Purchasing Basics
Learn the fundamentals of purchasing at Penn, including approved purchasing methods, purchase orders, training resources, and helpful guides to support everyday purchasing activities.
Purchasing
BEN Helps Articles
Browse BEN Helps articles and resources covering purchasing methods, commodity guidance, online bidding, and other purchasing topics.
Purchasing Basics
Visit the BEN Helps Article below for a consolidated overview of various purchasing topics
Commodity Matrix
Developed to help faculty and staff determine the appropriate buying method and budge object code for common purchases
Commodity Buying Tips
The following list of buying tips has been developed to assist faculty and staff in making appropriate buying decisions.
Online Bidding
Procurement Services has partnered with Determine (formerly Iasta), a software service provider of an online competitive bidding technology.
Purchase Order
A Purchase Order (PO) is the University’s primary authorized purchasing method for goods and services. Created and processed through Penn’s financial system, a PO establishes the legal agreement between Penn and the supplier while documenting the terms of the purchase.
Because the Purchase Order is the University’s preferred purchasing method, faculty and staff should become familiar with Penn’s approved purchasing methods and procedures. Learn more about Penn’s authorized buying methods here.
P2P Process Resources
Purchasing Training
Training Information for Penn Faculty & Staff
Faculty and staff are required to use Penn’s authorized buying methods when purchasing equipment, supplies, and services from external suppliers. The University’s Financial Training department offers courses covering purchasing processes, procure-to-pay procedures, and approved purchasing tools.
Ongoing customer support resources are available to all BEN Buys users and Purchasing Card cardholders after training is completed.
BEN Buys purchasing system access will not be granted and a MasterCard purchasing card will not be issued to a faculty or staff member until training has been successfully completed and all appropriated forms have been completed and submitted to the appropriate organization.
About Financial Training
BEN Buys Purchasing System
The Penn Marketplace
- Finding Products: Hosted Catalog Search Tutorial
- How To Shop and Assign Cart(s) in the Penn Marketplace
- How to Retrieve Assigned Cart(s), Reject, Delete and Submit a Cart to BEN Buys
- Preparers of Non-PO Requests
- Approvers of Non-PO Requests
- Request New Supplier QRG
- Submitting a Non-PO Payment Request QRG
- SP Payment Request QRG
- Approve a Non-PO Payment Request QRG
- Getting Started with Penn Marketplace QRG
Purchasing Card
Related Training Resources
Purchasing FAQs
- Click Here to access the BEN Helps support portal
BEN Buys User Roles & Responsibilities
- Click Here to access the BEN Helps support portal