XI-A. Purchasing

Guide to Financial Operations

XI-A.2 Purchase Requisitions

SECTION OVERVIEW AND POLICIES

This section directs agencies on the use of the requisition to streamline and standardize the purchasing process.

In the Statewide Financial System (SFS), agencies use the requisition to:

  1. Begin the contract process with a Contract Type Requisition,
  2. Initiate a request to purchase goods or services from a Preferred Source vendor or a Centralized Contract vendor with a General Type Requisition, or
  3. Initiate purchases via the open market for discretionary purchases with a General Type Requisition.

Process and Transaction Preparation:

Requisitioners should follow Office of General Services’ (OGS) Procurement Guidelines when purchasing goods or services. For additional information on the New York State procurement process, please refer to the New York State Procurement Guidelines.

Preferred Source, Centralized Contracts and Discretionary Purchases

Online Agencies

Agencies should use a General Type Requisition to initiate purchases from (i) a preferred source, (ii) a centralized contract, and (iii) vendors for discretionary purchases.

For purchases from centralized contracts, agencies must reference the contract ID on the requisition.

If using the Procurement Card (PCard) as the payment method for a preferred source, centralized contract, or discretionary purchase, the requisitioner should select the Use Procurement Card checkbox and applicable masked PCard number from the drop down list on the requisition. As a reminder, agencies may not use a PCard as the payment method for purchases from agency contracts.

The ordering address on the requisition carries over to the purchase order. If there is more than one ordering address maintained for the vendor, the requisitioner is responsible to select the correct address on the requisition.

When purchasing items that are included in the Item Master, the requisitioner should select these items from the Item Master for input onto the requisition. The Item Master is a repository of items that provides buyers with a standardized list of items for purchase. This alleviates the need for agencies to enter descriptions for ordering, and provides the State with enhanced business intelligence about the types of goods and services agencies purchase. Items in the Item Master have standardized nomenclature and attributes, such as units of measure.

Centralized Contract Purchases from Value-Added Resellers

General Purchase Procurement Requisitions

Agencies cannot select Value-Added Reseller (VAR) vendors on a purchase requisition in reference with a contract. As a result, agencies must either 1) create a requisition without specifying a vendor, manually source the purchase requisition to a purchase order (PO), and then select the VAR as the vendor on the PO, 2) create a PO without a requisition and select the VAR as the vendor, or 3) select the VAR on the requisition and include the contract number in the requisition header or line comments. For the last option, the PO processor will use the information provided on the purchase requisition to create the PO. For additional guidance on POs, please refer to Section 3 - Purchase Orders of this Chapter.

Bulkload Agencies

Agencies will not use requisition in SFS for preferred source purchases, centralized contract purchases or discretionary purchases. Agencies should follow their internal guidance for beginning the purchasing process. Bulkload agencies initiate the purchasing process in the SFS with a purchase order.

Agency Contract Purchases

Online Agencies

Agencies must use the Contract Type Requisition to initiate the procurement contract creation, submission, and approval processes for all agency contracts. The requisition serves as the funding reservation to pre-encumber funds and reduce the agency’s available budget balance.

All procurement contract types that require funds reservation prior to establishing an obligation will require the use of a requisition to pre-encumber the amount of funds required in accordance with the Office of the State Comptroller’s (OSC) encumbrance policy. For additional information regarding OSC’s encumbrance policy, please refer to Chapter XI, Section 2.C - Contract Funds Reservation of this Guide.

Bulkload Agencies

Agencies will not use a requisition to create an agency contract; instead, agencies will bulkload a contract document into the SFS. These contract documents must include a Procurement Contract Header, Procurement Contract Line(s) and Procurement Contract Distribution information. The SFS systematically creates and/or updates a requisition once an agency bulkloads in a Procurement Contract Line that has been marked “Include for Release” in the bulkload file.

Agencies should refer to Chapter XI, Section 1– Procurement and Contract Management Overview and Policies of this Guide for additional information about procurement contracts in the SFS.

Guide to Financial Operations

REV. 06/01/2022