Supply Chain Management

Beginning March 30, Supply Chain Management (SCM) will be reducing the frequency of issuing check payments from daily to three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Other electronic forms of payment such as ACH, Payment Plus, EFT and wire, will not be impacted and will continue with normal payment schedules.

If you have any emergency situations where a check needs to be issued on Tuesday or Thursday, please email [email protected] with the subject line “emergency check” and SCM will evaluate the request.

Check printing requires in-office staffing. This change was made in response to university COVID-19 guidelines to enable staff to telecommute and for their well-being and the community.

Essential onsite staff who must commute to their UCSF work locations or in-between campus locations in order to perform essential functions and who no longer have access to UCSF shuttles or public transportation during their shifts given curtailments at BART and other transit agencies, may be reimbursed for commuting costs incurred using ride shares. 

The staff member's department must pre-authorize these ride-share expenses. The expense is considered an exceptional expense and must also be approved by the Control Point's Exceptional Approver. However, the department should first consider if there are any other alternative options available rather than ride shares, such as having staff drive their personal cars to commute to work and between sites. These ride-share costs are allowed for the period that UCSF is impacted by COVID-19.

The authorized ride share expenses should be submitted through a MyExpense expense report to be reimbursed. In your expense report, please enter “Essential staff performing work on-site during COVID-19” as the business purpose and use the COVID-19 Project ID ‘2014758’ in the chartstring for the expense. Be sure to have your Control Point's Exceptional Approver approve of the expense report.

Due to the shelter-in-place order and for the safety of our staff, Supply Chain Management has suspended in-person check pickup. This includes payroll, supplier and any other in-person payments.

For Accounts Payable (non-payroll) checks, we encourage having the checks mailed to the payee's (such as supplier, research subject, etc.) address directly. If you have Accounts Payable related questions, please email [email protected] or call (415) 502-3331.

The Controller’s Office will contact students and employees directly to arrange for emergency loan and paper payroll rush check distribution. If you have Payroll related questions, please email [email protected]. For assistance with student loans, please email [email protected].

COVID-19 is affecting virtually everything we do, but Supply Chain Management has these important COVID-19 related announcements to help ease the strain we’re all facing:

• Please restrict your BearBuy orders, including equipment, to mission-critical products.
• SCM Logistics will continue to deliver all essential medical gases that are ordered each day through our Oyster Point facility.
• All VWR, Fisher, Office Depot and Blaisdell's orders routed through our Oyster Point facility will continue to be delivered daily.
• All other items not currently routed through Oyster Point should continue to be delivered direct as always.

On March 9, the UCSF Budget and Resource Management department issued guidance for handling financial implications of COVID-19. Included in that document are instructions on how to process expense reimbursements due to trip cancellations related to the virus. Supply Chain Management has created a web page with the specific travel instructions.

Below is a list of contacts for travel emergency assistance:

TRAVEL EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE CONTACTS

Connexxus Travel Agency Emergency Contacts
If you have urgent issues on travel reservations booked through Connexxus, please contact the agency directly.

• Balboa Travel – Direct 1(858) 678-3752; Emergency After Hours 1(800) 359-8773 or 1(858) 678-3779 collect for international callers
• BCD Travel – Direct 1(877) 885-8632, Prompt 3; International callers 1(818) 238-4445
• Short’s Travel – Direct and International callers 1(877) 277-5754
• UCLA Travel – Direct and International callers 1(310) 206-2639, Prompt 2

Emergency Assistance
If your trip was registered with UC’s Travel Insurance Program, you received an email from [email protected] with emergency contact information. 

For assistance with medical referral, evacuation, repatriation, or other emergency services unrelated to specific travel reservations, call:

• (866) 451-7606 (in USA)
• (202) 828-5896 (outside USA collect call)

Refer to the insurance card in the email for the plan number and policy number.

The U.S. Department of State website has information to assist with crisis situations, lost/stolen passports, financial needs, victims of crime and medical emergencies.

Note: The contact information above is not for travelers who need to make changes to their travel reservations, even in an emergency, unless actual extraction is needed.

BUSINESS TRAVEL INSURANCE

For more information on insurance coverage for domestic and international travel, please see visit Risk Management & Insurance Service’sBusiness Travel Insurance webpage.  

Q: How do I cancel my BearBuy order if the purchase order (PO) was already sent to the supplier?

A: Please contact the supplier to cancel your order. The contact information for the BearBuy catalog suppliers is listed in the Catalog Suppliers 411 spreadsheet. Once the supplier has canceled your order, you may submit a Change Order Request form in BearBuy to close the PO. On the form, please explain that the order was canceled with the supplier.