Purchase Orders, Invoices and Requisitions

Contact Procurement and Payment Services at procurement@northwestern.edu with your request. Make sure to include the PO number, vendor name and vendor fax number or email address.

• Changes can be made to a PO in NUFinancial through Navigator > Purchasing > Purchase Orders > Add/Update Pos.
• Closing or canceling a PO can be done through NUFiancials> My Forms tile> Fill out new form > PO Change Request.
• For assistance, contact Procurement and Payment Services at 1-8120 or procurement@northwestern.edu.

Please contact Accounts Payable Customer Service at (847) 491-7339. The situation will be reviewed to determine whether another copy of the invoice is needed.

Purchase orders are considered a type of an agreement so please follow the same general process explained in the slide deck for other contracts: ask the vendor to accept NU's standard PO terms and conditions. If the vendor modifies our standard PO terms or if they insist on using their terms, please review the documents and consult with business stakeholders before contacting central office subject matter experts (as required). Remember that purchases under $100,000 don't require OGC review unless sensitive or materially risky subject matter or terms are involved, but other subject matters experts should be contacted regardless of the purchase amount

The first step and best practice is to push back: DDP is Northwestern's standard incoterm that many vendors have agreed to. Accepting DDP greatly reduces the time it takes to issue a purchase order while negotiating the incoterm will delay the order.

PPS maintains this helpful Shipping Guide for Incoterms and other topics related to shipment and delivery of goods.

Other, less favorable delivery terms may be accepted so long as the purchaser (1) can arrange and pay for shipping and insurance on the goods while in transit, and (2) is willing to accept the risks if goods are lost in transit (see Purchase Contracting Basics Training presentation slides 52-53)

No, not at the moment.

There are a couple ways to proceed, either:

• Explain the changes from the standard terms in the section of the comments that are incorporated on the PO
• Attach to the order the email correspondence between the purchaser and the vendor
• Update the PO terms to reflect the modifications, have the vendor sign the last page, and attach the signed document with the order

Remember to have the vendor's terms of sale removed from quotes when processing the order. If the amount exceeds $100,000 also communicate that OGC has reviewed the negotiated terms.

Detailed instruction on how to enter a purchase order receipt is available in the Enter Receipts Using Add/Update Receipts Training Guide.

All invoices should be scanned and forwarded to invoicesonly@northwestern.edu.

Invoices or payment requests can be returned for a number of reasons, the most common being:

• The PO number is not valid
• The PO is closed
• The vendor listed on the invoice does not match the one listed on the PO
• The invoice amount does not match the PO and is over the allowable tolerance
• The lines on the invoice do not match the lines on the PO
• The PO has not been received
• The invoice has already been paid.

Accounts Payable will only send back an invoice when we are unable to resolve the problem.

There are some discrepancies with POs that can only be resolved by the department that issued it. For example, if the lines on a PO need to be modified, only the department that issued it can do so.

The three-way match consists of a purchase order, vendor invoice, and receipt. These three items must match before payment will be initiated to the vendor for non-iBuyNU invoices.

A receipt is the department/school's way of indicating to Accounts Payable and Purchasing Services that the product has been received or the service has been provided, a required step before the PO invoice is eligible for payment.

The information is accessible via a number of different paths in NU Financials. The MyHR Learn View Payments guide offers a step-by-step guide to using these different tools.  If you cannot find all of the information you need, call Accounts Payable Customer Service at (847) 491-7339 for assistance.

To view a copy of your invoice in NUFinancials, follow the below navigation:

Accounts Payable > Review Accounts Payable Information > Vouchers > Document Status > Voucher Document Status Inquiry (enter Voucher number here) > View Invoice