Aggie Enterprise Glossary of Accounts Payable and Purchasing Terms

An approver is an Aggie Enterprise user responsible for reviewing a document and approving or rejecting it.

For the Requisition document, approvers are automatically assigned to the approval workflow based on department, dollar amount, and category names selected on the document. 

Approvers should review the Approval guide and also complete the Course 5 on Approvals, available on the Aggie Enterprise website.

Although Automatic Purchase Order is not an "official" Aggie Enterprise term, it is used to identify a Requisition that doesn’t require buyer approval before the associated Purchase Order is created and issued to a supplier. In general, Requisitions less than $10K, not citing a capital asset or controlled substances, do not require buyer approval from Procurement & Contracting Services. 

A Blanket Purchase Order is a purchase requested by a department via a non-catalog Requisition for an ongoing good or service need, generally for year or longer. A blanket order can often benefit a department with better pricing, especially if the cost of goods/services is likely to increase with inflation, for example. 

A buyer is a member of the UC Davis Procurement & Contracting Services team who negotiates with outside suppliers for the best options for purchasing goods and services.

A buyer oversees the Requisition process and is responsible for creating Purchase Orders for Requisitions over the Automatic Purchase Order (APO) threshold, as well as for those Requisitions requesting most services, controlled substances, and other restricted purchases. 

Catalog purchasing allows shoppers in Aggie Enterprise to purchase items, both supplies and capital assets, directly from multiple suppliers. Items include office, computer, custodial, hardware, medical, and scientific and lab products.  These catalogs are based on university agreements with each of the suppliers, ensuring the best pricing and terms and conditions. 

There are two catalog types in Aggie Enterprise:

• Hosted:  Catalogs available directly in the Aggie Enterprise system.  The only hosted catalogs in Aggie Enterprise are those provided by AggieSupply (Scientific Store, Central Storehouse, Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) Store).
• Punch-Out: Catalogs for which the shopper is taken to a dedicated site to shop and then return their items to the Aggie Enterprise system

Catalog purchasing is the recommended way to procure goods most quickly, with the most advantageous terms.  Learn how to catalog purchase in Aggie Enterprise.

Cleared is a payment term that indicates that a check has been issued to and cashed by the supplier/payee.  

The automated process of setting funds aside for the PPM Project or Charge Account string when a Requisition is fully approved.

The commitment is automatically released when the associated Purchase Order is created.

If a fully-approved Requisition is canceled before a Purchase Order is created, the commitment is automatically released at that time.

The Invoice is the document provided by a supplier to collect payment for a purchase.

• Invoices for catalog orders in Aggie Enterprise are automatically received and processed by the Aggie Enterprise system.
• Invoices for non-catalog Purchase Orders created in Aggie Enterprise are received, processed, and paid by the central Accounts Payable team.
• Invoice payment requests not associated with Purchase Orders are to be processed on the Payment Request form to be submitted by the department.  Central Accounts Payable will then process the request to pay the supplier.

Financial status assigned to a Purchase Order indicating that it has been fully approved and is open for purchasing.

This payment term indicates that a payment has been issued to, but not yet cashed by, the payee.

Non-Catalog purchasing on a Requisition can be used for service procurement and when the desired item(s) is not available in one of the Aggie Enterprise catalogs.   Non-Catalog purchases can be issued to suppliers on agreements as well.  Learn how to create a non-catalog purchase in Aggie Enterprise.

The process of setting funds aside to pay for a purchase.   This is often referred to as an encumbrance as well, but identified as an obligation in Aggie Enterprise.

When a Purchase Order is created in Aggie Enterprise, an obligation is automatically created, and the commitment previously created by the associated Requisition is released. 

When the Purchase Order is fully invoiced and/or otherwise closed, all remaining obligations are automatically removed.

The Purchase Order is the contract for goods and/or services issued to a supplier, based on a fully approved Requisition.  The Purchase Order obligates (encumbers) the funds, so that they are available for payment purposes.

PO format is UCDPO followed by eight numbers, issued sequentially by the system (e.g., UCDPO12345678) for most Purchase Orders, with the exception of AggieSupply (Central Storehouse, Scientific Store, Chemistry Store, MRO Store) orders that create an internal transfer order number in lieu of the UCDPO formatted number.

The following Purchase Order (PO) statuses are the ones you will see most frequently in Aggie Enterprise and what each of them indicates:

• Closed for Invoicing: All the item lines on the PO have been invoiced.  The full obligation (encumbrance) has been released on the PO.
• Closed for Receiving:  All items on the PO have been fully received, but not all line items have yet been invoiced against the PO. 
• Finally Closed: The status that occurs after a manual request to close the PO is processed, even though some lines might not have been invoiced. The full obligation (encumbrance) has been released on the PO.
• Open: Purchase Order has one or more lines that are yet to be invoiced.
• Withdrawn: During the time a Purchase Order is being worked on by a buyer, the status of the Purchase Order may reflect Withdrawn, as the buyer works on it in their assigned queue.

Field in the Billing section of the Requisition used to identify if a capital asset purchase is eligible for a reduced California sales tax if it will be used for research purposes in California at least 50 percent of the time.

A Requester is a person on whose behalf a Requisition is created in Aggie Enterprise.  The Requester can be the same person as the one creating the Requisition, or it can be someone else.  The Requester is a field in the Delivery section of the Requisition and can also be set as a Requisition Preference.

The Requester receives automated system and email notifications when the associated Purchase Order is fully approved.  The Requester field also acts as the Attention line on the shipping label.

A Requisition is the document in Aggie Enterprise used by departments to request the purchase (catalog and non-catalog) of goods and/or services. A fully approved Requisition is used to create a Purchase Order that is issued to the supplier.

There are multiple statuses for a Requisition, indicating where the document is in routing:

• Approved: All required approvals have been secured, and no additional approvals are required.
• Canceled: Action taken by initiator of document, so document will not route and will not be approved.
• Incomplete: Requisition is in the initiator's queue and has not yet been submitted for approval.
• Pending Approval: One or more approvals are still required before the document is approved.  Click on the link to see the person to whom the Requisition is currently assigned and awaiting approval.  As needed, you can reach out to that person directly to get any updates.
• Rejected:  Requisition has been returned to the initiator by one of the approvers in order for the initiator to make edits and resubmit for approval.
• Returned:  Requisition has been returned to the initiator by a Buyer in Procurement & Contracting Services in order for the initiator to make edits and resubmit for approval.
• Withdrawn: Initiator initially submitted the Requisition for approval, and then withdrew it back to their queue, in order to make edits before resubmitting.

A Requisitioner is an employee who creates and submits a Requisition in Aggie Enterprise. A Requisitioner can create and submit a Requisition based on their own purchasing needs or on behalf of a Requester. A Requisitioner may also be referred to as a Requisition initiator or preparer.

Financial status assigned to a Requisition, indicating it has been fully approved, and the funds have been encumbered, but the associated Purchase Order has not yet been created and/or fully approved and open.