All transactions requiring a Purchase Order (PO) start in the
Berkeley Financial System (BFS)with a requisition or department PO. The procurement process always begins with the creation of one of these documents in the BFS.
For information about purchase orders issued by campus departments, see Low Value Procurement and the LVPA page under Delegated Authority.
Purchase Orders which must be issued by a campus buyer are generally those with a value greater than $4,999.99 or items restricted from using the Low Value process. The campus buyer will be guided by best buying practices and University policies with which Campus departmental purchasing personnel should also strive to become familiar, especially Federal Acquisition Regulations related to expenditures involving Federal funds (see FAR Subpart 52.2 and
FAR Subpart 3.5).
The Purchase Requisition relays information about a desired purchase to a campus buyer. It should contain or be accompanied by all of the necessary information the buyer needs to make the purchase and commit the funds that will pay for the purchase. Best buying practices include quotations from prospective suppliers (pricing must be documented) and justification for source selection and price reasonableness. The buyer is required to seek competitive bidding from at least three suppliers if the PO will be valued at $50K or higher. Please be sure to email or fax quotation(s) your department has received from supplier(s) and written justification if there is a preferred source. If appropriate, include a completed Sole Source Form for any order valued at $10K or more. If all the requirements for proceeding with the purchase are in order, the campus buyer will place the order with a supplier and complete a Basis For Award form for all PO files at a value of $10K or more, which justifies why the supplier is selected and how it was determined that the price is reasonable.
See Campus Buyer for more about our services and activities. Each campus department has a campus buyer assigned to support their procurement needs. See Campus Buyer Assignments to find out which campus buyer assists your department.
To have access to BFS and be able to establish Purchase Requisitions, you must:
- Have a valid BFS user ID and password
- Receive BFS training or receive instruction from an authorized department trainer
Have your department submit a Purchasing Authorization Form that includes a list of Organization codes for which you will be authorized to place requests. If your department has authorized you to spend its funds and you have BFS access, you can create a requisition.