Purchasing

The Controller's Office and VP of Finance released a new Entertainment Policy, which is outline below.

We are making a change to current policy and also asking you to arrange for catering directly with Aramark personnel rather than through the CaterTrax system following the guidelines described below.   The specific changes are as follows:

• Beginning February 26^th, 2018, the University will no longer allow University operating accounts to be used to pay for meals that involve only University personnel, whether on- or off-campus.  Food for workshops, training sessions, interviews, etc. that include non-University personnel is still allowable.  Exceptions, with prior approval, will be made on a case-by-case basis where staff are not otherwise allowed normal meal times (e.g., departmental retreats).

This change does not affect meal reimbursements within the existing travel policy.  Please contact Procurement in advance if you are not sure what might be covered by this change.

• The Aramark catering software (CaterTrax) operates on their national policies which require a minimum ordering size of 12.  A review of our catering orders shows that this order size represents a disproportionate number of orders.  Consequently, when ordering for fewer than 12, please place your order directly with Dawn Taylor, Aramark’s Catering Manager (X1636 or taylor-dawn@aramark.com).  (Aramark will let you know when orders might be too small and require pickup rather than delivery.)  Please always take advantage of this opportunity (that is, not pay for 12 meals when fewer are needed) to save University funds.  

POLICY FOR USING HOTELS & MAKING RESERVATIONS FOR GUESTS COMING TO WESTERN NEW ENGLAND UNIVERSITY

• Accommodations are for any guest coming to Western New England University on University business, or as a guest of the University only.
• The department responsible for the guest, or acting as hosts of the guest, should first contact the President's Office (x1243) in regards to utilizing the University's guesthouse.
• In the event that use of the guesthouse is not feasible, and hotel accommodations have been recommended and authorized by a department head, chair, or manager, hotel reservations can be made.
• All reservation requests should come through the Procurement Manager in Procurement Services (Dan DiGloria, x1747).
• At no time should a guest or department contact a hotel themselves to make reservations since the special discounted rates offered to Western New England University are not published or on contract, therefore need to be made through specific contacts at the various hotels. This also ensures direct-billing to the University, and not to the guest directly.
• The following information should be provided to Procurement Services via the campus Reservation Request Form:
  • Name of guest(s)
  • Date of arrival
  • # of nights of stay
  • Room preference (smoking/non, king or double beds; although most of the larger hotel chains are no longer offering smoking rooms)
  • What charges, if any, Western New England University is covering
  • The name of the department or University employee requesting the reservation
• This form can then be faxed to Procurement Services (x2020) or emailed directly to the Procurement Manager (ddiglori@wne.edu).
• When the reservations are completed, Procurement Services will contact the requesting department on campus with reservation confirmation numbers and any other relative information.
• The requesting department is required at that point to create a Purchase Order for the reservation with all provided information, as well as an authorizing signature(s) and appropriate account(s) for charges.
• When the invoice is received after the stay it will be sent to the requesting department and should be processed in accordance with standard invoice processing procedures.

Whenever international travel is required on behalf of the University, please refer to the International Travel Policy and fill out the accompanying form completely before travel. This is very important, and involves insurance coverage and other considerations.

This normally pertains only to Faculty and Administrative Staff, but the University will often include moving expense reimbursement included in hiring contracts. Please refer to the Moving Reimbursement Policy below for specifics and guidelines, and the attached form will need to be completed and submitted, complete with appropriate approval signatures, backup, and all required documentation.

Once anyone starts looking around on the Procurement page of the University website, one thing that becomes very clear is that we have a lot of policies and procedures governing purchasing, payment requests, campus credit cards, reimbursements, etc. In light of that we put together a condensed Reference Guide that touches on all of the more important points, and allows folks to find answers a little more quickly than going through all of the various policies and procedures one at a time.

Please refer to the attached document, and hopefully most questions can be answered quickly and easily. If further clarification is required, however, please feel free to contact one of the Procurement staff members.

Please refer to the attached University Travel Policy prior to arranging any travel, as there are very specific protocols to follow.