Law Faculty Purchasing Procedure

Action

Details

Responsible

Notes

Identify need for expenditure and select a supplier

Budget holders should:

• Ensure that there is a genuine requirement for the purchase of goods/services;
• Satisfy themselves that there are sufficient uncommitted funds in their budget to cover the expenditure requested. If in doubt consult the Finance Manager.
• An underspend in one area cannot  be automatically vired (or transferred) to spend in another area. Requests to vire funds need to go to the Faculty's Planning and Resources Committee (PRC).

 Budget holders should:

• Consider whether a University Preferred Supplier can be used.
• If selecting a new supplier refer to the New Supplier Selection Guidance and complete the Supplier Suitability Checklist which are part of the University's Purchasing Processes.
• Obtain quotes from potential suppliers and consider value for money as well as suitability.
• If the value of the purchase is more than £2,500 at least one alternative quote must be obtained unless a preferred supplier is used, in which case there is no requirement to consider alternatives.
• Where purchases with a value of more than £25,000 are being considered more stringent procurement rules apply: please refer to the Finance Manager.

Budget holder

Commit to expenditure

Based on the quote selected the budget holder should contact their usual requisitioner giving the following details:

• The nature of the goods or service requested;
• When they are required by;
• How the order will be placed e.g.. email contact;
• Details of the supplier;
• Where/who the goods should be delivered to;
• The expected cost of the goods/service (unit cost and expected number of units where applicable).

Budget holder / delegate

Currently separate  requisitioners for Criminology, Socio-Legal Studies, IECL, and Law and Finance and Bonavero.

Others should contact the Finance Team at accounts@law.ox.ac.uk

Requisition process

Requisitions must always be raised in advance of the commitment to purchase goods/services. This may mean making best estimates e.g.. for number of conference participants charged at an agreed rate per head

The requisitioner should:

Ensure appropriate purchasing procedure has been followed e.g. alternative quotes if a preferred supplier is not being used.

Consider whether an HMRC Employment Status Check is required to determine whether this is an activity that can be legitimately invoiced by a supplier or whether it needs to be treated as a casual employment contract and be processed through payroll.

Check that the budget is available and identify the correct Oracle code to charge

Raise requisition using details of quantity and amount provided

Requisitioner

Approve requisitions

All requisitions entered on Oracle will go through an approval hierarchy.

It is particularly important that the approver is different to the requisitioner and in most cases is the Deputy Finance Manager, or for larger purchases the Finance Manager and the Head of Administration and Finance

Relevant approver

Approver can check correct coding

Purchase Order generated

Purchase orders will automatically be generated by Oracle when requisitions are approved. Normally a PO will be automatically emailed to the supplier from Oracle. This can be over-ridden. It this case the requisitioner should contact the supplier with a copy of the PO.

Suppliers should be encouraged to always quote the PO reference on their invoice.

We will not be able to process an invoice without a PO number. It is also essential that the invoice is made out to the University of Oxford. Invoices addressed only to individuals or only to the Law Faculty or a centre name will not be processed by central finance. Invoices can be made our "for the attention of" but must quote University of Oxford.

Receive goods

Where physical goods have been ordered, they should be delivered to the budget holder or the administrative contact for the budget area, who should check that the delivery is correct, sign the delivery note and pass it to the requisitioner or the Faculty’s Finance Assistant for receipting on the system.

In the case of orders for services the budget holder/administrative contact should confirm to the requisitioner or the Faculty’s Finance Assistant that the service has been performed satisfactorily.

Budget holders/ administrators

Receipt goods in Oracle

Once the budget holder/administrative contact has confirmed receipt/performance of service, orders should be receipted in Oracle.

Requisitioner

Enter invoice in Oracle

After checking by the Finance Assistant, who will ensure the correct PO number appears on the invoice, invoices are sent to the payments team in central finance for processing.

Finance Assistant

Pay supplier

Payments Team