UShop Training, Procedures & Resources

Oops

If you get a notice that your cart has been returned, or if it shows back up in your UShop, read the cart comments to find out why.  If the issue is too complicated to explain in a single sentence, often I will also send an email with further explanation of what is needed.  The most common reason is that you didn't enter the business purpose.

Additional Information Needed by MSE Department

ADVISOR.  Edit the name of your cart to add your advisor's name and the name of the supplier.  During checkout, click on the pencil by General Information. Add the advisor as the first word of the name. Don't overwrite the rest of the cart name.

COMMENT: BUSINESS PURPOSE & LOCATION.  You are making a purchase with university funds. Therefore, you need to justify this to a university accountant (and possibly the grant sponsor’s accountant), who may know nothing about research, by explaining briefly (in half a dozen words) how it will be used.   This is called the business purpose.  It should be a little more explicit than "will be used for research".

During checkout, add an internal comment to the shopping cart. Click the comment tab. Click the plus to add a new comment. In the comment, put the business purpose and the location where the item will be used or stored. Click the check mark to save.

Don't put this information in the item description.

If any item in the purchase is over $1K, the business purpose needs to include enough information to indicate whether the item is a consumable, a stand-alone piece of equipment, a replacement part or repair, a service, or something else.

Quotes

If you have a quote from the supplier, attach it as an external attachment.  Give the quote number in the first item description.

Separate Carts

Always make a separate cart for each supplier. Think of it like a real shopping cart: If you are buying corn chips and salsa at Smith's and screws at Lowe's, you can't put it all in the same shopping cart.

If you already have a cart for another supplier, create an empty cart before clicking on the supplier button or the Purchase Request link.  Otherwise UShop will put the new items in your existing cart.  Click on the Cart icon on the left tool bar; My Carts and Orders; View Carts, then the button at the far right saying Create Cart. Doing this will keep the old cart waiting for you and begin a new cart to shop at another supplier.

If you forget and end up with two suppliers in the same cart, move all items from one supplier to a new cart. You may need to delete one order and redo it, especially if both suppliers use punchout catalogs; moving items to a new cart works for some punchout suppliers but not for others.

To move items to a new cart, click the box at right on the bar with the supplier's name to select all items from that supplier. Click the down arrow (upside down triangle) above the box to open a drop menu. Select 'Move to Another Cart' then ‘Move to a New Cart’. The UShop program will create a new cart and move that supplier and the items to it.

Accounting Distribution

On the checkout screen, scroll down to the Accounting Distribution section. Click on the pencil or the word 'Required' to open a window for the chartfield. Type the number your advisor gives you in the Acct Dist Shortcut box.

Fill in the Account box. This number identifies what type of thing you are buying. Most of the time you will be buying lab supplies, for which the number is 62600. If paying for a service such as analysis or repair, the number is 66300.

If the chartfield is an activity (the shortcut is five digits), type a 1 in the A/U box. If the chartfield is an project (eight digits), leave the A/U box empty. The cart will remind you the A/U is empty; if it's supposed to be empty, that's okay.

 

To Add a Default Address in UShop

• From the shopping cart, click “Proceed to Checkout”.
• Under “Ship To / Billing Options” click on either “Required” or the pencil icon.
• In the pop-up window “Edit Ship To / Billing Options” search box, type “materials 304”.
• Click on MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING in the drop-down.  A box will open under “Ship To” with the address.  Verify it says “122 Central Campus Dr Rm 304.”
• Edit the ATTN  line if necessary.
• Click  the box “Add to my addresses”.
• In the new box “Nickname”  provide a name (for instance, “CME 304”).
• Click the box “Make default”.
• Click Save at the bottom of the popup window.
• Your future carts will have the address already filled in.

New Supplier

There are thousands of suppliers already set up in UShop.  Before entering a new supplier, always

• Check the ‘pcard only’ list. If the supplier is on the list, UShop already tried to set up an account with the supplier and the supplier declined.
• Check whether you can find the item at a reasonable price from a supplier already in UShop.

Reasons for not choosing another supplier include, for instance, that the item must meet very particular or unusual specifications and you cannot find it anywhere except this supplier, or that it will save hundreds or thousands of dollars because all other suppliers’ prices are substantially higher.
If this is the best supplier yet they are on the 'pcard only' list, the purchasing card is the only option.  See Kay or Sara. If this is the best supplier and they are not on the 'pcard only' list, evaluate whether to enter them as a new supplier or to use a purchasing card.

• Consider how often you are likely to purchase from this supplier.
• Consider how soon you need the item or how close the end date for your project is.  Depending on how responsive the supplier is, setting up a new supplier can take several days or even several weeks -- or be declined. Any purchase must be placed before the project end date.

If you will only purchase from the supplier once or twice, you can't wait a week or two for the item, or your project end date is less than a month, see Kay or Sara about using a purchasing card to make the purchase.

If you expect to make additional purchases and you aren't in hurry, then it may be worth asking UShop to set up an account by entering them as a new supplier. Add a comment to the cart, explaining why similar products from other suppliers won't work and listing some of the other suppliers you have checked.

International Purchases

Purchases from international companies tend to require a lot more work from the staff than purchases within the U.S., and there are a lot more things that can go wrong.  It can be difficult to contact customer service or to return an item. They typically require prepayment, which the University doesn't like. International shipping and customs charges can eat up much of the savings you think you are getting using an international supplier.

Check whether the company has a U.S. dealer or whether you can find the item or something similar from a U.S. supplier.

 

Revising, Replacing, or Closing a Purchase Order

Once a purchase order has been issued, if you are canceling the order for any reason, always notify the company. Ask your requisitioner to close the purchase order.

If you need to revise a purchase order, submit a change request. For instance, if the prices shown on the purchase order aren't correct, the supplier may ask for a revised purchase order.  A revised purchase may or may not need to be sent to the supplier.  A purchase order to the wrong supplier or division of a supplier must be closed and a new purchase order issued.

If you want to add to your order after submitting your cart, it is better to create a new order.