As a part of fiscal year-end activities, subaward supplier contract encumbrances will be closed out for FY25 and re-opened in FY26. An encumbrance will not roll-forward into FY26 if a subaward supplier contract has an "Amendment in Process" status. This issue was confirmed in testing. As a result, the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) is providing the guidance shared in the full post for subaward supplier contract amendments.
Please continue to refer to the Unit Year-end Checklist (see download link in full post) for important year-end dates, timeline information and tasks that need to be performed. Procurement and expenses close will occur at Noon on Monday, June 30 . Similar to last year, to avoid potential accounting issues, we are asking that no transaction approvals, changes, or cancellations occur after that time until the roll forward is complete the following day.
Hosted Catalog for On Demand Software in Buckeye Buy:
Internal supplier, the Office of Technology and Digital Innovation (OTDI), offers a new hosted catalog for On Demand Software in Buckeye Buy. Overleaf Professional software at the FY25 - FY26 rate is the first product offering, but more options will follow. Contact the Marketplace Team at BF-Marketplace@osu.edu with catalog questions. Contact the IT Service Desk with questions about the new Overleaf offering.
Lowe's Home Improvement:
The Lowe’s Home Improvement supplier website has been removed until further notice from Buckeye Buy. Requestors are advised to search catalogs from alternative contracted suppliers. Purchases from Lowe’s can still be made by PCard although contract discounts will not be extended in that case. Contact BF-prsm-osupur@osu.edu with questions.
As part of year end procedures and to help ensure a successful procurement roll forward, it is recommended that units review and close out old items with remaining balances if they will no longer be invoiced. Two helpful reports are available to assist with year-end business document clean up.
The " UNIV Remaining Encumbrances - Requisitions, POs, Spend Authorizations" report helps end users identify transactions and their encumbrances that will roll forward at the end of the fiscal year. The " Purchase Orders with Documents Awaiting Action " report helps end users identify in progress and draft documents which require action before a PO can be closed. It is suggested to run this report with the "Purchase Order Has Lines with Encumbrances" box checked. Since only POs with remaining balances roll forward, cleanup efforts should be focused on draft/in progress documents associated with POs that have balances but are no longer in use. This report will only return purchase orders if one or more of the criteria listed in the full article are met.
FY26 Blanket order entry can begin on Monday, April 14 . A new workday enhancement will be turned on the week of April 7 to allow for future dated requisitions. Prior to this enhancement, users were instructed to "current date" blanket requests, and then the Controller's Office had to run a manual job during month end close in April and May to roll the encumbrances into the future fiscal year. With this new enhancement, all FY26 blanket order requisitions should be entered as future dated requests (request date of 7/1/25). The corresponding purchase order (PO) document dates and encumbrances will also be future dated, so they are correctly recorded for FY26. The PO will be issued after the requisition is fully approved.
Other important information to be aware of with this enhancement:
Future dated requisitions should not be entered for more than a year in advance, except for multiyear service contracts. Please contact purchasing to discuss entry for multiyear service contracts. FY26 blankets that are not future dated will be sent back for corrections. If users begin invoicing the future dated blanket early (e.g., start invoicing a FY26 blanket in FY25), it results in a mismatch because the liquidation will happen in the current year, but the encumbrance is in the future year. As a reminder, blanket orders are supposed to be used in the fiscal year they are intended for. If a FY26 blanket requisition is inadvertently entered with a current year FY25 request date, FY25 is where the encumbrance will remain until the June year end procurement roll forward. The Controller's Office will no longer be rolling forward purchase orders at the end of April and May. If a unit does not want to wait until June for the encumbrances to be correctly shown in FY26, they should do a change order. If needed, future dated requisitions can be tied to future dated supplier contracts (Example: a blanket requisition is entered in May for a 7/1/25 start date, and a new contract is signed in May but is not effective until 7/1/25). The Create Blanket Purchase Order job aid will be updated in coordination with the functionality being turned on, the week of April 7 .
See the full post for additional reminders about the use of blanket orders.
B&H Photo will be closed for Passover beginning Friday, April 11 through Sunday, April 20 . B&H will re-open Monday, April 21 . Orders placed by 11 p.m. on Thursday, April 10 will ship before the holiday.
On select days during the closure, customers will still be able to enter orders in the supplier website but product will not ship until April 21. See the full post for a visual calendar from B&H with more details.
Stemcell Technologies Inc. joins Buckeye Buy with a supplier website catalog of scientific research products at academic discount pricing. The catalog offers Bulk Import” and “Retrieve a Quote” options on the landing page for quick order entry.
FY26 Blanket order entry can begin on Monday, April 14, 2025 . A new workday enhancement will be turned on the week of April 7th to allow for future dated requisitions. Prior to this enhancement, users were instructed to current date blanket requests, and then the Controller's Office had to run a manual job during month end close in April and May to roll the encumbrances into the future fiscal year.
With the new enhancement, all FY26 blanket order requisitions should be entered as future dated requests (request date of 7/1/25) . The corresponding purchase order (PO) document dates and encumbrances will also be future dated, so they are correctly recorded for FY26. The PO will be issued after the requisition is fully approved.
See the full post for more details to be aware of with this enhancement.
Listed below are the latest Buckeye Buy supplier website updates. Contact BF-Marketplace@osu.edu with any catalog search questions.
1-800-Flowers has a new supplier website offering 17 brands of floral, gourmet foods, and personalized gifts. See the Flowers and gifts contract page for details.
Sherwin Williams offers a large selection of paint products and supplies in their supplier website. See the Sherwin Williams contract page for details.
Special order gases and Requisitions Supplier ID: Non-catalog requisitions to the gas warehouse must be issued to supplier SPL-0041701 Special Orders - UNIV Gas Cylinder Warehouse. Contact the Gas Warehouse at BF-GasWarehouse@osu.edu or call 614-292-2543 with questions.
Continental Office's supplier website now offers a “Value Products” category which features new value-priced chairs and standing desks. Select the “Value Products” option on the left margin of the catalog landing page to view the selection. See the full post for a screen shot visual of the new category offering.
Dublin Cleaners and Snow White Cleaners have been awarded new OSU contracts for dry cleaning services. Both suppliers have one-line service catalogs in Buckeye Buy under the Search Catalog link. See the Business and Finance news item for more details and supplier contact information.
SL Events and Conferences (formerly University Catering) has a new catalog for full-service catering under the Search Catalog link in Buckeye Buy. Some users have had difficulty finding the catalog because of the recent name change. Contact SL Events and Conferences https://slec.osu.edu for more information on their event planning and menu options.
