ASCENDER - Purchasing Requisition Process

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The Purchasing application provides LEAs with an easy and paperless method to create requisitions and purchase orders. LEAs can set up a variety of purchasing options and permissions such as spending minimums and maximums, account permissions, workflows, and approver email notifications to assist in managing an efficient purchasing process. Additionally, users can print purchase orders (for internal use and for vendor purposes) and email purchase orders to vendors who have an email address on file.

This guide assumes you are familiar with the basic features of the ASCENDER Business system and have reviewed the ASCENDER Business Overview guide.

Before You Begin

Before you begin:

Terms:

The following terms are used throughout the Purchasing Requisition processing steps.

Term	Description
Approver	Any individual in the approval path who has permission to approve a submitted requisition.
Commodity Code	A standard classification code for products and services used to detail where funds are expended.
CYR	Current year
Encumbrance	Funds that are reserved in the selected accounts when a requisition is finalized and encumbered. For each requisition transaction, a soft encumbrance is posted to the selected account numbers and the general ledger balance is immediately updated in Finance via an automated journal voucher entry. Once the requisition is approved, the soft encumbrance is reversed and the purchase order encumbrance is automatically posted.
Final Approver	The last individual in an approval path to approve a submitted requisition, in turn, converting it to a purchase order.
First Approver	The first individual at each campus/department to approve a submitted requisition.
NYR	Next year
Originator	The individual who is entering the requisition in ASCENDER. The originator can be the same as the requestor.
Purchase Order	A fully approved requisition that creates an encumbrance to 4310.00. Also, referred to as a PO.
Requestor	The individual who is requesting to purchase the goods or services.
Requisition	A request entered in ASCENDER for the purchase of goods. A requisition transaction creates a soft encumbrance to 4310.01.