What's New
Getting to Know iBuy – Additional iBuy Order Reminders & Requirements 1/28/25
It is the responsibility of those creating and approving iBuy orders to accurately enter all order details, not limited to required fields, and review those details before submitting or approving. A Purchase Order created in iBuy is considered a contract with the vendor and must be accurate to avoid delays in receiving goods and services and invoice payment.
- Unit Price (Cost of item) and Quantity (How many of item) – these fields on the Purchase Requisition Form (PRF) are sometimes inadvertently switched by iBuy Shoppers and Requestors then subsequently approved by Department Approvers when creating an iBuy non-catalog order. Switching these fields causes invoice issues as well as potential issuance of property tags when the line item is an equipment asset. Make sure to enter details in these fields accurately.
- Vendor Quotes & Supporting Documents – orders created using the Purchase Requisition Form (PRF) & the Standing Order Form (SO) are encouraged, and in many cases required, to accompany a formal quote from the procuring vendor. All supporting documentation & quotes from the vendor should be attached while on the Checkout page in External Notes and Attachments section. All other supporting documentation not intended for the vendor should be attached in Internal Notes and Attachments.
- Special fields in Checkout area – Did you know that there are several fields available for use on the Checkout page of iBuy? Previous Purchase Order Number, Contract Request Form Number, Contract Number, and Bulletin Award Number. Values in these fields are reportable and are used by your Purchasing Department when your order qualifies. Make sure to populate these fields when applicable on your order to avoid a returned order by your Department Approver or Purchasing Department. Any information entered in these fields does not have to be included in the PO lines/product description.
- Catalog E-Quotes – Did you know that there are several iBuy Catalogs that offer E-Quote functionality? This means you can punch out to the catalog and submit a request for a quote for item(s) that are not available to your specific requirements. The vendor in turn creates an electronic quote which can be uploaded into an iBuy cart and creates a catalog order. Refer to the iBuy Job Aids and look for key word ‘E-Quotes’ in the document title area. All items ordered from a catalog vendor should be ordered through the catalog. Using the Purchase Requisition Form should be rare and on the advice of the vendor.
- UPAR Review requisition queue – Property Accounting will be reviewing all iBuy requisitions that use an Equipment Account code starting with 127* and 163* and answer yes to the form question “Do any items on your order require an equipment inventory Ptag?” The goal of this queue is to reduce the ongoing errors on iBuy orders such as: applying an equipment account code value at the header level when it should be at the line level of the equipment, applying an equipment account code to items that do not fall into the equipment definition, and switching quantity and amount of price fields causing large number of tags to be printed unnecessarily. When UPAR finds a discrepancy, they will return the order to the requestor/shopper and add comments to the requisition to assist the user with making the necessary corrections.
Please continue to watch for more emails about Getting to Know iBuy. For more iBuy news, check out the What’s New page on the BusFin website.
AITS iBuy Administrators
Email: aitsibuyproductionsupport@uillinois.edu
Resources: iBuy Job Aids
iBuy Orders: Using Next Fiscal Year State Fund (100026) and Orders for the Next Fiscal Year (2026) - 1/21/2025
It is the responsibility of those creating and approving iBuy orders to accurately enter all order details, not limited to required fields, and review those details before submitting or approving. It is important to understand how to accurately enter and review State Fund (100026) orders and iBuy requisitions that are being placed in advance of the next Fiscal Year (7/1/2025-6/30/2026).
- State Fund 100026 – The State Fund code 100026 for fiscal year 2026, is now open for use on requisitions. When creating or approving an order on or before June 30, 2025, that uses Fund Code 100026, the Accounting Date field under Billing Options on the checkout page of iBuy must be populated with the value of 7/1/2025 to ensure that the purchase order is applied to fiscal year 2026. Applying the Accounting Date of 7/1/2025 ensures that any invoices received against your purchase order will be appropriately paid after 7/1/2025 and will avoid system errors.
- Purchase Orders for the next fiscal year (7/1/2025 – 6/30/2026) – iBuy orders meant for the next fiscal year but are being created prior to 7/1/2025 on the Purchase Requisition Form (PRF) for subscriptions, renewals, goods/services or on the Standing Order form with a large bucket of funds to be charged against throughout the next fiscal year, must have the Accounting Date field under Billing Options on the checkout page of iBuy populated with 7/1/2025. **Please note if you need an invoice paid prior to 7/1/2025 then leave the Accounting Date empty.
- Form Question – Please keep in mind, when creating a non-catalog order on the Purchase Requisition Form (PRF) for a subscription, good(s) or service provided over a period of time, it is important to answer yes to the form question, Does this purchase include goods or services that are provided over a period of time/range of dates? Examples include maintenance agreements, software license agreements, subscriptions, etc. and provide the start and end dates in the required fields.
If you are unsure whether to apply the Accounting Date of 7/1/2025 please contact aitsibuyproductionsupport@uillinois.edu. For additional information, please review the iBuy Job Aids.
Getting to Know iBuy – iBuy Order Reminders & Requirements - 1/7/2025
It is the responsibility of those creating and approving iBuy orders to accurately enter all order details, not limited to required fields, and review those details before submitting or approving. A Purchase Order created in iBuy is considered a contract with the vendor and must be accurate to avoid delays in receiving goods and services and invoice payment.
- Item Description (PRF and SO)– This is a required field and must contain a valid description for the item or service being ordered. Users and approvers should ensure that the information on the requisition matches the quote from the vendor for non-catalog orders being placed on the Purchase Requisition Form or Standing Order Form.
IMPORTANT: The item description must be accurate for the order to be fulfilled and for electronic invoicing to occur without manual intervention.
- NOT valid item descriptions: “NA”, “.”, “Year 1”, “See attached quote”, “Item 2”. Orders with these types of descriptions should be returned to the Shopper or Requestor to be fixed.
- Valid item descriptions: should match the quote from the vendor, required documentation when creating a non-catalog order.
- Standing Order Form – When to create a Standing Order – A Standing Order is a quantity of one with a bucket of money. To be used when you are expecting several invoices to be charged against the Purchase Order throughout the university fiscal year.
- NOT valid Standing Order: one-time item purchases
- Valid Standing Order: ongoing maintenance, ongoing ordering of medical supplies, authorized furniture orders
- Vendor selection – It is very important for iBuy Shoppers and Requestors to carefully select the correct vendor when procuring goods and services and for Department Approvers to confirm the selection. In some cases, there is more than one entry for a vendor with similar names or branch locations. Users can verify the vendor selection by comparing the address on the quote with the address in iBuy. Selecting and approving orders with the incorrect vendor will require a new Purchase Order to be created and doubles work for all departments involved in review and approval of the order.
- Accounting String (C-FOAP) – Equipment Account Codes starting with 127* or 163* iBuy System Warnings - have been added in the Summary box on the Checkout page of iBuy to remind users how and when to apply university tag-creating Account Codes. Mixing equipment assets and non-equipment assets on the same order is allowed. However, to avoid automatic PO rejection you must properly apply the Equipment Account (C-FOAP) on the line-level of the equipment item(s). Refer to the job aid iBuy – Using Equipment and Non-Equipment Account Codes on the Same Requisition.
If you have questions, please contact aitsibuyproductionsupport@uillinois.edu. For additional information, please review the iBuy Job Aids.
iBuy Orders Using Next Fiscal Year State Fund (100026) or for the Next Fiscal Year (2026) - 12/11/2024
To ensure accurate processing and avoid delays, it is critical to follow the guidelines below for all iBuy requisitions being placed in advance of the 2026 fiscal year, which begins on July 1, 2025. Following these guidelines will help to avoid returned and rejected orders. It is important to understand how to accurately enter and review State Fund (100026) requisitions that are being placed in advance of the next Fiscal Year (7/1/2025-6/30/2026). Please review and save this information for future reference.
- State Fund 100026 – The State Fund code 100026 for fiscal year 2026, is now open for use on requisitions. When creating or approving an order on or before June 30, 2025, that uses Fund Code 100026, the Accounting Date field under Billing Options on the checkout page of iBuy must be populated with the value of 7/1/2025 to ensure that the purchase order is applied to fiscal year 2026. Applying the Accounting Date of 7/1/2025 ensures that any invoices received against your purchase order will be appropriately paid after 7/1/2025 and will avoid system errors.
- Orders for the next fiscal year (7/1/2025 – 6/30/2026) – Orders for subscriptions, renewals, or goods/services that do not start until 7/1/2025, should also have the Accounting Date field under Billing Options on the checkout page of iBuy populated with 7/1/2025. Please note if you need an invoice paid prior to 7/1/2025 then leave the Accounting Date empty.
- Form Question– Please keep in mind, when creating a non-catalog order on the Purchase Requisition Form (PRF) for a subscription, good(s) or service provided over a period of time, it is important to answer yes to the form question, Does this purchase include goods or services that are provided over a period of time/range of dates? Examples include maintenance agreements, software license agreements, subscriptions, etc. and provide the start and end dates in the required fields.
If you are unsure whether to apply the Accounting Date of 7/1/2025 please email AITS iBuy Production Support.
24.3 Release - 11/3/2024
The iBuy Release 24.3 was completed on Sunday, November 3, 2024. Enhancements in this release that affect iBuy users are outlined below.
Overall
- Vendor status of Active for Shopping field renamed to Enabled for Procurement
- This will be seen on vendor profiles and vendor related search results.
- A vendor with Contract Party Type: Supplier will display as Enabled for Procurement (green check mark) and a Banner Vendor ID when actively synced with Banner. They will be available for use on requisitions and contract requests.
- A vendor with Contract Party Type: Customer will display as Not Enabled for Procurement (red x). They will not have a Banner Vendor ID and only available for use on contract requests.
Contracts+ specific
- Improved Visibility for the Contract's Second Party Shopping Status and Class
- This feature provides additional details within the search results on the contract request form when selecting a Second Party. It will help guide the user to determine if the party is entered into iBuy as needed for the type of contract they are working on.
Updated job aids
24.1 Release - 3/17/2024
The iBuy Release 24.1 was completed on Sunday, March 17th, 2024. Enhancements in this release that affect iBuy users are outlined below.
eProcurement and Invoice
- Pending Approval and Reminder Email Notifications:
The format of the Pending Approval and Reminder email notifications has been updated.
Contracts
- PDF Document Attachments:
PDF Document Attachments are now visible in PDF Viewer directly within the contract in iBuy. Users may still download the attachments if they wish, but downloading will no longer be the default behavior. The PDF Viewer only supports files up to 50MB. Files greater than 50MB in size will only be visible by download.
iBuy Purchase Requisition Form and Standing Order Form Changes Live December 1 - 12/1/2023
Communication Details
General Topic Summary based on the questions presented during information sessions on November 29 & November 30.
Overview of the Friday, December 1 updates:
- There are updated and new required questions under the Order Information section within the Purchase Requisition Form.
- Have any goods already been received, or services performed for this requisition or is this order to accommodate a cancel and replace Purchase Order?
- Do any items on your order require an equipment inventory Ptag?
- There is a change in how you add multiple lines within the Purchase Requisition Form and the Standing Order Form.
- The addition of the FOB Code selection in the Shipping section of the cart before submitting.
Updated Job Aids available at iBuy Training Materials:
- Shopping
- Shopping Methods and Tips
- Requisition Creation
- Completing the Purchase Requisition Form
- Completing the Standing Order Form
- Splitting Accounting Codes (C-FOAPAL)
- Using Equipment and Non-Equipment Account Codes on the Same Requisition
- PO Change Request
- Completing the PO Change Request Form