On July 6, 2010, the Berkeley Financial System Version 9 (BFS v9) went live.  The transition from Version 8.8 to Version 9 has involved months of planning, design, and testing.  For more information on the changes, see the Changes from BFS v8.8 to v9.0 below.  You can also learn more about process changes and the phased rollout schedule on the BFS v9 Reimplementation website.

The conversion to v9 new functionality includes:

• BFS roles assigned by campus departments to Requisition Creators, Receivers (in BFS), Staff to conduct inspection, and Requisition Approvers.  Departments need to communicate all of these roles to each employee, who will be involved in purchasing activities, regardless of the individual’s specific role.
• Creation of a requisition whenever a department wishes to purchase goods and/or services.  See the Procurement Services website for general information on purchasing goods and services.

Once eProcurement is rolled out to a department:

• Shoppers can shop online using BearBuy, the new catalog portal (an application supported by the vendor, SciQuest).  A Shopper will need to assign a Shopping Cart to a designated Requisition Creator in order to have the purchase processed.
• BearBuy will feature catalogs of hosted and punch-out suppliers with which UC Berkeley and/or the Office of the President have strategic agreements.  Catalogs will reflect contract pricing whether they are hosted on the BearBuy site or punch-out, accessed by going out to the supplier’s catalog through BearBuy. The number and type of catalogs available will increase over time.   

We have created the following documents to help you remember important points about accessing and using BFS v9 and BearBuy.

Tips document for Shoppers and Requisition Creators

How to Decide the Appropriate Category Codes to Use

How to Enter a Manufacturer ID in a Standard Requistion

BFS v9 Category Codes & Expense Account Codes Listing

Abbreviation Guide to BFSv9 Category Codes & Expense Account Codes Listing

Category Code & Expense Account Training

The bluCard Program and BFS v9

The policy and procedures for using a bluCard have not changed. 

The reconciling and approving processes will change from a series of offline steps to using specific BFS v9 screens to approve transactions. 

Please see the the UPK job aids on the Business Services Forms & Publications website and the Basics and Processing training sessions available on the UCB Learning Center.

Use of the bluCard is still recommended for allowable low value purchases, such as:

• Conference/event registration
• Journals/Subscriptions
• Memberships

We hope you find these documents helpful as your department makes the transition to BFS v9 and BearBuy.