UMass BuyWays

UMass BuyWays is the one stop shopping center for eProcurement Users.  The center provides an easy route to all your purchasing needs.  All requisitions, purchase orders and PO Vouchers originate in BuyWays.

Job aids can be found at https://upst.umassp.edu/s/learn and training information at https://upst.umassp.edu/s/training.

Related Resources

FAQs

Approvals

I am getting a warning message about an approval code in my approval email notification. What is this?

This means you have not set your personal code to be able to approve requisitions from email instead of having to login to BuyWays.  It is not required.  If you would like more information, see the job aid "review and approve via email"

Can I turn off my approval emails?


Other

Do BuyWays purchase orders roll-over from year to-year?

The BuyWays PO is connected to the PeopleSoft PO, which is where the encumbrance is maintained.  The BuyWays POs themselves do not roll, but their PeopleSoft counterpart does.

Did my PeopleSoft Financials POs convert to BuyWays?

Purchase orders dated prior to FY13 were closed unless departments asked to leave them open prior to the April 1, 2013 deadline.  Then, there are various other reasons that will prevent a PeopleSoft Financials purchase order from converting to BuyWays.   Please see the Procurement website, PO Closings, for detailed information.  http://www.umass.edu/procurement/

I have some PeopleSoft Financials POs that converted to BuyWays POs on July 1. What do my converted BuyWays PO look like, and how doI find it?

Converted PO numbers will start “A0Z” followed by the rest of the PeopleSoft Financials PO number; e.g., PeopleSoft Financials PO 0001288521 would be numbered A0Z1288521.  Only open PO lines and the remaining PO balance will convert.  PeopleSoft Financials will still be open for inquiry after July 1.  So, to view the original PO you would view it in PeopleSoft Financials, PO Inquiry.  The converted PO will be available for viewing in both PeopleSoft Financials and in BuyWays.


Receiving

How long does it take to match if I put in a receipt and I made a mistake?

Just as in PeopleSoft, if an invoice is waiting, matching happens immediately.  You will need to contact AP if you do not want an invoice paid.


Requisition

Which documents are considered Internal and which External?

  • Internal Documents
    • Sole Source
    • Quotes - when getting 3 or more quotes, the quote being used is an external attachment, the rest are internal
    • Employee Status Form
    • IT Procurement Form
  • External Documents
    • Vendor's quote
    • Contract for Service
    • Agreements
    • Licenses
    • Delivery order forms
    • Prevailing wage pages
    • Certificates of insurance

Can I add a contract to apply to all lines?

At this time, no.  An enhancement will be done at a later time to add this feature to BuyWays.

***If you are unable to find a contract in BuyWays, please contact Carol Thurlow or Alex Therkelsen in Procurement with the contract information and they will add the contract into BuyWays.***

 

Can I still use my Procard?

As long as the vendor from whom you are purchasing is not a catalog vendor on BuyWays, you can continue to use your Procard.

When do I select the Blanket Order checkbox?

A Blanket Order in BuyWays is for orders that are a quantity of 1 and you anticipate multiple invoices against that line.

When creating a blanket order in BuyWays make sure each line has a quantity of 1; a quantity greater than one will result in an error during the export of the PO to PeopleSoft. You will not realize this until you check History in BuyWays on the PO. If this happens, the only fix is for a system administrator to uncheck the blanket PO checkbox and resend the order to PeopleSoft Financials.

How quickly are catalog orders processed?

As soon as a PO is created it is sent to the vendor and your order is fulfilled much like ordering online with your Procard.

As a Requisitioner, can I assign a cart to another person if the cart was assigned to me?

Yes, click "Assign Cart" instead of "Submit Requisition"

What if I need to Ship To someplace that is not in the system?

There is a Ship to called “OTHER” that you can use that will allow you to “free form” a Ship To address.  If there is a campus building that is not available as a Ship To, please contact Gary Duggan or Patty Roper.

I need to make a change to a requisition that is still pending, but I can’t access the edit buttons.

Go into the requisition and click on the PR Approvals tab to check to see who is scheduled to approve the requisition next. Contact that person and have them go into the requisition and select “Return To Requisitioner” under the Available Actions dropdown.  You can leave a comment or attach a document without having the approver return your requisition by going to the Comments tab on the requisition.

How do I contact a vendor about my catalog order?

please see the list of contact phone numbers on BuyWays Catalog Vendor Contact List under Requisition Job Aids


Shopper

When I try to use the W.B. Mason catalog, I am not seeing the correct catalog or I'm asked for additional information

  • Make sure you have your cookies enabled in the browser you are using
  • If you have used Mason for procard purchases, clear your Mason cache by going to https://www.wbmason.com/clear
  • If you are getting a security message stating the webpage contains content not delivered via https, Mason is working on this issue.  Whether you get the message depends on the security settings on your browser.

Who can become a “shopper” in BuyWays

Any staff including Procard holders can become shoppers in BuyWays.  The role of “Shopper” allows staff and faculty to create a shopping cart in BuyWays and add items to the cart that they want to purchase. Before this cart can be converted to a purchase order, it will be forwarded through workflow to a department “Requisitioner.”   The Requisitioner will complete the required fields for the Commodity, Speed Type and Account Codes.  Once complete the Requisitioner will submit the requisition to workflow.

Do all my department’s Procard holders have to be shoppers on July 1?

No, we realize that many faculty and grad students are unavailable over the summer.  In addition, creating requisitions using BuyWays catalogs instead of Procard transactions is a business process change for departments.  We recommend you select several Procard holders who do a significant amount of purchasing with the catalog vendors and bring them on as shoppers first.  Over the rest of the summer and into the fall you can continue to roll on more shoppers.

If the Requisitioner is working on the cart I assigned, can I unassign it or will I get an error?

You can unassign it but the Requisitioner will lose the ability to submit the requisition to workflow if the cart is unassigned while the Requisitioner is making the edits.

If I’m out and I forgot to assign a substitute, can someone move my assigned carts to another person?

Yes the campus security administrator can do this.

If I’m a shopper and I don’t know my vendor or how much an item costs – can I just put in the line items and let the Requisitioner figure it out?

This depends on your business office’s procedures.  At this point, if you are a shopper, the only requirement to use BuyWays is for catalog vendors.