In an effort to ensure all orders in BearBuy are able to pass internal and external audit, effective October 1, 2021, Supply Chain Management (SCM) began requiring Source Justification and Price Reasonableness for orders federally funded equal to or greater than $10,000 or non-federally funded equal to or greater than $100,000. SCM has added justification text boxes to the After-the-Fact form in BearBuy and will require that documentation before processing the order.  

Purchase Order (PO) are required to buy goods and services at UCSF. The process of generating a PO serves an important function within UCSF’s financial management, including:    

• Documentation of all necessary approvals required by law to spend public funds. As a result, simply going through the process ensures a level of legal compliance.   
• Acting as fraud deterrent. Since UCSF only pays out when a valid PO exists, it causes difficulty for fraudsters to falsely invoice UCSF and, in turn, for UCSF to pay.   
• Serving as binding agreements with suppliers to protect UCSF. POs are binding agreements with the supplier and as a result, a supplier is not able to modify the terms of the PO after they perform service or deliver a good.   

Very rarely, the campus is unable to issue the PO before the goods have been delivered or service has occurred. Although this is a violation of policy, UCSF is still required to pay the supplier. This is why we have the After-the-Fact Purchase Order form. An After-the-fact PO is used to provide a payment mechanism when we’ve failed to follow policy.   

Please send any questions or concerns by submitting a ticket to the SCM Response team.