Campus Purchasing Operations in Response to COVID-19

Date:         Friday, April 10, 2020

From:             Bill Propst, Chief Procurement Officer, UCLA Campus Purchasing & Payables,
                       Allison Baird-James, Associate Vice Chancellor, Controller, UCLA Corporate Financial Services

Colleagues:

UCLA Campus Purchasing and Strategic Sourcing staff are working remotely during the Safe at Home directive in response to the COVID-19 crisis. BruinBuy remains operational Monday through Saturday, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., for catalog purchases (Hosted Catalog and Punchout/Supplier Site Orders), for requisitions and for Low Value Orders (LVOs).

We see some suppliers requiring deposits or full payment up front. Where possible, please use Pcards for those payments to minimize the administrative effort. We are not offering “Checks to Department” or “Hold for Pickup at Murphy Hall” during this time. For larger purchases above a departmental Pcardholder’s limits, Purchasing has several buyers with Pcards to support departmental requirements. Please be ready to provide your FAU, shipping information, and a link to the products at the time of your email request.

There are some expenditures that are appropriate for shipment to an employee’s home, most typically computer equipment. We want to avoid adding home addresses to the permanent ship-to listing. Requests such as these must be processed by Campus Purchasing. Please make the request by submitting an R-class requisition with the home address in the body of the requisition.

Please be aware that mail and shipping deliveries have been limited or suspended on campus, consistent with the campus closure and the Chancellor’s directive.

If an employee has a low-cost/low-speed internet service that a department agrees to upgrade during the Safe at Home directive, documented as primarily for business purposes, the incremental cost can be reimbursed while the directive is in place. 

When placing an order that is related to the COVID-19 crisis, be sure to use the word ‘COVID’ as the Project in the FAU.

Accounts Payable: Invoice Submission

While we continue to look to suppliers to submit invoices directly to Accounts Payable, departments can upload invoices at the AP Invoice Submission page (must be PDF documents), after signing-in with a valid UCLA Logon ID.

• The file naming convention should be the PO number, along with the invoice number, separated by an underscore, for example: 1234NAB456_INV871. This will allow for multiple invoices to be submitted for the same PO numbers. Please place your invoices in the appropriate subfolder.
• Vendors may send invoices as PDF attachments to Accounts Payable and Travel Accounting at this new email address, invoices@finance.ucla.edu, following the previously communicated procedures.

Procurement Card (Pcard)

• Accounts Payable has developed an interim process for submitting Pcard statements and receipts. Since a physical signature is not possible at this time, the deadline for submitting statements and receipts has been extended until April 20, 2020.
• In the coming weeks, Accounts Payable will update all Pcard Cardholders and Managers with details of the new process for uploading statements and receipts as well as the use of DocuSign. Please direct Pcard inquiries to pcard@finance.ucla.edu.

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we continue to adhere to COVID-19 directives and campus safety measures. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at purchasing@finance.ucla.edu.

Thank you,