Table of Contents
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Agency Updates: Preparing for FY Year End Close Reports | Important Reminders for Fiscal Year-End Close | Defining an Inquiry Period
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Supplier Updates: New Punchout Catalogs Available | Supplier Webinars
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Training Tips: Duplicating Purchase Requisitions from a Punchout Catalog | New Procurement and OhioBuys Quick Links | Training Calendar | Office Hours
Please share this newsletter with your agency users!
Remember to check the OhioBuys website for the latest user tips and information.
Agency Updates
PREPARING FOR FISCAL YEAR-END CLOSE REPORTS
With less than three weeks until the Fiscal Year-End Close, please be sure 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 queries in OhioBuys that allows you to find and identify incomplete transactions for clean-up. From the Analytics > Browse Queries page, you can use the keyword “month” to find all three queries.
The available queries are:
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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 that is intended for future fiscal years.
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Change order in progress – this will also include anything that is not in “Ordered” status.
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POs not Dispatched – this will include any PO that is currently “In Progress” and has not completed processing to an order.
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, review each transaction and determine whether it will be complete in time for the fiscal year-end close or not. If not, you may want to cancel or delete the transaction. To assist you with reviewing your in-progress purchase requisitions and change orders, there are two job aids that are available:
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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 of the purchase requisition statuses indicates. In addition, this job aid explains how to run the Requisitions still pending approval and the Change order in progress queries in OhioBuys.
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Review Purchase Order Integration Errors: walks through how to find in-progress purchase orders that have encountered an integration error and explain the actions that need to be taken to resolve the displayed error. In addition, this job aid explains how to run the POs not Dispatched.
IMPORTANT REMINDERS FOR FISCAL YEAR-END CLOSE
As a reminder, OAKS purchasing roles will be turned off at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, June 22nd.
Please keep the following in mind:
- Users will need to resolve all pending items with budget dates in FY22 on or before June 22nd (including integration errors, budget errors, incomplete change orders, and incomplete purchase requisitions).
- All FY22 OhioBuys purchase requisitions and change orders must be in “Ordered” status (or in the case of ODOT, in “ODOT Complete” status) on or before June 22nd. All FY22 POs must also be in “Ordered” status on or before June 22nd. Please note, any transactions for FY22 that do not meet this requirement will be canceled or deleted beginning June 23rd, and the user must re-create the transaction in the new fiscal year when the OhioBuys and OAKS re-open.
- If there are issues, users should sign up for office hours or report them to the help desk immediately so, they can be addressed.
- Users will have “view only” access in both systems (OAKS/OhioBuys) beginning June 22nd once roles are shut off. Users will regain edit rights when OhioBuys and OAKS re-open.
Between June 23 – June 30, OhioBuys users will still be able to create and manage sourcing events, contracts, exceptions, etc. Users should not have any solicitations or inquiry end dates closing on June 30th or July 1st.
On June 30th, OhioBuys will go into Maintenance Mode at 7 PM and suppliers and internal users will not have access until the system is back online July 1st (in concert with OAKS coming back online).
If you have any trouble during the clean-up process, please consider signing up for office hours or email OBM.sharedservice@obm.ohio.gov for assistance.
DEFINING AN INQUIRY PERIOD
When users are in the process of setting up a solicitation in OhioBuys, they will need to navigate to the Prepare a Solicitation tab. On this tab, it is very important to make sure that the inquiry period is defined in the highlighted fields below.
This step is important because it provides specific dates during which Suppliers can ask questions during the sourcing event about the details of the solicitation (e.g., clarifying expectations, etc.). If no inquiry period is made available and a Supplier submits a Helpdesk ticket with questions related to the solicitation, they will be given the name and email address of the sourcing responsible user to answer their specific questions.
Supplier Updates
NEW PUNCHOUT CATALOGS AVAILABLE
OhioBuys has recently added three new punchout catalogs that are now available to users.
 *Note: This is currently only set up for DYS Institutions. If a user needs to utilize this punchout, please submit a helpdesk ticket asking for new users to be set up.
Please email ohiobuys@das.ohio.gov with any questions.
2022 SUPPLIER WEBINARS We have three remaining 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 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 Webinar page of the OhioBuys website.
Training Tips
DUPLICATING PURCHASE REQUISITIONS FROM A PUNCHOUT CATALOG
Users cannot create duplicate PRs when their requisitions contain items from a punchout catalog; this is due to the fact that punchout catalog items can be dynamic and change (e.g., some changes in prices may be possible), and duplicating the PR could lead to a requisition being created with an item that is outdated. For more information, please review the Working with Purchase Requisitions Leaner Guide.
NEW PROCUREMENT AND OHIOBUYS QUICK LINKS
To help users communicate locations on the new website in an easier way, you can download a list of Procurement and OhioBuys Quick Links that will direct users to the most frequently visited pages on the website.
TRAINING CALENDAR
Ongoing OhioBuys training sessions are now scheduled through September 2022. For the complete list, see the below schedule of upcoming sessions or visit the Ongoing Training page.
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
One of the resources available to assist your use of OhioBuys is the option to sign up for Office Hours. Users sign up for either 30 or 60-minute Office Hour sessions wherein a dedicated OhioBuys trainer will be available to assist you with OhioBuys functionality.
Beginning this week, Office Hours have been expanded with slots available Monday – Thursday from 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM, and 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM pending availability.
We encourage you to advantage of this resource as you get acclimated to OhioBuys. To sign up for office hours, please follow the prompts on the Office Hours bookings page.
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
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