Welcome to eprocurement Web Requisition (ereq)

Transcription

1 Welcome to eprocurement Web Requisition (ereq) The Big Picture: The eprocurement Web Requisition System (ereq) is just the first installment in the next generation of administrative business applications to be implemented here at the University at Buffalo. The automation of manual processes and department to department workflow is a huge undertaking. The idea is to automate the paper process to an electronic one. The obvious perks of an electronic process are increased efficiency, less lag time (keep in mind how many different departments a given piece of paper sometimes has to travel), and better tracking of documents. The trick is to build the electronic process with all of these perks and more, without taking away anything that worked well in the old paper process. Welcome: That being said, welcome to ereq. The ereq Project Team appreciates your participation in this pilot phase of the project. We welcome your feedback, questions, and comments. This guide is intended to provide you with a basic understanding of how ereq works, along with some helpful hints. It is not intended to provide comprehensive training on the use of the system as that is not a necessity at this time. Your Contacts (for questions, comments, errors) are: Beth Fenush and Louise Lougen in Procurement Services. Please send your inquiries via e mail only to BFenush@business.buffalo.edu or LLougen@business.buffalo.edu. Introduction to ereq: ereq will allow any University at Buffalo faculty or staff member to create an electronic requisition. That requisition can then be forwarded electronically to the appropriate individual (or individuals) for departmental approval; then on to the UB Purchasing Office for final processing. The ereq system, once finalized, will allow users the ability to submit requisitions using any of the following three funding sources: 1. State 2. Research Foundation (RF) 3. UB Foundation (UBF) Only ONE Funding Source can be selected per Requisition Procurement Services Purchasing Vers. 1.0, Sect. A, Page 1

2 The ereq System consists of two parts: 1. Ultimus, the workflow engine: Ultimus electronically moves work (requisitions) from place to place or from user to user. 2. the ereq application, where each requisition is created and modified, and where it is stored until a purchase order is created. You may hear an ereq project team member refer to the ereq application as Perl. This is the name of the language that the programmers used to build ereq. Roles and Steps in ereq: There are various roles to be assigned to users of ereq. Each role gives the user a certain set of access rights and capabilities within the system. Roles: For campus users (those outside of Procurement Services) there are basically only two roles: 1. Creator: this person can create requisitions and submit them for approval to a designated approver or approvers in their department; but they cannot assign funding or approve funding, and they cannot submit the requisition directly to Purchasing. 2. Approver: this person can also create requisitions and they can also submit them for approval to another designated approver or approvers in their department. However, in addition, they can assign and approve funding, and they can approve and submit requisitions directly to Purchasing. This includes requisitions they create themselves as well as requisitions that are submitted to them by others (both creators and other approvers) in their department. Steps: For campus users there are basically four steps: 1. Begin step: this step is where any user, regardless of role, creates a new requisition. However, what a user can do with a requisition at this step is dependent on their role in the system. For example, an approver can start a new requisition at the Begin step and then assign and approve funding, and then submit it to Purchasing for processing. A creator at the begin step will have to start their new requisition and send it to their departmental approver, they cannot send it directly to Purchasing. Procurement Services Purchasing Vers. 1.0, Sect. A, Page 2

3 Steps (Cont d): 2. Approver 1 step: this step is where an approver can approve a requisition and submit it to another approver or submit it directly to Purchasing for processing. Or a requisition can be rejected back to the previous step if it does not meet the criteria for approval. 3. Approver 2 step: this step is for a second approval of a requisition. The requisitions an approver receives at this step have already been approved by the person at the Approver 1 step. A department may have their own approval criteria and policies for purchases and this departmental policy may dictate more than one approval on a particular requisition before it can be submitted to Purchasing. 4. Approver 3 step: this step is for a third approval of a requisition. The requisitions an approver receives at this step have already been approved by the persons at the Approver 1 and Approver 2 steps. For the same reason listed above under Approver 2 step, a department may use an Approver 3 step for certain types of requisitions. Dollar amount, type of funding, and/or type of purchase, etc. are all examples of why a department may want more than one approval on a given requisition. Please note: while the ereq system has 3 Approval steps available for departmental use, it does not enforce any departmental policy. For example, if the approver at the Approver 1 step is only supposed to approve requisitions at $10,000 or less according to departmental policy, there is no way for the system to police that. In other words, that Approver at Approver 1 step can technically approve and submit any requisition at any dollar amount directly to Purchasing. The system cannot enforce departmental policy. How requisitions are displayed in an Approver s Ultimus inbox will be further explained and shown in detail in the Ultimus Inbox and Completed tabs section in the back of the manual. The step is clearly shown in the inbox and an Approver will know what step of approval a requisition is at: 1, 2, or 3. Procurement Services Purchasing Vers. 1.0, Sect. A, Page 3

4 Getting Started: Signing on to Ultimus For this pilot phase of ereq: First you will need to access the Ultimus portion of the web requisition system via your internet browser at the following url address: Your log in screen will look like the one shown below. You will need your ubit username and password in order to log in to the web requisition system. Enter your ubit username here. Enter your ubit password here. Then click on Login button. Procurement Services Purchasing Vers. 1.0, Sect. A, Page 4

5 Getting Started (Cont d) After you have logged on to Ultimus, you should see the following screen: Ultimus is the work flow software for the ereq system. Ultimus is where a user can: Initiate the ereq application in order to create a new requisition Check their Ultimus Inbox to access their incoming requisitions from others or access their own requisitions that they saved to their Inbox Check their Ultimus Completed tab to see the status of the requisitions that they have passed to another user or step in the ereq process. The above is not a complete listing of all of the features of Ultimus. It is sufficient at this time, to proceed with initiating a requisition. Procurement Services Purchasing Vers. 1.0, Sect. A, Page 5

6 Creating a Requisition Let s start by initiating or creating a new requisition. From the Ultimus Initiate tab shown below: Click on the link for ereq. Next, you will see the sign on screen for the ereq application. Ultimus and ereq are actually two separate applications but in order to use the web requisition system it is necessary to have both applications open. Log in with your ubit username & password and click on OK. Once you have clicked on OK, you will be taken to the first tab in ereq, the Order Details tab. From here please refer to the appropriate section of the manual for detailed instructions. ~To initiate a requisition using State funding ~ refer to the binder tabs in black print, start with Order Details. ~To initiate a requisition using Research Foundation funding ~ refer to the binder tabs in red print and start with Order Details. Procurement Services Purchasing Vers. 1.0, Sect. A, Page 6