Supply Procurement: Home

All non-collections purchasing must go through the Office of the Dean.

General Supplies:

• All requests must be approved by your department head prior to being ordered.
• You are not limited to the preferred suppliers available in Workday; however, preference must be given to Miami's suppliers and partners that have established agreements for particular item categories.

Event Supplies:

• Department head approval is not required.
• Items to be ordered online/via phone should be entered on the "Events" tab of the MUL Supplies Request Google Sheet.
• Items to be purchased in person are the responsibility of the event coordinator or delegate. These items do not need to be entered into the MUL Supplies Request Google Sheet. The event coordinator should pick up the departmental p-card from the Dean's Office for this purpose. Once the purchase is made, return the p-card. Submit the original receipt along with a completed receipt worksheet (also available in the Dean's Office) for each separate purchase.

Finding the shared MUL Supplies Request Google Sheet

The MUL Supplies Request Google Sheet is shared with every staff member of the Libraries. You can search for it in your google drive or click on the link to the right. Starring the sheet will make it easier to locate in your drive. If you will be ordering supplies often, you may wish to bookmark the link in your browser for quicker access.

Annually on July 1st, the name of the google sheet will be changed to reflect the current fiscal year. The previous year's requests will be archived and renamed to "YY/YY MUL Supplies Requests". Each staff member will retain viewing access for reference. 

Navigating the MUL Supplies Request Google Sheet

To enter your supplies request, locate your department's tab along the bottom of the google sheet:

Once on your tab,  fill in all fields marked as required (*).

After you have entered all your items for your current request, submit the Supply Order Approval Form.

Checking on Your Request

You can check on the status of your request at any time by looking at the "Status" column next to your line items. The color of that cell will indicate the current status:

If the cell is yellow, check the grey "Dean's Office Notes" column for details. If there is required action on your part, you will receive an email directing you to the issue. The sooner you respond, the sooner your order can get back on track.

If the cell is green and you would like to know if your item has been received by the mailroom, you can look on the "Overview" tab. Items that have been received will have an "x" next to them. If an item is marked as received but you don't have it, you can reach out to Mike Smith and/or his student employee(s) to discover where it might be. 

Supplies Budget

Each department is allotted a set budget for supplies each fiscal year. An estimate of the amount spent/remaining is available at the top of your department's tab:

Lissa Martin provides department heads with actual (reconciled) balances on a monthly basis. If your department's budget is running low but you need supplies, your department head can check with Lissa for an up-to-date balance at any time.

Miami University has many preferred suppliers with online catalogs available in Workday to assist you in selecting supplies.

To view these catalogs, log into Workday and search for "Create Requisition".  Fill in all required fields. This is usually only "Requisition Type" and "Cost Center". Click "OK". On the next screen, select "Connect to Supplier Website". You should only need to fill in the details once, as Workday will retain this information for you on subsequent visits.

This step is only to allow you to view the catalogs to help you select the item(s) you want ordered and to copy pertinent information to your tab on the MUL Supplies Request Google Sheet prior to submission for approval. Once your department head has approved the request, your order will be placed by the Dean's Office.

DO NOT PROCEED TO CHECKOUT. THIS WILL INITIATE A REQUISITION. 
Requisitions submitted by MUL staff outside of the Dean's Office will be rejected.

The next screen will display the catalogs available for viewing:

Click "Connect" for your desired catalog and start browsing!

Amazon

Miami has established agreements with certain suppliers for particular item categories and restrictions have been placed on Amazon purchases for several product categories.

Restricted categories and where they should be purchased from include:

• Office Supplies > OfficeDepot/NetPAC
• Furniture > River City Furniture (Contact Mike Smith to discuss these purchases)
• Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) > Grainger, Lowes
• Computers/Tablets/Etc. (note – not peripherals such as keyboards, mice, etc.) > Dell, CDW, etc.
• Scientific Supplies > Fisher Scientific, Thomas Scientific, etc.
• Promotional Items > Consolidus

It should be noted that Amazon is a marketplace that permits their individual sellers to categorize the products they are offering as they see fit. Because of this, there may be items categorized incorrectly – as is the case for these sealing wax beads listed as "Computer Equipment":

In these situations, if an item you need is a restricted purchase in Amazon and is only available from Amazon, an exception can be requested from Strategic Procurement.

Requesting an exception will lengthen the time it takes to process the order and requires temporary manual changes to be made to the purchaser's account by Strategic Procurement. Every attempt should be made to source a different supplier before requesting an exception.

B&H

Computer and Printer categories have been restricted from the B&H catalog at the request of Miami University's procurement team. This includes toner cartridges. 

An exception may be requested from Strategic Procurement, if necessary. As with Amazon exception requests, doing so will add considerable time to processing the order. It is recommended that every attempt be made to source a different supplier before requesting an exception.

To see if your order has been received in the mailroom, select the "Overview" tab in the MUL Supplies Request Google Sheet, locate your item(s) and see if there is an "x" next to it in the "Delivered" column.

If an item is marked as having been received/delivered but you do not have it, reach out to Mike Smith for more information.

Please do not deliver packages you find in the mailroom unless they have your own name on it. All supplies ordered by the Office of the Dean will come addressed to "Heather Bennett". However, less than 15% of these are actually for the Dean's Office. Please leave proper distribution of incoming packages to the Facilities staff.

Orders are generally placed on Fridays.

This allows for more efficient ordering across Libraries departments and helps when/if order minimums are present. Please plan your supplies requests accordingly.

If last-minute items are needed by a specific date, include that date in the "Notes" column of your tab in the MUL Supplies Request Google Sheet. This will not guarantee that the needed items can be procured by the date requested, however, the order will be placed at the earliest possible time.

If you need item(s) within 72 hours, you will most likely not be able to get them through ordering. In these cases, you may stop by the Dean's Suite (225 King) to sign out the departmental p-card to make your purchase in person.

Please make all attempts to provide adequate time for supply procurement on a regular basis.

Standard 8.5" x 11" white copy paper is regularly stocked for use by all staff in King Library.

You may pick up a carton from the cage yourself, or submit the Supply Order Approval Form and indicate your request for paper and it will be delivered to you.

All other paper types, colors, and sizes should be ordered as any other supply request.

If an item needs to be returned, complete the Item Return Request form. Once a return authorization is received, it will be forwarded to you.

Packaging a return is the responsibility of the requestor.

Any questions regarding dropping off returns to UPS (or other carrier) should be directed to Mike Smith.