“How To” Guides

Procurement Services has partnered with Staples Business Advantage to serve as the preferred supplier for the purchase of consumable or expendable office supplies required for the day to day functionality of a department.

Staples Business Advantage gives the campus community more than 80,000 products, along with university-specific contract pricing and delivery dates. You can order and return online, minimizing the time and effort spent on procurement – and with Staples Business Advantage, the end user participates in the approval and purchasing process.

I do not have an account with Staples Business Advantage.

All Staples Business Advantage purchases should be placed through Drew’s centralized business account. To access Drew’s business account, please email [email protected]  with your request. Make sure to include your name, department, Drew email address, and budget manager. Your request will get processed within two business days. Once processed, you will receive a welcome email directly from Staples.com; with the subject line, “Welcome to Staples!” with instructions on how to activate your account.

How do I place an order through Staples Business Advantage?

All orders must be done via the online tool via the Staples website. Ready to Order

How do my orders get approved?

All orders are approved by Procurement Services via an approval workflow. If department budget managers request, we can set up for approval routes to include order approvals at the department level.

How long will it take for my order to be approved?

Orders can take from one to five business days to be approved.

How do I check the status of my order?

To check the order status, go to www.StaplesAdvantage.com. Click on the “My Orders” tab on the hone page and then click, “My Order Status”. If you do not receive an email confirmation, your order was not submitted. Any orders not submitted will be automatically saved and remain in the shopping cart until you checkout.

How do I pay for my order through the online tool?

The centralized Staples Business Advantage account is set up as a direct bill for all purchases. At the end of the month, Procurement will reconcile the transactions back to the requesting departments and upload the charges via a journal entry. It is important for departments to check the FOAP on their order to ensure it will be charged to the appropriate department.

If the potential purchase price for goods and services will be $50,000 or greater and is not a specialized good or service that would be eligible for sole source procurement, contact Procurement Services. The office will work on getting formal bids from multiple suppliers, and will start the RFP process.

To initiate a Request for Proposal (RFP), please send an email to [email protected] and the Director of Procurement Services will work directly with the department on the following:

Pre-Bid Development

•  Any scope of work that needs to be refined
• Evaluation criteria
•  Evaluation Team Committee
•  Relevant dates (RFP issue date, due date of questions, RFP due date, etc.)

After Bid

•  Review of proposals
•  Bidder proposals and evaluations
•  Negotiations
•  Contract creation
• Award

Certain goods or services like refunds, purchases below $1K and honoraria do not require a purchase order. Reference the payment request matrix to see if the good or service can be paid by payment request.

Payment requests are used to request payment for certain expenses that do not require the involvement of purchasing support. You can generate a payment request here and provide supporting documentation when submitting a payment request.

Reference the Payment Request Matrix to see if the good or service can be paid by payment request.

Change orders are used to make changes to an existing purchase order. Common changes include increasing the amount ordered or cost, decreasing the amount ordered or cost, cancelling the order, changes to descriptions, or addresses.

The process for submitting change orders depends on the type of change you are making.

Change orders to change the address, description, or non-monetary changes do not require a change order requisition. To request these changes, send an email to [email protected]with the following information included in the body of the email.

1. Contact information (name, phone, email, department)
2. Original PO number
3. Vendor ID and name
4. Change details

Change orders to cancel a purchase order in entirety can be accomplished by sending an email to [email protected] with the following information included in the body of the email.

1. Contact information (name, phone, email, department)
2. Original PO number
3. Vendor ID and name
4. PO Amount
5. Reason for Cancellation

Change orders to update the FOAP string can be accomplished by sending an email to [email protected] with the following information included in the body of the email.

1. Contact information (name, phone, email, department)
2. Original PO number
3. Vendor ID and name
4. PO Amount
5. New FOAP string
6. Reason for FOAP change

All other change orders (i.e. changing quantity, increasing or decreasing amount) are processed by creating a change order requisition.

Change orders that include monetary changes (increases, decreases, or cancellations) are submitted using the purchase requisition process. Use the Purchase Requisition Form in Treehouse and send an email to [email protected] with any relevant documentation supporting the change to the purchase order.

• Commodity Level Accounting must be used for change orders.
• Transaction and delivery dates are today’s date.
• Vendor code must be same as on original PO.
• Reason for monetary change to PO.
• Dollar value by which original PO is being increased

The purchase requisition will follow internal approval workflows prior to reaching Procurement Services. Upon review, Procurement Services will cancel the requisition, modify the existing PO and advise the department upon completion.

Departments should take action to close a PO when it is fully received and invoiced and there are no further payments due back to the vendor.  To determine whether there is an encumbrance on a specific PO, individuals may view the PO balances by running an encumbrance query in Self Service Banner.  This will include all open encumbrances for purchase orders within a FOAP.

Purchase Orders that meet all the following criteria are eligible to be closed:

• All goods are received and/or services are complete; and
• the PO has a remaining balance (encumbrance); and
• all anticipated invoices have been received and paid.

If the above criteria is met, departments can submit their request to close a purchase order to [email protected] stating, “Close PO _____ in the amount of $_____ (amount left on the PO).” Note: If an invoice is “in transit” meaning it is still in the AP workflow, a purchase order will be closed after the invoice has been approved and payment has been posted.

Expenditures should be planned sufficiently in advance to allow Procurement Services to obtain the best price and/or overall service.

The Requisition is the internal purchasing document that gets converted to a PO document.

The Requisition form is available online (on the Employee tab) through Treehouse.

The Requisition form is used to document what goods or services are being requested to be purchased and is completed by the department end user. As per Drew University Policy: Requisitions are required for purchases of goods or services over $1,000.

The Requisition needs to contain the following information to be completed:

• The items or service required with quantities needed.
• The Department Name with address and phone number.
• The Department FOAP to be charged.
• The Delivery – Ship to Address and/or person to be contacted for delivery with a phone or cell number. Any details about delivery as well.
• The Vendor requested – address and phone number –contact if available.
• Documentation of the item(s) requested – quote, bid

All Requisitions must be signed off by the appropriate Authorized Signatory Level. Purchases of over $5,000 must also be signed by the Dean/Chair or Vice President (see Authorized Signatures).

The Requisition is then routed to Procurement Services to be reviewed, processed and entered into Banner for a Purchase Order to be created. Each requisition must include detailed explanation to the nature of the purchase. Please do not send the Requisition to the Accounts Payable Department, as this will cause a delay in processing.

A Requisition may be held up in Banner due to non-sufficient funds or funds. Please make sure to have funds available and correct accounting codes have been assigned and sufficient funds have been allocated within that account line, or this may result in a delay in processing your order.

No Requisitions are to be sent to Vendors.

Reference the Self Service Requisition guide to learn more about how to enter a requisition.