The University’s Buying Team purchases on behalf of all of the Colleges, Professional Services, Estates and Campus Services.
All Procurement, Insurance and Buying Team queries should be submitted through our new Finance Service Portal at https://universityofbirmingham.service-now.com/finance/
This is a Ticket based system to ensure all requests get to the right staff quickly to deal with your query, therefore please note that new email inbox queries may not be actioned via this route.
All University staff should have access to the Oracle system and be able to raise Requisitions when they need to make a purchase.
The Buying Team will receive all non-catalogue requisitions and convert these to create Purchase Orders.
Please refer to the core systems pages to learn more about the process, and our Raising Requisitions section, for training information and Frequently Asked Questions.
Please refer to the Requisition Checklist to determine the criteria for which orders are reviewed and either ‘flipped’ (converted into an order) or returned.
Buying Team Contact
The Buying Team is located in Rooms LG2B on the Lower Ground floor of Aston Webb B Block.
Training sessions
We run a Requisitioner fresher training every few months, please refer to our training page .
To help everyone to order the goods or services they need smoothly and efficiently, Finance recommends that everyone who raises purchase order requisitions attends a requisitioner refresher training session once per year.
These sessions aim to refresh your memory - the process can be difficult to remember if you don't do it very often! - and show you the latest improvements in Core Systems.
How to register
Please click on the attached links corresponding to the dates to sign up and reserve your space.
Future Dates:
Monday, 25th March – 10:30
Monday, 22nd April – 14:00
Monday, 20th May – 14:00
Thursday, 4th July - 11:00
We hold these events regularly to assist end users in raising and receipting requisitions.
Bespoke training can be created if you feel your team would benefit from this.
Purchasing Card Guide (RBS ORDERS)
Please see the dropbox for a list of all active card holders. You should first determine if you have a cardholder in your area who handle purchases not available from pre-approved suppliers, including card payments for Conferences or Subscriptions on your behalf. Please ensure that items cannot first be sourced initially from an approved supplier before proceeding with the purchase.
List of Active Purchase Cardholders Outside the Buying Team
Please see below link of restricted items, where purchasing cards are not permitted to be used. We should have suppliers set up in the system, on core, to supply goods and services under these categories.
https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/finance/procurement/procedures/purchasing-card.aspx
University of Birmingham subscription process
You will need a purchase order for all subscription renewals paid by credit card. You should raise the requisition before the renewal date. This is to avoid your subscription running out. If the payment has already been taken, you will need to raise a requisition for the attention of the buyer who last paid it. However, all auto renewals should be turned off where possible.
Purchase Card lead time
Allow a minimum of 5 working days for the payment to be processed, after the requisition has been approved.