Purchase Order Process
This page is designed to guide you through the process of understanding and obtaining a purchase order.
When do you need a purchase order?
You only need a purchase order when the vendor you are dealing with does not accept our university purchase cards and wants to bill FHU for their goods or services.
Why do you need a purchase order?
A purchase order allows FHU to track who ordered the products or services. This helps us if the order is sent to the wrong department and allows us to bill the correct department when the invoice/bill arrives.
We receive several orders each month that have no purchase order referenced on the invoice. The lack of a purchase order number requires that someone track down the person who placed the order so that we may bill the correct department. Sometimes this can be difficult.
How do I obtain a purchase order?
The process begins with the originator of the purchase order completing a requisition. Please click here to view a sample requisition. The requestor and the budget originator of the department sign the requisition.
The requisition is then given to the business office and someone from business services approves that the account number listed does have enough funds to proceed with the purchase.
Once the requisition is approved, it is brought to the purchasing office for the creation of the purchase order. Click here to view a sample purchase order.
Once the purchase order is created the purchasing office will email the purchase order and mail the carbon copy of the requisition to the requestor. This will allow the requestor to proceed with the order of their goods or services.
Once the goods or services have been received the requestor will need to send a copy of the packing slip (and the bill/invoice if it was included with the received goods) to Accounts Payable in the business office. This allows us to pay the vendor promptly for any goods or services received, and to make sure departmental budgets can be maintained properly.