Table of Contents
-
Agency Updates: Looking ahead to Fiscal Year 2023 | Preparing for FY Year End Close Reports | STS Purchases in OhioBuys | Understanding Pcard Purchasing and PREP | Time Out and Inactivity Issues
-
Supplier Updates: Supplier Webinars
-
Training Tips: Submitting Help Desk Tickets | Blanket PO Webinar | Training Calendar | Office Hours
Agency Updates
LOOKING AHEAD TO FISCAL YEAR 2023
As you are working to prepare for new fiscal year purchases, remember that your agency is able to stage purchase requisitions that use a blanket Release and Permit for FY23, for both IT and Non-IT purchases.
Early Adopter Agencies: Keep in mind that FY 23 requisitions/purchase orders that can be completed in OhioBuys need to be completed in OhioBuys. However, any requisitions/purchase orders referencing a contract or release and permit established by OFCC must still be completed in OAKS.
PREPARING FOR FISCAL YEAR-END CLOSE REPORTS
As agencies prepare for Fiscal Year-End Close, it is important for users to clean up requisition, change order, and purchase order transactions from FY22 in OhioBuys which are incomplete or otherwise in error. Completing this task is crucial to prevent old transactions from falling into budget error in the new fiscal year. There are three different queries in OhioBuys that will allow you to find and identify incomplete transactions for clean-up. When you are in OhioBuys, you can access these queries by clicking Analytics > Browse Queries page. From there, you can use the keyword “month” to find all three. The available queries are:
-
Requisitions still pending approval– this will include anything that is not in “Ordered” status. (For ODOT users, this will bring back anything that is not in “ODOT Completed” status.) We recommend that you filter this query by “Budget FY” (column H) to only show transactions in the current fiscal year and any blanks. This will prevent you from accidentally deleting work intended for future fiscal years.
-
Change order in progress– this will also include anything not in “Ordered” status.
-
POs not Dispatched– this will include any PO that is currently “In Progress” and has not completed processing to an order.
Next, click the Extract icon for the query you would like to run. The queries will only display data from the agencies/organizations within your user scope.
After running these queries, please review each transaction and determine whether it is still needed. If not, cancel or delete the transaction. To assist you with reviewing your in-progress purchase requisitions and change orders, two job aids are available:
Review Purchase Requisition Status and Approval History: walks through how to find in-progress purchase requisitions on the Browse Requisitions page and explains what each purchase requisition status indicates. In addition, this job aid explains how to run the Requisitions still pending approval and the Change order in progress queries in OhioBuys.
Review Purchase Order Integration Errors: walks through how to find in-progress purchase orders that have encountered an integration error and explains the actions that need to be taken to resolve the displayed error. In addition, this job aid describes how to run the POs not Dispatched query.
If you have any trouble during the clean-up process, please consider signing up for office hours using one of the links in the Training Tips section below or email OBM.sharedservice@obm.ohio.gov for assistance.
STS PURCHASES IN OHIOBUYS
Purchases from the state term schedules (STS) will generally follow one of the following paths in OhioBuys:
- Hosted catalog
- Punchout catalog
- Quote pickup
- No catalog
Users are encouraged to start by first reviewing the contract they are trying to purchase from (if that is known). Reviewing a contract in OhioBuys will allow users to see how a contract's catalog has been configured in OhioBuys. Some STS contracts have generic catalog items with ‘AMT’ as the unit of measure; users should reference the PDF price list attached to the contract to get a full accounting of the items on these contracts. For purchases from STS contracts, users can either start with a hosted catalog item, a punchout catalog item, or a free form purchase requisition (PR) line item.
In the event that a quote pickup punchout exists and a user initially creates a free-form line item on the PR, the user will see the following alert but may proceed with flipping their PR into a quick quote (note however that they will not be able to submit the PR forward in the workflow until the alert is resolved):
“Action Required: The contract referenced on this line has catalog items associated with it. Please remove this free form line item and select an item from the corresponding catalog to proceed”
When conducting solicitations for purchases from this category, keep in mind the following:
- Users should build out their quick quote with all the information they would usually include (including an item grid). The quick quote should be constructed with general specs whenever possible (i.e., don’t make Sourcing Project Label, Solicitation Name, Process, Summary, and items brand-specific unless it’s absolutely necessary).
- When adding suppliers to the quick quote, open the Other Contracts filter and search for suppliers using the Index Number filter (e.g., STS515) to identify all suppliers holding a contract for similar commodities that may be able to fulfill the need. Click the checkbox next to each applicable contract that is for the same/similar types of goods/services as the agency is trying to purchase, then click the X button to return to the Add Supplier tab.
- Once back on the Add Suppliers tab, click the “Save” button. This will add all dealers listed on the selected contracts. Remove any rows where the Supplier Contact is blank since notification cannot be sent to a supplier if there is no contact information.
After the solicitation has been posted and awarded, and before clicking the “Update Prices” button on the PR, users will need to determine if the solicitation was awarded to a supplier/dealer using a quote pickup punchout catalog (e.g., a purchase that will reference the Deere & Company or John Deere Construction Retail contract). If a quote pickup punchout will be used, users will need to confirm with the winning bidder that the quote has also been placed in the quote pickup punchout catalog. If the quote has not been placed in the quote pickup punchout catalog (e.g., the John Deere's Quote Pickup website, users will need to ask the winning bidder to do so before proceeding).
Next, users should return to the PR that was originally created. If a quote pickup punchout catalog is being leveraged, refer to part 7 of the “Review and Update a Purchase Requisition” section of the Working Purchase Requisitions Learner Guide for details on how to change a free-form item to a catalog item. Users can then link the items that come back from the punchout catalog to the solicitation that has already been completed by clicking the Create Solicitation button on the PR, and then linking it to the existing sourcing project/solicitation. Users should ensure all items are linked, and then click the Go to Sourcing Project button to complete the linking process; note that the line items will be added in a new Lot on the solicitation in draft status (however, no further action is required on this new lot of the solicitation).
If a quote pickup punchout will not be used, users can return to the PR that was originally created and use the Update Prices functionality to update their line items. In the event that the awarded solicitation line items need to be updated after being added to the PR (e.g., a scenario where one company’s hosted catalog item was initially selected on the PR (e.g., Toro 72” mower) but another STS supplier (e.g., Exmark) won the associated quick quote and the PR line item needs updated to reference the associated catalog item), refer to part 7 of the “Review and Update a Purchase Requisition” section of the Working Purchase Requisitions Learner Guide for details on how to make this type of change.
UNDERSTANDING PCARD PURCHASING AND PREP
The State of Ohio continues to move towards online solutions for payment card (i.e., Pcard) purchases by using OhioBuys for purchasing and Pcard Reconciliation Portal (i.e., PREP) for reconciliation.
More information regarding Pcard purchases is available in the OhioBuys Purchase Requisition Learner Guide. A demonstration of the OhioBuys Pcard purchase process can also be seen in the upcoming OhioBuys Pcard Purchase Video (coming soon).
OhioBuys Pcard Purchasing
Making Pcard purchases through OhioBuys includes the following benefits:
- Allows users to reference all DAS contracts and shop from nearly 1,000 online catalogs
- ‘Baked-in’ rules to ensure purchases are made in compliance with applicable laws, rules, and policies. This includes better management Controlling Board (CB) thresholds; Pcard purchases are checked against CB thresholds prior to the purchase order being created in OhioBuys, rather than at reconciliation. This prevents agencies from exceeding their CB thresholds and after-the-fact CB requests to seek increased thresholds.
- Allows for pre-purchase approvals (if required by the agency, e.g., supervisor)
- Enforces the $2,500 single transaction purchase limit
- Allows for the State to capture detailed spend data (e.g., supplier, contract referenced, item and commodity code) to support strategic sourcing activities
- By reviewing and exporting all Pcard purchases from the Browse Orders page, agencies have a summary of transactions that can be useful entering/validating information in PREP.
|
Pcard Reconciliation Portal (PREP)
Agencies are required to use the enterprise Pcard Reconciliation Portal (PREP) to process and approve Pcard transactions. Features of PREP include:
- Utilizing electronic workflow for post-purchase approvals
- Attaching required backup documentation for purchases
- Storing all documents, approvals, and comments associated with transactions
- Pushing Pcard transactions directly to OAKS FIN
- Replacing former paper logs and handwritten signatures
- Add transaction documentation, including the merchant’s name, detailed description of the item(s)/service(s) purchased, the amount for each detail line, as well as the sum of the transaction. The documentation must also include the date(s) of service for services purchased.
Additional information on using PREP is available in the PREP Training video in Ohio Learn.
For your convenience, we’ve attached this OhioBuys and PREP Summary for agency use.
TIMEOUT AND INACTIVITY ISSUES
Recently, users have been experiencing an issue when using OhioBuys in multiple web browsers, and they are timing out due to inactive sessions or because they are logged out in one of the browsers. These occur because OhioBuys uses single sign-on, and when a user is logged out of one browser, they will be logged out of all open browsers.
When this occurs, the user will need first to close all open windows in all browsers. Next, they should clear their cache/history (also noted as clear browsing data) and open a single browser for OhioBuys. These steps should prevent the error from occurring during their session.
If you are working with a supplier facing a similar time-out issue, the steps mentioned above should resolve their issue.
Supplier Updates
SUPPLIER WEBINARS
We have added dates to our OhioBuys supplier/bidder webinar series through the end of FY 22.
Each supplier/bidder training webinar will be one hour and held on the dates listed below. Please download the webinar meeting invitation file, unzip it, and click the .ics file to add to your calendar.
In addition, a revised Supplier Fact Sheet & Quick Start Guide is available to learn more about the Supplier log-in process and share it with your suppliers. Agency representatives are also welcome to join these webinars to learn more about how suppliers access and use OhioBuys.
Anyone interested in attending Supplier webinars can download the meeting invites from the Supplier Training page of the OhioBuys website.
Training Tips
SUBMITTING HELP DESK TICKETS
When you are submitting a help desk ticket, always remember to put ‘OhioBuys’ in the subject line to make sure your inquiry goes to the correct member of the OhioBuys team.
OHIOBUYS BLANKET PO WEBINAR FRIDAY APRIL 8TH
Based on requests, we will be offering a Blanket PO Webinar to help agencies prep their Fiscal Year 2023 purchase orders. This will be on Friday, April 8th at 2 pm. See details below and register in OhioLearn. Please forward this information to anyone in your agency who would like to attend.
Course Title: Creating Blanket Orders
Description: This session is designed to prepare Requesters, Requisitioners, and Agency Admins to set up blanket orders in OhioBuys. This training session will walk you through how to create a blanket order to encumber funds and ensure adequate budgetary resources are available to make purchases throughout the fiscal year.
Duration: 1 hour
TRAINING CALENDAR
Ongoing OhioBuys training sessions are scheduled now through June 2022. For the complete list, see the below schedule of upcoming sessions.
Users can register for these sessions directly in OhioLearn if they could not previously attend OhioBuys training or if they would like a refresher course on a particular topic. If your agency has a topic request for training or needs solicitation and/or contract training, please notify the project at: OPS.TrainingAcademy@das.ohio.gov.
OFFICE HOURS
Beginning Monday, April 4th, 2022, the OhioBuys team will be holding limited Office Hours through Friday May 20th, 2022. During this time, Office Hours will be available from 11AM-12PM and 1PM-2PM Mondays-Thursdays to assist users with OhioBuys functionality. Starting on Monday, May 23rd, 2022, the OhioBuys team will be expanding Office Hours availability.
You will receive direct help on a specific transaction as you are working through it!
These Office hours are available for your training-related questions (i.e., how to do something in OhioBuys). If your question(s) is regarding policy or system issues (e.g., why a purchase order is In Progress), users should submit a helpdesk ticket. In addition, anything that substantially involves R&Ps, OAKS, or OneSpan Sign will also need to go to the helpdesk. If you have not attended any OhioBuys training course, you will be redirected to training, and your office hours appointment will be canceled.
Remember, if it's a question of "how," then office hours are the way to go. If it's a question of "why," it needs a helpdesk ticket.
Support
For log-in or system issues, please contact OBM Shared Services Center at 614-338-4781 or 1-877-644-6771 OR OBM.SharedServices@OBM.Ohio.Gov Remember to put “OhioBuys” in the subject line!
If you have questions about the project itself, please email: ohiobuys@das.ohio.gov.
Mike DeWine, Governor Jon Husted, Lt. Governor Kathleen C. Madden, Director
|