As we begin another semester and a new fiscal year, Procurement Services and Accounts Payable have teamed up to bring what we hope 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, i.e. quotes, contracts, etc. This expedites the placement of your order. Please refer to the Purchasing Reference Table found with other information about procedures on the college’s website. 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. Also, if there is a bid or RFP #- that must be on quote and pricing verified by end user.
- Sole Source, single source and emergency procurements where competition is required but not feasible, please be sure to fill out proper documentation. The department is responsible for maintaining that justification to support each instance. These need to be updated yearly.
- Keep copies of all purchasing information for your department’s records.
- It is the responsibility of the department to verify the receipts 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 make sure that check box is checked. Don’t forget the FOAPAL (account code) and signatures. College-branded travel credit cards are mandatory for college related travel.
- For working meetings off campus/reimbursement for meals, the following are needed to process a reimbursement:
- Purpose and necessity of meeting including an explanation of why it couldn’t be held during normal working hours on campus.
- Specific nature of business being conducted.
- Location of meeting.
- All participants including names, titles and relationship to business being conducted.
- Cost of meal: include itemized receipt/invoice. You will not be reimbursed for alcohol and tips 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 foodservice provider and must be used unless Mazzone’s provides written approval of the outside purchase.
- When using ThorStore for requisitions, please choose the correct type of purchase order: non-catalog (regular) or blanket. A blanket order is for yearly purchases that will have multiple invoices charged against it.When asked questions through ThorStore, please respond in the comments section of ThorStore under that order. Emailed replies cannot be seen within ThorStore.
- When preparing bid specifications, describe the needed items/services as completely and accurately as possible. Exceptions to the bid process:
- When items are economically procurable from one source, i.e. books, pamphlets, periodicals.
- Emergencies. Emergencies involve public health and/or safety, or when college property is in need of immediate repair to minimize further loss and damage and/or prevent serious disruption to students, faculty and staff.
- The manufacturer authorizes only a specific dealer as an agent for maintenance or servicing of equipment.
- If goods are acquired from NYS contracts, please see how to use award in some cases by clicking on NYS contract award number, cooperatives, true Sole Source and Preferred Source (Corcraft, NYS Industries for the Disabled). Some NYS contracts require us to bid within NYS and some require us to bid out periodically.
How can you help?
- Plan ahead
- Provide all documentation up front with requisition — upload in ThorStore or send email for Banner reqs.
- Allow for a realistic turnaround time to meet required delivery dates.
- Contact Procurement Services if you have questions or need training.
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 related questions, or Accounts Payable at accountspayable@hvcc.edu for any payment or invoice questions.
Thank you!
Published: Mon, 25 Aug 2025 11:50:19 +0000 by t.dattilio