  • All state purchasing policies apply, including use of state contract vendors, regardless of the method used to purchase. 
  • Purchasing via BPC is somewhat easier than purchasing via PO because the BPC card allows you to purchase goods and services prior to entering the transaction in PeopleSoft.  However, all BPC purchases/transactions must be entered into PeopleSoft within three business days of the transaction (BPC manual).

Purchase Order

    • When using a purchase order to purchase goods/service the requisition MUST be entered on-line in PeopleSoft, approved by KUMC Purchasing and issued to the user before  goods/services are ordered from the vendor.  If goods/services are ordered before receiving KUMC Purchasing approval, you may have to return the goods/services and/or pay with private funds.  

BPC Card

    • When using a BPC card, state contracts must be utilized, if available (BPC manual).  However, not all state contracts allow the use of a BPC card.  Purchasers can verify by reviewing the contract language on the first or second page of the state contract, e.g. “Agencies may use State of Kansas Business Procurement Card for purchases from this contract”.   
    • Conference and seminar registrations may be purchased with the BPC card if the cardholder has submitted the Request to Charge Registration to the BPC form (BPC manual).
    • Memberships and subscriptions are allowable and must be in the name of the Agency. The invoice must state that the membership/subscription is ‘institutional’ or that it is transferable, in order to use the card and University funds. Professional personal memberships are not allowable.
    • The BPC may not be used to pay another state agency, e.g. Wichita State, KDHE. 
    • For a complete instructions on use of a BPC card, prohibited purchases and blocked vendors, reference the BPC manual located http://www2.kumc.edu/finance/pdf/BPC.pdf

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Vendor Selection

  • The State of Kansas establishes state-wide purchasing contracts for use by all state agencies. In addition to these state-wide contracts, the KUMC Purchasing Department establishes contracts for use by University departments (KUMC Purchasing, Contracts web site).   Hence, a KUMC contract may exist for an item even though there is no state contract. 
  • Purchases made via private funds (KUEA) do not require the use of state protected or state contract vendors. 

Selecting a vendor:

  • Purchases must be made from a protected vendor (Req & Receiving manual) in the State of Kansas Products and Services Manufactured and Offered by Blind or Severely Disabled Kansans catalog located http://www.da.ks.gov/purch/KansansCat.htmAll state agencies are required by state statute to purchase first from these state protected vendors. 
    • Cartridge King – printer toner
    • Envision – pens, mechanical pencils, highlighters, markers 
    • KETCH – binders
    • Kansas Correctional Industries (KCI)
    • Training & Evaluation Center of Hutchinson (TECH) – rubber ink stamps, nameplates & badges
  • Purchases must be made from a vendor with a statewide contract (Req & Receiving manual).  The most common vendors are:
    • Corporate Express – office supplies, printer toner.  To order from Corporate Express, you must complete on on-line training http://www2.kumc.edu/finance/purchasing/eway.html and setup an account 
    • W.W. Grainger – janitorial supplies, maintenance stock supplies, building supplies
    • Software House International (SHI) – computer software
    • Fisher Scientific – Lab Supplies

See http://www.da.ks.gov/purch/contracts/contract.asp to search state contracts.  Some state contracts charge an administrative fee which has to be included into the total purchase price.  A statement regarding such is typically found on the first or second page of the contract, e.g. “Administrative fees have been incorporated into the prices in this contract” or “Administrative fees have not been incorporated into the unit prices of this contract but will be added as a separate line item”.

  • Purchase from a non-contract vendor, i.e. vendor of choice.  For purchases from a non-contract vendor, you must obtain fixed pricing/quote prior to purchase of the entire transaction (Req & Receiving manual).
  • If you wish to purchase off-contract, call KUMC Purchasing for guidance.  Purchasing off-contract requires completion of a Prior Authorization Form (PAF) located  http://www2.kumc.edu/finance/pdf/PriorAuthToPurchase.pdf (KUMC Purchasing, Contracts web site)

Adding or changing a vendor – obtain a completed and signed W9 from the vendor.  Submit request on line at http://www2.kumc.edu/finance/forms/Purchasing_AddVendor.html
and fax the W9 to KUMC purchasing at ext. 8-1102 (KUMC Purchasing, Forms web site). 

  • Some goods & services are provided internally by the KUSM-Wichita Service Divisions.  They are: 
  • Computer hardware or software – first contact Information Technology Services
  • Telephone and audiovisual equipment – Information Technology Services
  • Printing and graphic design – University Relations
  • Copies  – Educational Technology
  • Postage – Educational Technology
  • Paper – Educational Technology or state contract vendor Corporate Express
  • State vehicle/motor pool – Facilities Management
  • Building maintenance – Facilities Management

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Tips for PeopleSoft Data Entry

  • Entering comments is extremely important to communicate the details of your order – to the vendor, KUMC purchasing, and as a reminder to you!  The speedtype does not print on the purchase order but if entered the comments panel, it will print on the purchase order.   
  • All purchasing transactions require an account code upon entry into PeopleSoft, aka State of Kansas object code located http://da.state.ks.us/ar/ppm/ppm07002.pdf  The account code is simply a method for KUMC and the State of Kansas to track expenses categorically and easily report expenditures for all state agencies.
  • Verify the “ship to” address on the purchase order before you send it to the vendor.  Add your office room number to ensure delivery to your department
  • On all Corporate Express orders, KUMC requires the item number to be entered at the beginning of the ‘Long Description’ field when entering a requisition and at the beginning of the ‘Item Purchased’ field when entering a BPC transaction in PeopleSoft. This enables KUMC to confirm contract pricing if they have a question regarding the purchase.

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Year End

  • Critical procedures and deadlines are implemented in May and June near the close the fiscal year June 30. 
  • A PeopleSoft users meeting is held in June to review year-end procedures and deadlines.   
  • Regardless of the type of state funding, e.g., APP, RFF, transactions must be entered in the appropriate fiscal year. 

The following rules apply when determining the fiscal year to be charged: 

  • Generally the date an item is ordered or the date service is rendered determines the fiscal year to be charged.  Please note, the date of the invoice does not determine the fiscal year to be charged.
  • Rental equipment expenses are determined by the ending date of the period. Maintenance or service contracts are determined by the beginning date of the period.
  • Subscriptions and memberships are determined by the beginning date of the period. (KUMC year-end memo)
  • Due to the complex nature of year-end processing, call Administrative & Financial Services (AFS), ext. 3-2610 for guidance and year-end training. 

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Other Tips

  • When in doubt, call KUMC Purchasing at ext. 8-1100.
  • Bids are required for purchases of $10,000 or greater.
  • Prices on the Corporate Express contract update quarterly.
  • A purchase order amount, speedtype, description or quantity, can be changed, add or delete lines, anytime before you “receive” on it.    This process is called a change order. 
  • Do not sign any document that is legally binding to you or the university, e.g. copier, rental, hotel agreements, credit applications, etc.   
  • All contracts and service agreements require approval thru Administrative & Financial Services and the Dean’s signature before committing the university to any agreement.  In short, do not sign any document on behalf of the university. 

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Tax Information

  • The KUSM-W federal taxpayer ID number is 48-1124839.  This is the same number as KUMC.   
  • The KU School of Medicine -Wichita is sales tax exempt by state statute and does not pay sales tax.  Our sales tax exemption extends to purchases from private funds, e.g., KUEA and KURI as well.    Therefore, do not pay sales tax on invoices billed directly to the University.
  • When vendors request proof of our sales tax exemption, provide them our tax exempt form located http://www2.kumc.edu/finance/pdf/KSTaxCertificate.pdf