Table of Contents
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Agency Updates: OhioBuys Planned Outage | Wave 4 Agencies | PO Rounding Changes | Unit of Measure Default to AMT
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Supplier Updates: Vie Ability Update | Supplier Webinars
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Training Tips: Complete Requisition Comment Field | Help Desk Checklist | 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.
**If you have any additional needs outside of ongoing training, including demos, unique office hours requests, or anything else, please email your request to: ohiobuys@das.ohio.gov. The OhioBuys Project Team will review your request and contact you to follow up.**
**IMPORTANT REMINDER - When you are submitting a helpdesk ticket for OhioBuys, make sure you are submitting it to OBM Shared Services OBM.SharedServices@obm.ohio.gov, with ‘OhioBuys’ in the subject line, and not to CSC.**
Agency Updates
OHIOBUYS PLANNED OUTAGE
OhioBuys will have a planned maintenance outage beginning 10 PM EDT on Friday, October 7, 2022, through 8 AM EDT Monday, October 10, 2022, to coincide with the OAKS HCM and FIN upgrade. Thank you in advance for your patience.
Don’t forget, in November, the following Agencies, Boards, and Commissions will go live in OhioBuys!
For more information, please visit the OhioBuys website.
As a reminder, a series of rounding PO enhancements were deployed on September 15th. These enhancements included changes in rounding behavior on requisition/PO line-item totals and distribution line-item totals (i.e., out-of-the-box OhioBuys decimal precision goes out to 10 decimals; OAKS precision limited to 4 decimals). In addition, budget information in OhioBuys must align with the associated Unit of Measure. For example, if the Unit of Measure for a line item is equal to AMT, the budget information must be allocated by amount. If the Unit of Measure is anything other than AMT (e.g., Each), the budget information must be allocated by percent.
If your agency has any POs created before these enhancements and has coding lines rounded off in OAKS, your agency should:
- cancel the associated PO
- duplicate the original purchase requisition
- submit the new purchase requisition for approval
Users should not attempt to create a change order to resolve any previous rounding issues.
Lastly, if your agency is planning to create a change order for any existing orders that do not have rounding errors, please keep in mind that the following information cannot be altered in a change order:
- Requisition Type
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Label
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Requester
Users should also not attempt to add new lines or remove existing lines as part of a change order. If additional lines (i.e., items) need to be purchased, a new purchase requisition should be created for those items. If lines need to be removed and the PO has a budget date in the current fiscal year, users should close/cancel the original PO and submit a new order for any outstanding items. If the PO is from a prior fiscal year, users should not close it until it is no longer needed.
UNIT OF MEASURE (UOM) DEFAULT TO AMOUNT (AMT)
Recently, users have received an error message because they were not selecting a UOM when creating free-form requisition lines. This was causing a system error and prevented users from creating new line items. The error message was visible only for line items that had already been created.
We have changed the settings so that UOM field defaults to AMT. Once a solution is implemented, we will communicate it to users.
Supplier Updates
The Vie Ability contract for Office Supplies now has a second punchout for Custom Stamp products in Ohio Buys. With the electronic transmission of PO’s for both of the punchout catalogs, agencies must use specific order supplier locations for each of the punchouts. For the Vie Ability Office supplies punchout orders, use order supplier SUP515045, OAKS ID 0000296520-1 For the Custom Stamp punchout orders use order supplier SUP515046, OAKS ID 0000296520-2.
2022 SUPPLIER WEBINARS
We have added additional dates for the OhioBuys supplier/bidder webinar series through December 2022.
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.
Training Tips
BE SURE TO ADD COMMENTS
Requisitions created with a punchout catalog often result in the purchase order being electronically sent to the supplier's system. This relies upon a standard set of data being sent to the supplier, and the ‘Attn to’ field is not one of those fields that is transmitted over to the suppliers. When users complete their requisitions, please put the ‘Attention to’ information in the Comments to Supplier section to ensure suppliers receive this information.
HELP DESK CHECKLIST
When users have questions or are looking for assistance, there are a few things they can do to help find solutions before submitting a help desk ticket:
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Users should utilize the training materials (Learner Guides, Job Aids, and videos) on the OhioBuys website.
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Register for sustainment training in OhioLearn using the search term ‘OhioBuys.’
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Contact your Agency Administrator to see if they can answer your question.
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Sign up for Office Hours (Instructions Below)
If a helpdesk ticket is needed:
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When submitting a ticket, please make sure to include OhioBuys in the subject line and attach all related screenshots and/or attachments.
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Once a case is submitted, end-users should try not to make any additional changes to the transaction in the system. Subsequent changes can make it more difficult to troubleshoot and identify the cause of the issue.
Please remember when submitting a ticket, they should be referring to functional issues or questions. If users have a question regarding a specific procurement policy, they should contact Steve Meese via email or Teams at steve.meese@das.ohio.gov.
If you have a case requiring immediate attention, please make sure you always submit a ticket to the help desk and be as specific as possible when describing the issue. This way, the case can be reviewed, expedited to an appropriate member of the OhioBuys team, and tracked through the resolution of your ticket.
Please remember when submitting a ticket, they should be referring to functional issues or questions. If users have a question regarding a specific procurement policy, they should contact Steve Meese via email or Teams at steve.meese@das.ohio.gov.
TRAINING CALENDAR
Ongoing OhioBuys training sessions are now scheduled through December 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.
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.
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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