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You Asked, Bob Answers!
For Purchasing Bob’s momentous tenth episode, he’s taking time to respond to some viewer mail. The answers include helpful tips for purchasing at IU, and a revealing look at Bob’s favorite hidden ‘talent’.
Thanks for watching, and please keep your questions coming!
IU Surplus Stores specialize in finding the right home for your department’s unwanted items; saving you time, protecting the planet, and preserving IU’s fiscal resources in the process.
“We’ll take anything,” says Todd Reid, IU Bloomington Warehouse and Surplus Stores Manager. “If we can’t find someone to buy it, we’ll dispose of it responsibly.”
But with more ways to sell than ever before, it’s rare not to find a buyer. Popular items are priced to move at IU Bloomington’s retail Surplus Store, where IU departments receive 30 percent off, while unique or expensive items are posted to the govdeals.com online auction site. Cumbersome items can be photographed and posted online without even being moved until the buyer comes to pick them up.
Even seemingly ‘worthless’ items can be stripped and sold for scrap, or accumulated and sold to the right buyer in bulk. “Almost nothing ends up in a landfill,” Reid explains. “We’re very proud of that.”
And while they’re saving the environment, they might just save you some money. If an individual item is sold for two-hundred dollars or more, the profits are split between IU’s general surplus account and the initiating department. That means those forgotten items you have sitting in storage could be new money in your department’s account!
Whether you have a surplus or a need, the IU Surplus Stores team is ready to help. Visit the stores’ website to get started.
Performance agreements often require payment on the night of the event. To meet this need, Accounts Payable must generate a check in advance of the date, known as a prepayment. These payments are an exception to IU’s standard invoicing process and can only be initiated with a request from IU purchasing.
To have a check ready for a performer on the night of the event, send the invoice and a completed prepayment request form to purpro@indiana.edu as soon as the requisition is complete. After reviewing the order, the professional services buying team will contact Accounts Payable to request prepayment. The completed check will then be sent to your department for delivery to the performer at the event.
IU Surplus Stores have announced a new service to help ensure the security of your data. Computer hard drives, CDs, DVDs, cell phones and other unused data storage devices can now be destroyed on site at the Surplus Stores’ IUB location. The price to IU accounts is $3.25 for each hard drive and $3.00 per pound for all other devices, with a $1.00 minimum charge per order.
To begin using this safe and efficient service, box and label your items with the IU account number to be charged. Then drop the box off at the Surplus Stores’ building in Bloomington, or use the pick-up request webform to have it picked up at your location for free. This service extends to all IU campuses, though pick-up trips to certain locations may be postponed until enough items have accumulated.
Jay Gottdenker is IU’s Director of Procurement Systems and is listed as the default user for many automated system tasks, which explains why his name appears so frequently in the notes of your requisitions and purchase orders.
For example, the note “This Purchase Order has been closed in batch,” often appears on closed POs with Jay’s name listed as the author, though he has not added the note or closed the PO personally. The system closed the PO automatically during a system refresh, likely due to an expired order end-date, and added the note above to mark the change.
If the closed PO was still in use, simply contact the original Contract Manager or support staff, or purhelp@indiana.edu, to request it reopened. And be sure to reach out to Jay’s team with your system questions or suggestions.
Accounts Payable has been receiving a number of attachments at its invoice@indiana.edu address - including work orders, quotes, and agreements – which are not required for processing invoices or issuing payments. To help the team pay your vendors on a timely basis, please refrain from sending such files, or anything other than invoices, to AP’s mail or email addresses.
The scientific buying team would like to share some exciting new ways to order scientific items through the “Shop Contracts” (B2B) site. Please email pursci@indiana.edu if you have any questions.
Lab Safety Supply is now part of Grainger
Grainger, having owned and operated Lab Safety Supply for many years, has recently combined both businesses under the Grainger name. As a result, Lab Safety Supply products are now available for purchase through Grainger’s “Shop Contracts” (B2B) punch-out site, accessible from the MRO section of the “Shop Contracts” home page.
Applied Biosystems is now a part of Life Technologies
Life Technologies, formerly known as Invitrogen, is your new access point for Applied Biosystems catalog items. Please use the Life Technologies punch-out site to order products from Applied Biosystems or any of these eight premier brands:
- Applied Biosystems ®
- Invitrogen ™
- Gibco ®
- TaqMan ®
- Novex ®
- Molecular Probes ®
- Ambion ®
- Ion Torrent ™
IU P-Card managers can now access detailed reports on P-Card transactions through US Bank’s improved tracking and reporting system. Usage details for each card are reported within 24 to 48 hours of posted transactions, with cardholders contacted after the data is reviewed as necessary.
The analysis software automatically screens all P-Card purchases for office supplies and stacked transactions, with the ability to monitor cards for a broader range of IU policies in the future. Please visit the P-Card page of the Procurement Services website to review key guidelines, and remember that repeated infractions can lead to a loss of P-Card privileges.
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