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Before You Buy

Before you make any type of purchase on behalf of the university, there are several things you should always consider:

University credit, purchasing power and facilities have been granted to you to make purchases for official business use only. Always ask:

• Is the purchase necessary?
• Are there existing supplies that meet departmental needs?

Per university policy, there should always be a business need for each purchase (i.e., teaching, research, administrative). Items for personal use (e.g., coffee makers) are not generally considered necessary or appropriate purchases.

When making a purchase, it is important to consider the effects of the item on the environment. Purchasing considerations include recycled content, energy-efficiency, and type of packaging. More on sustainable purchasing ...

There may be restrictions on what can or cannot be purchased on certain types of accounts (i.e., federal, agency-funded). In general, if an account has more restrictive policies than the university, the more restrictive policy applies.

In addition, some funding sources may require that purchases are made from Certified Small Businesses or Certified Disabled Veteran Business Enterprises. See the Selecting a Vendor page for more information.

Campus sources, such as UCD Buy, often provide items at the lowest overall cost. Lowest overall cost is more than just the price of the item - it includes the cost of time spent issuing the order, traveling to get the item, processing the invoice(s) for payment, etc. Items purchased from campus sources also have the following benefits:

• There generally are not any shipping and handling charges
• You can often easily pick up an item or get same-day delivery
• Returns or adjustments can generally be handled more expeditiously

Perhaps the campus sources don't have what you are looking for? Maybe there is an existing purchasing agreement for your purchase. These campuswide and systemwide agreements have been competitively bid with outside vendors and generally offer better than average pricing and terms. You can search for agreements based upon commodity type, vendor, and whether or not they are required. (Note: Most agreements are optional, but there are several that must be used for a specified commodity.)

Please note that the Purchasing Agreement Lookup on this site only lists agreements that are available to all campus departments. You should also run Agreement Lookup (34) in Decision Support to get a list of agreements that may have been set up specifically for your department. Refer to our How Do I Use a Purchasing Agreement page for information on how to process an order using an agreement.

If you can't find what you are looking for from a campus source, or from one of the vendors with which we have an agreement, you may need to choose a vendor. More on selecting a vendor ...

The university is committed to complying with the ADA. With every purchase it is important to consider options that would accommodate the needs of individuals with disabilities. For example, videotapes, DVDs, or any other visual aid for classroom instruction that provides "closed captioning" for the deaf or hearing impaired should be purchased over those that do not have this option.