The Requisition (REQS) document is used to document a purchasing request of goods or services from an outside supplier.

Before creating a KFS Requisition, you should always check first to see if the requested item(s) are available in AggieBuy, the UC Davis e-procurement system.  If so, the transaction should be processed through AggieBuy and not on the KFS Requisition.  The Requisition is NOT a Purchase Order, it is a request for the creation of a Purchase Order.  After you complete and submit the Requisition document, click the Route Log tab at the bottom of the document to see where the document is in the routing cycle.  A Purchase Order is created once all appropriate approvals have been secured, including from the fiscal officer assigned to the account(s) cited on the request. The initiator of the KFS Requisition receives a copy of the PO in their KFS Action List once the document has been finalized.

Depending on the dollar amount and type of purchase, an Automatic Purchase Order (APO) or a Purchase Order (PO) created by Procurement & Contracting Services will be created.

Before creating a Requisition, there are two important university policies with which you should be familiar: Covered Services, which limits the types of services that can be contracted with outside suppliers, and Small Business First, which requires the use of a certified Small Business (SB) or Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE) for most purchases between $10K and $250K.

Contents

1. Restricted Access
2. When does a Requisition Route to Procurement & Contracting Services?
3. Processing Purchases Against Purchase Agreements (Campus and Department-Specific)
4. Requisition Detail Section
5. Delivery Section
6. Vendor Information Section
7. Items Section
8. Accounting Lines Section
9. Capital Asset Section
10. Billing Info Section
11. Price Source Section
12. Notes and Attachments Section
13. Printing Purchase Orders (POs)

1. Restricted Access

KFS Purchasing Training is required before creation access is granted to the Requisition document.  Online training is available in the UC Learning Center (search on "KFS Purchasing Online" to locate and complete the training). Once you complete the training, access will be available to you the next business day.

2. When does a Requisition Route to Procurement & Contracting Services?

If any of the below conditions are met, your Requisition will route to Procurement & Contracting Services for review and order placement by a buyer after being approved by the fiscal officer.  The buyer in Procurement & Contracting Services will create the Purchase Order. If none of the conditions below are met, an automatic Purchase Order will be created after the fiscal officer has approved the Requisition.

• The total is greater than the APO (Automatic Purchase Order) limit ($10,000 and higher for most departments) and the Commodity Code is not indicated as Published Material (published materials commodity codes do not route to Procurement & Contracting Services).
• The Items tab contains an item that the Requisition initiator checked as Restricted (unless citing an Agreement # that cites the Commodity Code referenced on the Agreement's Restricted Commodity Code tab).
• One or more Commodity Codes are indicated as Restricted.
• The selected vendor is marked as Restricted.
• The vendor was NOT selected from the vendor database (vendor information was manually entered by Requisition initiator).
• The 'PO Total Cannot Exceed' amount has been entered (in the Additional Institutional Info tab and the Order Type is NOT Repair).
• The Requisition contains:
  • Entries in the Additional Suggested Vendor Names tab
  • Additional Charges section, Trade In entered
  • Additional Charges section, Full Order Discount entered
  • An entry in the Capital Asset section,  which is NOT identified as a Fabrication in the Items tab
• The Vendor selected is identified as an Employee.
• The Vendor selected is identified as an Individual.

3. Processing Purchases Against Purchase Agreements (Campus and Department-Specific)

You can create a Requisition against a Purchase Agreement of Blanket type. 

NOTE: It's not possible to create a Requisition against a Revenue or No Cost Agreement.  No Cost Agreement payments are generally processed on a university Travel Card or Procurement Card, depending on the type of commodity or service for which payment is being made.

You have several options for creating a Requisition against a Purchase Agreement.  Consult with your fiscal officer to determine what option your department prefers:

• Create one Requisition for the Not to Exceed Amount of the Purchase Agreement, which will encumber the entire dollar amount at one time. 
• Create a separate Requisition for each purchasing transaction against the Purchase Agreement.  This option will only encumber the specific dollar amount for that transaction.

1.  In the Vendor Information tab on the Requisition document, click on the Agreement Number lookup icon to do a search for the agreement.

2.  On the Agreement Lookup screen, use any of the search fields to search for the agreement, including the name of the vendor to which the agreement was established.  If you have the Agreement Number handy, you can simply enter it in the Agreement Number field.

3.  Once you locate the desired search result, click on the Return Value link in the left column to return the agreement data to the Requisition.  You will only be able to use agreements that are active and are not restricted to another organization (department) than the one for which you are purchasing.

4.  Complete the other required fields, identified with an asterisk (*), and click the Submit button.

5.  The completed document will route for approval by the fiscal officer.

6.  If the dollar amount allocated for an Automatic Purchase Order (APO) is not exceeded (dollar amount in APO Limit field), an APO will be created. A copy will be automatically sent to the Requisition initiator in their KFS Action List.

Visit the Agreement Guide to learn more about the benefits of using agreements, as well as the various ways of utilizing them.

NOTE: Once the agreement Not to Exceed Amount has been reached, additional Requisitions cannot be processed against the agreement without processing an amendment to the Purchase Agreement.  The remaining amount allowed to be spent on the agreement is updated nightly, based on all approved Requisitions/Purchase Orders issued against that agreement that business day.

4. Requisition Detail Section
 

The Requisition Detail section identifies the organization for which the Requisition is being created.  This is also the section where you identify if the Request is for a Repair Order in the Request Type field.  When completing the Requisition Detail section,  there are two questions regarding the work to be performed:

1. Will any work be performed in the US?
2. Will any work be performed in California?

These questions are on the Requisition for tax reporting purposes. The answers to each of these questions default to N/A (Not Applicable).   In most cases, the answers can be left as N/A unless you are purchasing services (not goods) from a foreign or out of state vendor.  When purchasing services from a foreign or out of state vendor, answers should be provided to each question. The answers to these questions ensure that the university is meeting its tax reporting and withholding obligations.

5. Delivery Section
 

The Delivery tab is used to identify where the requested goods or services are to be delivered/performed. There are several ways that this can be done.

• Use Org Address: Click the Use Org Address button to return the default shipping address information assigned on the Organization document for the organization specified in the Document Overview tab (Requisition Detail, Chart/Org fields). If the default shipping address for the Organization needs to be updated, an Organization document should be processed in KFS.  For Davis on-campus deliveries, make sure you include the ONE SHIELDS AVE designation in the Address Line 2 field, such as indicated on the ONE SHIELDS AVE page.  The ONE SHIELDS AVE designation is required for on-campus deliveries made by the US Postal Service (USPS).

• Enter Address: Click the Enter Address button and the address, city, state, postal code, and country information can be manually entered.  For Davis on-campus deliveries, make sure you include the ONE SHIELDS AVE designation in the Address Line 2 field, such as indicated on the ONE SHIELDS AVE page.  The ONE SHIELDS AVE designation is required for on-campus deliveries made by the US Postal Service (USPS).

• Building Lookup: NOTE: If a delivery is being made by the USPS, this option is not advised, as it does not include the ONE SHIELDS AVE designation.  Entering the address manually, or using the org address, as indicated above, is recommended.  Click on the lookup icon next to the Building field to access the Building Lookup. This lookup includes codes for university-owned buildings on the Davis and Sacramento (Health) campuses. This lookup also contains codes for many university-leased buildings in other locations outside of Davis and Sacramento. Using this lookup will return the applicable street address, city, state, and postal code to the main screen of the document. When using this option, you can click the Set as Default Building button, and subsequent Requisition documents will default this building as the "default" delivery location (but you can always change it at any time).   The Room field will also be searchable when using the Building Lookup option. Click on the lookup icon to access the Room Lookup screen. Click on the Search button to see all rooms assigned to the building you have selected and select the appropriate one.

The Delivery To field defaults the name of the initiator, but you can change this information, as needed.  Click the lookup icon to access the Person Lookup. This table allows you to search for the employee for whom the delivery should be made. When you locate the employee, click on the Return Value link to return the full name of the employee, along with the phone number and email (if this information is not available for the employee in the campus directory it will not display and should be manually entered on your document).

6. Vendor Information Section
 

The Vendor Information section is used to identify the vendor to which the associated Purchase Order may be placed. Click on the lookup icon next to the Suggested Vendor field to locate the desired vendor; the information for that vendor will default in the various fields in this section. 

If you are creating a Requisition against an existing Purchase Agreement, do NOT do a search on the Suggested Vendor field, but follow these instructions for creating a Requisition against an agreement.

For Requisitions that become Automatic Purchase Orders (within the department's delegation), the selected vendor will be the one used; for Requisitions that route to Procurement & Contracting Services, the selected vendor may or may not be used. Refer to the help guide in the Procurement & Contracting Services section of the Supply Chain Management website if you are unable to locate the vendor or if you need to update information on the vendor (e.g., address).

7. Items Section
 

In the Item Type field:

• Qty option should be used if the Quantity and UOM (Unit of Measure) fields will be completed (e.g., a purchase for 12 each textbooks or 3.5 hours of research time).
• The No Qty option should be used if the purchase is not measured by quantity (e.g., an order for a cleaning service where the amount of time is not known). If the No Qty option is selected, the Quantity and UOM fields are NOT allowed and cannot be completed. In most cases the selected Commodity Code on the Requisition will drive the tax calculation, so you should not select the nontaxable options (unless you are selecting a taxable commodity code that should not be taxed for your particular purchase).
• If Qty option is selected AND the purchase is for capital equipment (at or above $5,000) OR if the total of the Requisition exceeds $10,000, the Line Item Receiving document is required before the Payment Request can be processed against the resulting Purchase Order. If the No Qty option is selected, the Line Item Receiving document cannot be used.
• If Qty is selected, once the amount is fully indicated on the Payment Request, the Purchase Order is automatically closed. For example, if you process a Requisition for three gallons of milk, and you indicate a payment for three gallons of milk on the Payment Request document, the Purchase Order for the three gallons of milk will be automatically closed. If No Qty is selected, the Purchase Order will automatically close only when the amount indicated on the Requisition has been fully paid.

Enter Complete Item Description

After entering an appropriate Commodity Code, be sure that you enter a complete and clear description of the item in the Description field.  This description must be more than the default commodity code of the item.  The description can include the physical characteristics (e.g., color, weight, length and height) and other attributes (model year, "New vs Used") that describe the item. You may wish to copy and past the item description from an online catalog or website, as a good way to ensure that all the necessary information has been included.  If there are optional accessories that are being purchased, be sure to clearly describe and note those as well, either on the same line item, or on an additional line item on the Requisition. NOTE: An inadequate item description can result in the receipt of the wrong item(s) or possible delays in order processing.

After you complete the required fields for each item line, click the + button to add the information to the document, and to add another line item if desired.

Sales Tax Information:

Users should only choose the nontaxable options when they are purchasing commodities which are normally taxable, but in this specific case will be tax-exempt, such as when a department holds a tax exempt certificate for specific goods. UC is not a tax-exempt organization for general purchases. Commodity codes are already predefined as taxable and nontaxable for general purchases.

In most cases, if a vendor is not charging California sales tax for a commodity, it is because the vendor does not have a presence in California and is not required to collect it. 

If the purchased items will be used in California, the university is responsible for paying Use tax directly to the CA State Board of Equalization. Selecting one of the nontaxable options is incorrect in these cases.

Refer to Sales and Use Tax resource for more information on how and when sales and use taxes are assessed.

Repair Transactions:

NOTE: No repair is to take place until the KFS Requisition document has been fully approved, and the KFS Purchase Order has been issued to the supplier.

If processing the Requisition document for a repair, the following commodity codes should be used:

• REPAIR01: Repair order service or labor
• REPAIR02: Repair order parts and materials

Always include a clear description of the requested repair, such as "repair non-spinning centrifuge," "repair broken leg on desk," or "repair scanner on x-ray imaging machine."  Including a clear description ensures that the repair request is assigned to the appropriate buyer in a timely fashion.

If the proposed repair is to take place on university property, the required insurance information must be documented for that vendor in the Vendor Insurances section of the vendor record.  If it is not already documented, contact the vendor to secure the necessary insurance information before submitting the Requisition, including, but not limited to general liability, automobile, and worker's compensation insurance.

To ensure that proposed repairs to outside vendors do not conflict with Covered Services policy, KFS Requisitions, of any dollar amount, citing the repair commodity codes listed above route to Procurement & Contracting Services for review and approval before being issued to an outside vendor. 

If part of the original purchasing transaction included ongoing maintenance or repair services to be provided by the vendor, include this information on your KFS Requisition, along with the original Purchase Order number. This will expedite the review and approval of the document.

Capital Asset Considerations:

There aren't "separate" commodity codes for equipment versus non-equipment items. KFS automatically identifies capital equipment items based on the pre-tax amount (at or above $5000) entered on Item lines.

If purchasing capital equipment on a Requisition, make sure that the appropriate equipment Object code is properly reflected in the Accounting Lines of the Additional Charges section.  The default Object code in the Additional Charges section is either 8000 or 3000 for the Shipping lines, but can be overridden as needed. 

• Additional charges/discounts associated with a capital equipment purchase should have Object code 9000 entered.
• Purchases of items for an equipment fabrication should have Object code 9600 entered in the Additional Charges section.

If you will be trading in a capital asset as part of your Requisition, check the Assigned to Trade In box for the item for which the trade-in will be applied. Then, in the Additional Charges section, in the Trade In section, enter the UCOP Tag Number of the item being traded-in, and the amount of the trade-in discount as a negative dollar amount.  Please note that the trade-in should not occur until approval has been secured from Equipment Management and Procurement & Contracting Services.

The Items section also contains a question "Equipment used in CA for research is more than 50% of the time for the next year?"  This is for a State of California tax reduction program for capital assets purchased for research in California. 

Items Provided At No Cost:

Each of the line items on your Requisition should have a cost at or greater than $.01. If the vendor will be providing items at no cost ($0.00), please do not enter these as individual line items on the Requisition, or it will cause an inability to process a Payment Request document against the resulting Purchase Order later.  Add a note to the Requisition documenting the items that the vendor will be providing free of charge.

Purchasing Services:

Service procurement is often a very different process from purchasing goods. There are different requirements for supporting documentation and other pieces of information needed by Contracting Services. See the Buying Services section of the Supply Chain Management website for more information.

8. Accounting Lines Section
 

The Accounting Lines section in the Items section identifies the account(s) to be charged for the purchase. Click on the Setup Distribution button to enter one or more account lines.  When entering an account, enter EITHER Percent or Dollar Amount (NOT both).

When you complete each accounting line, click the + button to add the information to the document and to add another account as desired. 

When you have completed the addition of the account(s), click on the Distribute to Items button to assign the accounts to the desired line items including those in the Additional Charges section, too.

You can repeat the above process as often as needed if assigning a different account(s) to different line items.

9. Capital Asset Section

The Capital Asset section is used to identify the Type of Equipment, Manufacturer, Model, Custodial Code, Building, and Room Number information for any capital assets being purchased (stand-alone items at $5000 and above).  This section can ONLY be completed if capital assets are indicated in the Items section of the Requisition.

You should complete the Capital Asset tab using the instructions for completing a Requisition for Non-Equipment (PDF) if the item should not be classified as new movable equipment because either:

1. The purchase is for a repair or replacement part, or
2. The purchase is for fixed equipment that will be permanently installed into a building.

10. Billing Info Section
 

The Billing Info tab displays the billing information assigned to that organization on the Organization document. As central Accounts Payable generally processes all UC Davis invoices created against Purchase Orders, the default information should remain as displayed.

11. Price Source Section

The Price Source section is used to identify the source of the price indicated on the Requisition.  Select the appropriate option from the Price Source field drop-down menu and then complete the other fields as applicable.

12. Notes and Attachments Section
 

Any supporting attachments (price quotes, blueprints, etc.) should be electronically uploaded to the document in the Notes and Attachments tab. PDF versions are recommended. If you must send a hard copy of supporting documentation, you will be required to check the Hardcopy attachments included with requisition? field in the Requisition Details section and add a reason in the Justification for not scanning attachments field.

13. Printing Purchase Orders (POs)

Once a Purchase Order (PO) is created (either automatically for those Requisitions that do not require Procurement & Contracting Services department approval or by a buyer in Procurement & Contracting Services), the Purchase Order (PO) can be printed.

In order to print a Purchase Order (PO), a KFS user must have the Purchasing User role.  In other words, if you can create a Requisition (REQS), you can print (any) PO. 

The Print button will display at the bottom of a fully approved (status OPEN) Purchase Order when the following are true:

• PO must be in Open status
• PO must be the current version (ie, not the original if it has been amended)
• PO must not have any pending change in progress (ie, an Amendment in routing, not fully approved yet)

A Re-Print button will display when the first print of the PO has already been done. For POs created by Procurement and Contracting Services, the buyer will print the original copy.

If the Print button does not appear when it should on the PO document, we recommend that the person listed as the PO initiator ad hoc route the PO document to themselves. The Print button should then appear if they go back to their Action List and open it from there.