The Buying Team

The University’s Buying Team purchases on behalf of all of the Colleges, Professional Services, Estates and Campus Services.

May we request also, that ALL urgent Purchase Requisitions numbers are immediately emailed to:

buyingteam@contacts.bham.ac.uk  and procurement@bham.ac.uk

We will then action these requests as soon as possible, and respond to your emails to confirm the Purchase Order numbers, in order to ensure that no delays are incurred. 

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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 'flip' these to create Purchase Orders.  There are Framework Contracts with preferred suppliers set up in the system to secure optimum value for money accross the University.

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. 

• Who does what: The Buying Team Matrix
  
• Current list of marketplace suppliers

Buying Team – Team Structure

The Buying Team is located in Rooms LG2B on the Lower Ground floor of Aston Webb B Block.

• General Contact: BuyingTeam@contacts.bham.ac.uk
• Buying Team General Telephone Number 0121 415 9899

Training sessions

We run a Requisitioner User Group session every few months, please refer to our training page for the forthcoming dates and copies of the slides.  

You can contact Joëlle O’Toole for further details and/or to receive an invitation to our training sessions.  We hold these events regularly and try to cover all areas which assist the end user raising and receipting requisitions.  Bespoke can be created if you feel your team would benefit from this.  

Purchase to Pay Procurement Guide

Checklist Summary

The Buying Team have a selection of criteria for which orders are reviewed and either ‘flipped’ (converted into an order) or returned. These are all included in the Buying Team Checklist. Below are the most prevalent issues to look out for.

Is the Delivery Address left as Default? ‘University of Birmingham’

These requisitions are returned with the following note - Your requisition has been raised using the default University of Birmingham delivery address. To ensure that your requisition is processed, please update your default delivery address, regardless of whether you are ordering goods or services, to your location on campus. Please amend and resubmit.
How to change your default delivery address

 Is the Supplier Field or 'Supplier Site' left blank?

Some suppliers are set up so that a department needs to be selected also, once you have input the supplier.  These requisitions are returned with the following note - Your requisition has been raised with the supplier field left blank. Please amend and resubmit.

Does the Requisition have multiple Suppliers?

These requisitions are returned with the following note - If you are required to use more than one supplier please ensure you use separate requisition forms for each supplier.  When you have updated your requisition form please resubmit for approval.

New Supplier box has been selected

These requisitions are returned with the following note - Sorry we’re unable to accept new suppliers this way.
When creating your requisition, please do not click the “New Supplier” tick box.  This will cause your requisition to be rejected.
Please arrange for the supplier to be set up in Core first before raising the requisition. Visit link below and complete the new supplier/reactivation request form.
https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/finance/procurement/procurement-and-suppliers/index.aspx

Any queries on new suppliers please email newsupplierrequest@contacts.bham.ac.uk
If this is a ONE-OFF and the supplier takes credit card, please state reason for this purchase in the Justification box and edit your requisition to supplier name RBS, leave supplier site blank and untick new supplier box. The Justification box must also include the instructions for the card payment, your contact details, and you must attach the relevant URL link for online payment.
Where possible we should be using approved suppliers and purchasing orders online using the credit card should be for one-off low value items only.

THE BUYING TEAM ALSO FILTER ORDERS BY VALUE AS BELOW

£500 + these orders must have a quote or supporting document attached (these must be current).

£5,000 + these orders must have a reason to validate the selected supplier in the Justification box.

£10,000 - £25,000 + these require three competitive quotes. (If an exemption applies please highlight this in the description. Criteria for these below.)

£25,000 + these orders will be forwarded onto the relevant category manager.

Below are the orders that are exempt to the some of the rules:

10k+ ORDERS Criteria for Exemptions: Partnerships, Subscriptions, Memberships, Trusts, Collaboration agreements, Office for Student Registration fees, Article processing fees, GP Student Placement Fees, UCAS Fees. Ensure that you express if a requisition is for one of the above in the justification/description.

OTHER COMMON ISSUES FOR REQUISITION RETURNS WITH THE RETURN NOTES

Is the requisition itemised to match the supporting document(s)?: For accuracy, please itemise on separate lines to match the quote. The quote reference needs to be included in the Item Description on the Line Description, within the requisition or Note to Supplier or both, otherwise the supplier will not see it, won’t be able to link it to the order and the discount (if applicable) may not be applied. Please amend and resubmit.

Is the delivery address a home address?: The University generally does not support deliveries going to home addresses. Any special Requisitions that need to be delivered to a home location, must be supported with an attached email confirmation from a line manager or Director, as approval.

Is a ‘Supplier Site’ selected?: Please select the correct supplier site from the drop down menu to enable the order to be raised correctly. Please amend and resubmit.

Has the Category Code been left as blank/default?: A Category name has not been selected and is showing as DEFAULT. This should appear as a number. Please amend and resubmit.

These must be EXTERNAL codes which can be located below: https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/finance/procurement/procedures/index.aspx

FOR PURCHASING CARD REQUISITION (RBS ORDERS)

Firstly please see the below link which includes the heading Restricted Items, these cannot be acquired via the use of a purchase card:

https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/finance/procurement/procedures/purchasing-card.aspx

Does the requisition include the details required to process the order? To ensure you receive the correct product/service please provide the buying team with more information to include:

• To ensure that the goods are received correctly, double check your delivery location
• Supporting Document/Quote
• Product number / Confirmation Reference number
• Names i.e. conf. name and attendees
• Dates (eg. Conference dates)
• If you know your supplier account number include it in the note to supplier section, also please include login details if required and any payment links via a URL. (Step by step instructions should be included when required to complete the order/payment. This should include your contact details)
• Check with the supplier that they are able to accept card payment

Note that the University does not have a PayPal account so any payment links must allow the buyer to make payment as a guest.

Is the supplier set up on CORE? This RBS requisition has been requested for a supplier already set up on CORE. Please amend the supplier from RBS to the requested supplier and resubmit.

Please note: If the supplier is inactive in CORE complete the following link; https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/finance/procurement/procurement-and-suppliers/index.aspx

FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH ORDERS

Is a VAT exemption form attached, does it have a signature and a current date. Is it attached as ‘To Supplier’? If not: If this order is zero rated then please attach a valid VAT certificate and resubmit. When attaching a VAT certificate please change the Category from the default ‘Internal to Requisition’ to ‘To Supplier’, to enable the supplier to view the document.  The Attachments can be located in the notes and attachments section on the requisition form. All requisitions with MEDICAL_RESEARCH as intended use should have a VAT certificate attached.

Is MEDICAL _RESEARCH chosen as the intended use?: For future reference, when zero rating orders you should select Medical Research for the Intended Use and you need to leave the Tax Classification BLANK.

Internal Trade Orders 

Training on completing internal trade orders can be found here.

Active Cardholders by Area

See the attached Excel with who holds a purchasing card in each area of the university.