Procurement and Accounts Payable Training on Feb. 27

Procurement Services and Accounts Payable will be offering training and tips on purchasing guidelines, plus a Banner and Thor Store overview for purchasing, travel and accounts payable.

The training will be on Tuesday, Feb. 27 at 10 a.m. If you’d like to join us, please RSVP to purchasing@hvcc.edu. Space is limited, but future training sessions will be scheduled as needed.

In the meantime, here are some helpful tips to make purchasing, reconciling and paying invoices a stress-free experience!

Purchasing Tips

  • Requisitions are required BEFORE an order for a commodity or service is placed.
  • When creating requisitions, you must have all the appropriate documentation – quotes, contracts, etc. This expedites the placement of your order.
  • Please refer to the Purchasing Reference Table:  https://www.hvcc.edu/purchasing/employee-use/index.html
  • When utilizing the reference table, quotes are based on yearly spend to date. If you need clarification on number of quotes required, please contact Procurement.
  • If a vendor is on NYS contract or another purchasing cooperative, the contract number MUST be on the quote.
  • For Sole Source, single source and emergency procurements made when competition is required but not feasible, please be sure to fill out proper documentation. The department is responsible for maintaining that justification to support such instances.
  • A copy of all documents/information submitted to purchasing with a requisition should be retained for the department’s records.
  • It is the responsibility of the department purchasing to verify the receipt of goods/services against a purchase order.
  • On travel authorizations, please be sure to fill in all information. If you need assistance securing a hotel,  please be sure to check that box! Don’t forget the FOAPAL (account code) and signatures.
  • Please use the most cost-effective method when travelling. Enterprise is our preferred vendor for rental cars. Our corporate code for rentals is: JN0550. (Use the trip optimizer linked here to determine if a rental car or personal vehicle is the most cost effective.  https://www.enterprise.com/en/business-car-rental/rental-reimbursement-deeplink.html.)
  • For working meetings off campus/reimbursement for meals, please provide the follow information to claim reimbursement:
    1. Purpose and necessity of meeting including and explanation of why it couldn’t be held during normal working hours on campus
    2. Specific nature of business being conducted
    3. Location of meeting
    4. All participants including names, titles and relationship to business being conducted.
    5. Include itemized receipt/invoice for each meal. You will not be reimbursed for alcohol and tip must not be more than 18%.
  • There is no reimbursement for tax.  Hudson Valley Community College is tax exempt.
  • Mazzone’s is the college’s exclusive food service provider. Written approval is required to purchase food from any vendor other than Mazzone’s.
  • When creating requisitions in Thor Store, please choose the correct type of order – non-catalog (regular) or blanket. Blanket purchase orders are for annual orders and can have multiple invoices charged against them throughout the fiscal year.
  • When replying to a “comment” from Purchasing in Thor Store, please respond in the comment section on that order in Thor Store. Email exchanges cannot be seen in Thor Store.
  • When preparing bid specifications, describe the needed items/services as completely and accurately as possible.
  • Exceptions to the bid process:
    1. When items are economically procurable from one source, i.e. books, pamphlets, periodicals.
    2. Emergencies; lack of planning is NOT an emergency. Emergencies involve an immediate threat to public health or safety; preventing or minimizing a serious disruption to campus operations affecting students and staff, and/or college property that is in need of immediate repair to avoid further loss or damage.
    3. When a manufacturer authorizes a specific dealer/vendors for the maintenance or servicing of equipment.
    4. When goods are acquired from NYS Contracts, cooperatives, true Sole Source and Preferred Source (e.g., Corcraft, NYS Industries for the Disabled).

How can you help?

  • Plan ahead to allow for a realistic turnaround that meets the delivery date required to receive your order on time.
  • Provide all documentation up front with requisitions: uploaded to Thor Store for Unimarket requisitions, and sent via email for Banner requisitions.
  • Contacting Procurement Services when you have questions!

Accounts Payable Tips

  • Do not send an invoice to be paid prior to obtaining a Purchase Order (PO) number.
  • When emailing POs  to Accounts Payable (AP), the PO number must be entered in the subject line to properly match the invoice for that PO.
  • Thor Store invoices MUST be submitted to invoices@hvcc.unimarket.com (Uploading the invoice in Thor Store when the requisition is created does not eliminate the need to later email the invoice to AP when you have the PO number.
  • When emailing invoices to invoices@hvcc.unimarket.com, please remember:
    • Only one invoice can be processed per email. Send each invoice as a separate email.
    • Use only the UP number in the subject line. Do not add any additional information, no spaces, UP only. (UB is for use in Banner  only.)
    • DO NOT send an invoice directly from the scanner. Please scan the invoice to your email then forward to AP. We have no way of following up with the sender if there is a problem/question about the invoice if we do not know who sent it.
    • This email is to be used for sending invoices ONLY. Accounts Payable cannot respond from this email.
  • All invoices that need to be paid by wire or credit card must be entered in Banner, not Thor Store.
  • For POs in Banner, written authorization is required to process payment. Please return the signed authorization copy of the PO or send an email to accountspayable@hvcc.edu. In the email, please state that you authorize payment and the amount to be paid. The invoice should also be included when available.
  • All invoices for purchases made in Banner, as well as general questions for Accounts Payable can be sent to accountspayable@hvcc.edu.

We appreciate your assistance in making purchasing and invoicing a painless experience. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to:

Procurement Services at purchasing@hvcc.edu for any purchasing questions.

Accounts Payable at accountspayable@hvcc.edu for any payment or invoice questions.

Thank you!