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Building a Purchase Requisition (Start Here)

Role-based access determines who can create, submit, or approve. See the Access & Roles webpage for more information.

Only ~4–5 required fields. Requirements may vary by department. See instructions for ZotPO – Submitting a Catalog Order or How to Initiate a Non-Catalog Order.

Catalog: Yes (separate POs auto-created); Separate requisitions required for different ship-to addresses
Non-Catalog: No (one supplier per requisition)
Exception: Airgas requires a separate requisition

Double-check your search parameters. If the supplier still cannot be located, check to see if they are in the process of being onboarded. If the supplier is not in the onboarding process, submit a Vendor Onboarding request. Select the following link to view the Kuali Vendor Onboarding (KVO) System Web Guide or email kfs@uci.edu for assistance.

Email the missing building name and/or room number(s) to procurement@uci.edu. For buildings with no room number, enter "NOROOM."

Change the Department Buyer Org to the correct org code. See General Section, Step 23 for details.

Yes, use "copy items to new cart." Be cautious: for catalog orders, pricing may be outdated; for non-catalog orders, the purchasing request form may have been updated. Always verify all information is current and complete before resubmitting.

Yes. Change the Cart Name field at the top of your requisition to something meaningful. Otherwise, it defaults to a date/number that won't be helpful when searching for past orders.

Select the item(s) you want to move, click the three-dot menu, choose "Move to Another Cart," then select "New Cart" or an existing cart. This is useful when you need to separate items with different shipping addresses or account codes.

For line item 1, click on the Purchasing Request Form hyperlink to make edits. Always click "Save Progress" and use "Back to Cart" (not "Add and Go to Cart," which duplicates the item). For lines 2, 3, 4, etc., click on the line item name directly.

This field determines which fiscal year the PO will encumber funds in. During May–June, you can select the next fiscal year for blanket orders or service contracts only. Once encumbered, this cannot be changed.

Purchasing Request Forms & PR Validation

PR validation is a system check where UCIBuy+ data must pass KFS rules. If it doesn't, a validation error occurs and routes the PR back to the Prepared By field for corrections. Common issues include:

Items: Required fields complete; item details and amounts are valid.
Accounting: At least one line per item; totals equal 100%; FAU codes are unique.
Supplier: Active and eligible; correct type; valid address and contract (if applicable).
Delivery: Address and contact details are valid.
Header Fields: Chart, org, building, and room are valid and active.
Capital Assets: Required CAM fields completed for capital equipment purchases.
Payment Info: Dates are valid and align with payment terms.

Yes, a Purchasing Request Form is required for every non-catalog purchase regardless of amount (from $0.01 to millions). The first line item must always be created through this form.

Look at the Items section. For non-catalog orders, there should be a "Purchasing Request Form" entry listed right above one line item. If it's missing, complete a Purchasing Request Form and add it to the requisition. One line item must be inputted through the Purchasing Request Form. Delete any duplicate line item that is not linked to the Purchasing Request Form.

Warnings (yellow): Proceed with caution. Review and make applicable adjustments. E.g., ensure quantity of 1 for amount-based line items.
Errors (red): Must be resolved before continuing.

Approval Workflow & Routing

The PR routes through approval workflow before becoming a purchase order.

View How to Assign, Approve, Return, and Reject a Purchase Requisition.

Withdraw Requisition (taken by requisitioner): Completely cancels the requisition at any point in the incomplete workflow.
Return to Requisitioner (taken by an approver): Sends the requisition back to the requisitioner as a draft cart for corrections and resubmission.
Revert to Departmental Buyer Approval (taken by an approver past Departmental Buyer): Sends the requisition back to the Departmental Buyer Approval step. All listed Departmental Buyers receive notification and one must assign it. All workflow approvals after Departmental Buyer must be obtained again.
Reject Requisition: Completely cancels the requisition when the purchase should not be made, requiring a brand-new requisition from scratch.

Scroll down on the summary box (right side of the requisition) to view the complete workflow. Click on the blue approval step to see who was sent the approval notification, including departmental buyer, financial approvers, and central buyers. Once an approver assigns the requisition to themselves, their name will appear on the blue approval step.

Use "Assign and Further Actions" first to check out the requisition to yourself — this prevents duplicate work. Once one person assigns it, it disappears from the other's action list.

Roles & Permissions

See the Access & Roles webpage for more information.

Requisitioners: Can submit requisitions with fewer required fields. If your department expects you to fill out all compliance fields, consider taking the Procurement Fundamentals Training.
Departmental Buyers: Receive submitted requisitions, review for compliance with purchasing policy, complete required fields, and approve. Have more required fields than requisitioners and must take Procurement Fundamentals Training.
Fiscal Officers: Receive submitted requisitions to verify funding source policies and sufficiency. Must return or revert the requisition if the chart and/or account number needs updating. Can update all other accounting code fields.

See Access and Roles for more information.

UCIBuy+ sends approval notifications to all users who hold a role for a division/department/account, without distinguishing between primaries and back-ups/delegates. It is acceptable for the requisitioner and departmental buyer to be the same user. However, the departmental buyer and fiscal officer should not be the same user to maintain proper segregation of duties.

To remove departmental buyer access, contact the department's Department Security Administrator (DSA) to update your role in KSAMS.
If you are receiving fiscal officer approval notifications, you are either the primary or delegate fiscal officer for the account. Contact the account's department to update fiscal officer or account delegate assignments in KFS.

If the requisition has not yet been submitted, it is still considered a cart and cannot be looked up. Legacy POs in UCIBuy+ are limited to certain roles. If you need a PDF copy of a legacy PO, submit a ServiceNow ticket requesting a copy.

Accounting & Required Fields

Use percentages (not dollar amounts) when splitting accounting lines. See this training resource, Step 43, for specific details.

Use line-item overrides to assign different accounting details.

Select Object Category first, then choose from filtered codes. View accounting’s webpage on object codes for more information or search a complete list using Decision Support (VPN required)—the Object Level represents the UCIBuy+ Object Category.

No, you can only enter percentages when splitting accounting lines across multiple accounts.

Fiscal officers can click the pencil icon to edit accounting codes, then use the recalculate function to see dollar amounts. Note: the total shown is pre-tax, not the final amount.

Accounts sync from KFS once daily. If the account was just added, wait one business day.

If it's been multiple days, confirm the following in order:

Accounting codes are set to "Standard Entry" — not "Data Entry."
The chart value is filled out (IR, MC, SW). All accounting codes must be entered hierarchically from left to right, starting with the chart value.
Account numbers are saved as Chart-KFS Account Number (e.g., IR-GF12345). Try using the search function with asterisks (e.g., *GF12345*).

If still missing, submit a ServiceNow ticket.

Requisitioners: Can edit all accounting fields before submitting a requisition.
Departmental Buyers: Can edit all accounting fields before submitting or during the "Departmental Buyer Approval" workflow step.
Fiscal Officers (Financial Approver 1): Can edit all accounting fields except Chart and Account Number. To edit those, must return to requisition or revert to the Departmental Buyer Approval step. Fiscal Officers who initiate subawards must request the Requisitioner role to add all accounting codes.

Taxes & Item Types

Line items are automatically set as taxable. Requisitioners must manually change the taxable status of each line item while in the requisition (not when entering the line items). Enter the commodity code first, as there is a tax status automatically associated with each commodity code that will override any prior changes.

Create separate lines for non-taxable and taxable items. Services are typically non-taxable; physical items are taxable.

This error occurs when using amount-based item types with quantities other than 1. Either change the item type to "Quantity based" or change the quantity to 1, then resubmit the requisition.

Shipping, Addresses, & Phone Numbers

No — orders must go to an approved business address.

Search by building name as it appears in KFS (the system also saves KFS building codes). Add street address details in the "Additional Location Detail" field if needed. Save addresses to a short-list by selecting "Add My Addresses." A default address can be set from this list by selecting "Make default."

Only business addresses may be added to the system — personal addresses are never permitted. To set up an off-site shipping address, submit a ServiceNow ticket to the Procurement team.

You must create separate requisitions for items going to different shipping addresses. Items from multiple vendors can only be combined in one requisition if they are all shipping to the same location.

Phone numbers must have no special characters — no dashes, parentheses, or periods. Enter only 10 numerical digits. Incorrect formatting will cause orders to error in the CXML queue, especially for suppliers like Dell.

Notifications & Communication

Department buyers will be listed on the final PO except for ZotPOs.
Owner Name is populated from the Prepared For field in the PR.
Supplier confirmations: For non-ZotPOs, suppliers send order confirmations directly to the department buyer regardless of dollar value or commodity. Central buyers will not be included on these confirmations.
System notification: The department buyer also receives a workflow notification when the PO process is complete. This is independent of supplier confirmations and occurs for all POs, including ZotPOs.

Yes. The "Prepared By" person in the General section receives notifications. Department Buyers and Fiscal Officers also receive notifications about the open PO. Check the workflow by scrolling down the right side to see all approval steps and approvers.

Go to User Profile → Notification Preferences → Click "Edit" → Choose "Email," "Notification," or "Email and Notification" for each event type.

Notification settings are currently all-or-nothing and cannot be customized by role. The team will explore future improvements. In the meantime, you can create custom filters in the purchase order search to help manage assignments.

Use the Comments feature: go to the Comments section, click the plus sign, select or search for recipients, add your message, and click the checkmark icon to submit. This creates a permanent record and sends an email notification to the selected user.

Attachments & Documentation

Department buyers can upload documentation in the Comments section. Open a Procurement ServiceNow ticket to remove something from the comments section.

Open a Procurement ServiceNow ticket to remove something from the comments section.

Purchase Order Management

Any change to scope, pricing, or terms must be documented through an amendment. How the amendment is handled depends on the original agreement:

PO Only: Initiate a UCIBuy+ change request. If the original PO was created in KFS, close that PO and create a new one in UCIBuy+ for remaining terms.
PO + Supporting Documentation: Include revised supporting documentation when initiating a change request.
Bilaterally Signed Formal Agreements: Initiate a change request and include the draft Amendment Form.

The PO may need to be closed to release funds. Open a Procurement ServiceNow ticket for additional guidance.

Please refer to the information provided on the packing slip. Each supplier has its own process for returning or exchanging items.

Go to the PO's Status tab → Document Status → "The system will distribute purchase orders using the method(s) indicated below." If a date and time are specified, the PO was auto-transmitted using that method (email, fax, CXML). If no date/time is specified, the PO was not auto-transmitted and should have been manually distributed. Most suppliers default to HTML email with attachments for terms and conditions.

Yes. You can select Manual Distribution, which requires you to manually send the PO to the supplier. Central buyers can override PO default distribution settings during PO creation.

Three items are sent:

The printed copy of the PO including external notes
The UC Terms and Conditions document
Any external attachments you've added to the purchase order

Select "Amount Based" as the item type and choose "Blanket or Recurring PO" as the Purchase Class in the Purchase Order Information section. Enter contract begin and end dates in the Contracting Details section.

If the order is still a requisition, withdraw it. If the PO was already approved and sent to the supplier, contact the supplier to cancel the order and then close the PO.

Payment hold prevents invoices from being paid against a PO. This function can only be managed in KFS, not in UCIBuy+. The status syncs back to UCIBuy+ and appears under the billing and payment options tab.

Look under "Related Documents" in the requisition view.

Standard operating procedure is to close through KFS. However, POs can technically be closed through either system.

Change Requests

Department buyers and fiscal officers can create change requests. Requisitioners cannot and must contact their department buyer or fiscal officer.

Change requests follow the same approval workflow as the original requisition, including all compliance rules. There is no longer an "accounting-only" workflow — even accounting-only changes go through the full approval process.

No, change requests are not allowed on catalog orders.

For partially paid POs, change requests can only be created for the remaining unpaid amount or quantity. Update the existing line to reflect the paid amount, then add a new line for the remaining unpaid portion with your desired changes.

No. Instead, use the "Close PO" function at the PO level. If select lines are no longer needed, decrease the unit price to $0 rather than cancelling the line.

Invoices & Payments

Purchase orders transfer to KFS in real time once they complete workflow in UCIBuy+. The UCIBuy+ purchase order number shows up in KFS (not the requisition number).

Invoices for UCI Purchase Orders should be submitted at or after the time goods or services are delivered and are processed by the Accounts Payable department.

Compliance, Security, & Wage Rules

Yes, all required fields must be completed. The system cannot conditionally turn these off. Select "non-applicable" for fields that don't apply to your purchase.

Process a non-catalog order and answer the relevant Supplier Qualification questions. Update the requisition's Supplier Validation to the correct response. Create one PO for the entire contract term, including multi-year terms.

For P1/P2 PALCard purchases, the cardholder must submit a PALCard Exception Form, including the Supplier Security Review Questionnaire in the attachments.

Certificate of insurance is required for purchases involving P3/P4 data, data security issues, IT-related items, or certain controlled substances. The department should reach out to the vendor to request the certificate.

Check Form Fields → Service Questions. If any covered services questions are answered "yes" in the Purchasing Request Form and the Covered Services checkbox is marked in the "Contracting Details" section, the requisition routes to the covered services reviewer. Review the supplier questionnaire responses there.

Department buyers should select the appropriate wage rule when creating the requisition. If missed, central buyers can correct it but should notify the department buyer for future reference.

Select Not Applicable if services are performed off-site.
Select Fair Work Fair Wage if services are performed on campus.
Select Prevailing Wage if it is a DIR project, and provide the DIR number.

SSPR forms are required for federal funds at $15,000+ or non-federal funds at $100,000+. For federal accounts under $15,000, SSPR is not required.

First, search SAM.gov (requires free account login). If the supplier is listed, print their record as a PDF. If not found, use the UCI Debarment Verification Form and have the supplier complete and sign it. You will need to be signed into UC Procurement's website before accessing the link.

Supplier & Catalog Management

Contracted suppliers have compliance requirements already handled, offer preferred pricing and terms, and streamline the procurement process. The university has nearly 600 contracted suppliers available.

This happens for one of two reasons:

The supplier was onboarded in KFS that same day. It takes at least one day for suppliers to transfer to UCIBuy+.
The supplier is inactive. Go to Suppliers → Manage Suppliers → Search for Supplier. Change the status filter from "Enabled for Procurement" to "All" and click Apply. Suppliers with an X are not enabled for procurement and need to be re-activated through PaymentWorks.

If the supplier does not have a Punchout Catalog, process a non-catalog requisition.

If the supplier does have a Punchout Catalog (e.g., Fisher Scientific and VWR): access the supplier's Punchout Catalog → go to "My Quotes" or equivalent → search for your quote → add the quote to your cart → return cart to UCIBuy+ → process the requisition as any other catalog requisition.

Your browser might be blocking pop-ups. Allow pop-ups for the site, then try opening the catalog again.

Option 1: Use the general search bar with keywords like "recycled copy paper 100%."
Option 2 (Recommended): Navigate to Office Supplies and select the ODP punch-out to search for specific sustainable products and browse pre-created shopping lists.

Enter the AirGas account number in the "Additional Location Details" field when setting up your shipping address. This field is specifically purposed for AirGas account numbers and will be transmitted to their PO system.

Use the form linked on the Lab Supplies and Equipment dashboard under the AirGas reminder section. This form goes directly to eBusiness West for processing account requests or modifications.

Capital Assets & Equipment

If you have both capital and non-capital asset lines, either (1) enter capital asset accounting at the header level and override non-capital lines, or (2) enter non-capital accounting at the header and override for capital asset lines. Choose the method based on which type dominates.

In the Purchasing Request form, select "Goods" (not Software) as the type. Under Supplier Qualification Questions, answer the embedded software question rather than selecting Software as a separate category.

No. Equipment assets should not have start/end dates, as KFS does not accept them.

Use the "no room" designation and enter the actual address in the Internal Notes field.

Enter additional asset tag numbers in the Internal Notes field.

System Navigation & Search

Use the search box at the top of the page by typing the PO or PR number (shortcut: Alt-Q). Alternatively, click the third icon (clock/document icon) from the top menu to search for requisitions, orders, change requests, or requests.

Draft carts/requisitions: Hover over the second icon "Shop," then select My Carts and Orders → View Carts.
Form Requests: Hover over the third icon "Orders," then select My Orders → My Requests to see PALCard Exception Request forms and unsubmitted purchasing request forms.

Copy the PO number from UCIBuy+. In KFS, go to Document Search, type "PO" to expand search options, paste the PO number, and search. Click on the result to view the PO details. Note that POs in KFS are primarily read-only.

Yes, but you must add "Account" as a custom filter (not through the general search box). Use the format with dashes (e.g., IR-GF12345).

Older purchase orders placed before the UCIBuy+ launch are still available in KFS, not in the new system.

User Settings, Defaults & Training

See this training guide: How to Edit Settings and Notifications.

No. Certain fields require transaction-specific decisions to prevent errors. Fields like item type and information security review requirements cannot be defaulted.

Visit the UCIBuy+ website and click on "UCIBuy+" to access office hours recordings (posted the day after each session), step-by-step guides, FAQs, and micro-learning session topics.

KFS Integration & Legacy System

KFS is still used for entertainment reimbursements, corporate card transactions, travel expenses, PALCard reconciliation, and PO payments.

Purchase orders transfer to KFS in real time once they complete workflow in UCIBuy+,

This is a known system issue being resolved with Jaggaer. Currently, only admin users can view legacy POs. For immediate needs, submit a ServiceNow ticket requesting the specific PO, or reference it in KFS (though the KFS version isn't formatted for vendors).

Account designation in UCIBuy+ is based on the account designation in KFS. Contact KFS support to correct the designation in KFS. Once updated, it will reflect in UCIBuy+ by the next day. If the requisition hasn't been submitted yet, remove and re-add the accounting code after the correction.