Procurement Policy

Purchasing at UC Berkeley 

Event Planning

[New!] Explore CE3 event planning resources

Event Planning Workflow

Step-by-step event-planning workflow

Admin Services

Learn more about what we do.

Submit Your Request Here

Use our Asana Form to route all administrative requests to our team for processing.

Policy:

  • Contracts - creating multiple contracts, purchase orders, or agreements with the same contract to stay below approval thresholds is prohibited.

Procurement Resources

Remember to complete the forms with a detailed business purpose, chartstring, and signature approvals from your unit directors. 

Procurement Policy

Procurement

Use University purchasing tools, including BearBUY and the BluCard, to make purchases. 

*Pre-Approval: Purchases in BearBuy exceeding $10,000 require approval from a Financial Analyst (FA) or a Divisional Finance Leader (DFL). Please upload the written approval from the FA or DFL to the BearBuy cart.

Independent Contractors/Consultants

An Independent Contractor is typically an individual or business entity that performs goods and/or services for the University based on a set price, pursuant to a scope of work and purchase order issued by the University. Examples include business coaches and consultants; data analysts; event planners and coordinators; freelance writers, editors, and content creators; graphic designers and illustrators; and photographers and videographers.

Processing Contracts

Contracts must be processed through Supply Chain Management on BearBuy before work begins, or they will be considered unauthorized purchases. A Purchase Order (PO) must be established prior to goods or services being rendered — this avoids an After-the-Fact Justification (ATF) requiring Vice Chancellor approval.

UC Berkeley staff do not have authorization to sign contracts for services to be supplied to the University or to begin services before a purchase order has been established. There are document requirements that must be met for both the business units and the Independent Contractor. Please be aware that there may be additional requirements for services over $99,999.99.

Invoicing for independent contractors is processed through a separate system, Transcepta.