304.04

Northern Arizona University
Purchasing Policy and Procedure

Blanket Orders


POLICY:

Blanket orders are issued for a specified time period at an estimated total dollar amount to:

  1. 1. Encumber funds

    -and/or-

  2. Establish a purchasing arrangement with a vendor for a period of time (e.g., monthly, quarterly, yearly) for:


    1. Orders of miscellaneous items.

      -or-

    2. Recurring orders of small value items.

Departments using blanket orders must ensure expenditures do not exceed the funds encumbered.

CONTRACT BLANKET ORDERS

Contract blanket orders are used to purchase supplies when the cost of the individual items covered by the blanket order has been established. Normal competitive purchasing methods are used to select vendors.

CONVENIENCE BLANKET ORDERS

Convenience blanket orders are used to purchase supplies of miscellaneous items, when the exact nature of the supplies cannot be determined at the time of issuing the order. They are generally used for recurring purchases of a large variety of low-value items, that the using department may pick up from the vendor. Because each individual purchase from a convenience blanket order is of low value, it is not necessary to follow the sealed competitive bid procedure. No individual release against a convenience blanket purchase order shall exceed the departmental per purchase limit of $2500. No procurements shall be artificially fragmented or split in order to keep the purchase below established maximum.

PROCEDURE:

Department Submit a Purchase Requisition (RX) requesting a blanket order be issued. Include:

  1. The period of time covered by the blanket order.


  2. The total estimated dollar amount of the order.


  3. The name(s) of the individual(s) authorized to release supplies on the order.

The UNIT field on the RX commodity line is used to designate the order as a Blanket Order. Enter the dollar amount to be encumbered for that line in the Quantity (QTY) field, the Unit must be entered as "BLK" and the Unit Cost must be entered as "$1.00." The system will calculate Quantity times Unit Cost to arrive at the Total Cost.

The description for the commodity line must be complete: include the general category of commodities being ordered, and the information outlined above. EXAMPLE: Blanket purchase order for the purchase of office supplies, for the period of MM/DD/YY–MM/DD/YY. Authorized users of this blanket order are: John Doe and Jane Smith.

A standard shell containing the basic information needed for blanket orders is found on the RXTX table, and may be added to any blanket RX with minimum effort. To accomplish this, leaf to RXTX and S(can) for RX ID: RX Blanket. When standard text appears, enter an A(dd) in FUNCTION, the RX number of the blanket requisition in the RX field, and fill in the appropriate blanks on the screen. Press ENTER. The message UPDATE SUCCESSFUL should appear at the bottom of the page, and the information is added to the RX document.

Purchasing Approve or disapprove issuing the blanket order. The buyer processes the RX into a blanket PC, adding additional information as needed to provide complete information to the vendor.

The PC print program will print the description and amount columns on the purchase order, indicating the total amount of the blanket order. Quantity, unit and unit price do not print.