Purchasing

Purchasing Policies and Procedures

All purchases made by the school require prior approval from the Office of Business Operations. Contact the Office of Business Operations to obtain prior approval, then continue with the procedures outlined below.

For purchases of less than $5,000.00

Purchasing Procedure

1. Go to rasr.unc.edu, complete and submit the Purchase/Expense (<$5000) – Prior Approvals and Purchase Requests form (See RASR Form Requirements below).
2. The Business Operations Office will review your request and either approve or deny it.
   • If denied, you will see documentation indicting why the request was denied or requesting additional information needed to approve it.
   • If approved, the request will be returned so that you can attach the invoice for payment once the work is completed.
     NOTE: The University wants to pay for everything they can up front so you don’t have to pay money out of pocket.
3. Once the invoice and information that pertains to the payment is attached to the pre-approved RASR ticket, submit it.
4. The Business Operations Office will process the payment and the submitter will receive an email once the payment processing is complete.

RASR Form Requirements

General Requirements:

1. Breakdown of Costs (invoice, screenshot of item, etc.)
2. If purchase is to be made online please include a link to the item being purchased not just the general website it can be found on, we want to eliminate the possibility for errors and having to request further information.

If this is a Vendor that has not worked with UNC-CH before; the following are required:

1. Form W-9
2. Direct Deposit Authorization Form for Vendors (ACH Form)
   The University now requires payees to receive payments electronically, unless the vendor is a student who does not own a bank account, then a check payment option is available.
3. Other forms possible based on Vendor’s W-9 and the specifics of the situation/relationship proposed.

We would like to make as many of these purchases as possibly using the university P-Card so please provide information (contact info., website, etc.) to do so if possible/applicable.

We cannot circumvent the university policies for purchases over $5,000 by splitting purchases for like services from a single vendor to get under the $5,000 threshold. This threshold is for total aggregate services from the same vendor within the same scope.

For purchases of more than $5,000.00

You are required to obtain at least three informal quotes for purchases between $5,000.00 and $25,000.00.

For purchases between $25,000.00 and $500,000.00, Purchasing Services uses the University’s sealed formal bid procedures to obtain competitive bids.