Financial Thresholds
The University’s current Purchasing Regulations contain financial thresholds that determine the approach that should be taken when purchasing goods and services. Amendments to these thresholds were agreed by the Finance and Resources Committee in June 2016 tin order to remove excessive amounts of administration in Schools and Departments and enable focus on higher value procurement activity where more significant savings could be achieved. The levels have therefore been uplifted as follows:
Goods and Services
| Goods and Services | |
| VALUE | APPROACH |
| Below £1,000 | No restrictions, though competition may add value; purchasing cards should be considered for low value, one off purchases |
| £1,000 – < £5,000 | Evidence of 1 written quote |
| £5,000 – < £25,000 | A minimum of 3 written quotes |
| £25,000 – <£150,000 | A tender or mini-competition through In-tend; Procurement to assist |
| >£150,000 | Full EU tender process or mini-competition via In-tend. Procurement to lead |
Values for ‘Works’ Contracts i.e. Construction, are separate to those shown above.
Agresso POP
Agresso POP is the primary means of ordering goods and services from August 2016; along with Purchasing Cards for low value, ad-hoc spend and Click Travel for all travel bookings. The benefits to the University of introducing standard methods of ordering and paying for goods and services are significant; however, we do appreciate that these changes have brought about some challenges.
We have organised a series of workshops in September and October to provide additional guidance, training and support to new Users of the system. The first two sessions are on the 14th and 19th September 2016 in Keynes Seminar Room 4 (KS4). Further sessions will be organised for October. Should you wish to attend either of the September sessions, please register on the Doodle Poll.
If your School or Department has not yet received any initial training, please contact Mike Ager.
New Tender Documentation
We have prepared a new set of Tender Documentation. If you are planning to run a tender over the value of £25k in the near future, please contact the Purchasing Office so that we can provide guidance in the use of the new documents.
Document Library
The Procurement webpages are currently being reviewed and a new document library is being developed and will be made available in the near future. It will include Agresso User Guides, Best Practice Guides, Job Aids and Template Documents. A separate announcement will be made immediately the site is updated.
If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact the Purchasing Office