Purchasing Guide for Internal Users
Purchasing Procedures
1. Requisition
This is an internal document that authorizes the purchasing department to place your order. Complete the requisition (give detailed descriptions), have it approved, and forward it to the purchasing department. Please note, requisition numbers are not purchase order numbers and cannot be given to vendors.
2. Purchase Orders (POs)
The purchasing department will issue a PO from your requisition. Before the PO is issued, the requisition will be reviewed and quotes or bids may be solicited. The vendor you have selected may be changed at this point. Some materials and services have contracts with selected vendors and orders will be awarded accordingly. Please note, there shall be no commitment to a vendor until a PO has been approved and issued by the purchasing department.
Emergency Purchase
Orders A reserve PO number can be issued in cases where you are unable to wait for the normal ordering process. When calling the purchasing department for a reserve PO number you will need to provide a requisition number, short description, and pricing. The requisition and any associated paperwork must then be forwarded to the purchasing department.
Purchasing Cards (P-Cards)
If you have a p-card holder in your group they may buy an item for you if it’s less than $1000. You will need to give your budget code to this person at the time of order. There are some restrictions on what can be bought with a p-card.
Quotes, Formal Bids, and Proposals
Material and Services
$0-$5000
Quotations are not required, although the purchasing department may elect to solicit quotes depending on the dollar amount and type of material or service.
$5000-$25,000 (RFQs)
Quotations (informal bids) are required. Purchasing will solicit quotes from vendors. In some cases they may delegate this authority to the requesting department. Quotes should be on the vendor’s quotation form and include pricing the item or service along with the price of freight F.O.B. for Casper College. If the total price includes freight charges the vendor should note this on their quote. Prices must be kept confi dential until the solicitation period has expired and the order has been awarded. The quotes (minimum of two) must be attached to the requisition and forwarded to the purchasing department.
$25,000 or greater (ITBs & RFPs)
Formal sealed bids or requests for proposals are required. ITB’s and RFP’s can only be solicited by the purchasing department. The entire process takes from three to six weeks so be sure to give enough lead-time. (Dollar amounts shown above are for the total requisition.)
All ITB’s and RFP’s are advertised in the legals section of the local newspaper and are posted on rockymountainbidsystem.com and the main Purchasing web page.
Exceptions to the above are allowed in very limited cases such as:
Sole source items, standardization efforts, and emergency orders. Exceptions must be documented on our “Exception to Normal Purchasing Procedure” form and approved by the director of purchasing and appropriate vice president(s). Many times sole source and standardization purchases are not exempt from bidding since we can often fi nd several dealers or distributors for the material or service.
Contracts for Materials and Services
Some materials and services we buy have contracts that have been prebid. We are committed to utilizing these contracts whenever possible as they most often afford us lower pricing, free freight, and faster delivery. Standardization is another reason to use these contracts. Standardization can help create a consistent look, reduce the number of repair parts we stock, and simplify maintenance.
Some of our contracted items are:
- Computer equipment
- Furniture/lab equipment
- Copiers
- Telephone equipment
- Cell phones
- Industrial supplies
- Auto shop supplies
- Medical supplies
- Misc. services
Please do not buy these items without consulting the purchasing department.
Awarding Orders
Awards for informal bids (RFQs) and formal sealed bids (ITBs) are usually to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder(s). When a request for proposal (RFP) is awarded it will be based on evaluation criteria that includes pricing and other factors that have been detailed in the RFP solicitation. (Instate preferences apply.)
Budget Pricing Requests
When requesting prices from vendors, please do not ask for firm bids (verbal or written) for items over $25,000. This can obligate the college and create problems when a formal bid is solicited by the purchasing department. Instead; ask the vendor for a “ballpark” figure and remind them this is not a bid solicitation.
Surplus Sales
The purchasing department is in charge of surplus material disposition. Items to be sold will be posted on govdeals.com.
Instate Preferences
When awarding bids, the purchasing department will adhere to Wyoming state statutes which give preference to materials and services provided in the state.
Misc. Notes:
- These polices and procedures are for all items purchased at Casper College including materials and services for grants, clubs, and student organizations. If a grant has its own procedure for purchasing, we will also adhere to those rules.
- We are always looking for more efficient and cost effective ways to process orders. One way to reduce costs is to use the college p-card on small dollar orders. After receiving your requisition, the purchasing department may decide to use the p-card to process your order rather than use a purchase order.
- If you are writing a requisition for an item in a vendor’s catalog, make sure to contact the vendor for our discounted pricing. This is not required for orders over $25,000 since the purchasing department will be soliciting formal bids.
- When using a p-card to make a purchase, please consider our local and instate vendors whenever possible.
- The PO is our written contract with the vendor. It formalizes the terms and conditions of the transaction and provides information such as the quantity, description, firm pricing, freight charges, FOB point, and terms of payment.