TechBuy Basics

TechBuy, a shopping and purchasing e-procurement platform, was jointly purchased by Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Texas Tech University and Texas Tech University System. It was fully implemented in September, 2008.

Authorized HSC shoppers can sign in to TechBuy where they can do self-service comparison and purchasing from a selection of contracted suppliers. Shopping carts can be created by shoppers and submitted to requesters where the departmental requester or approver will review and approve. Unless additional approvals are needed, TechBuy will submit the purchase order to the supplier electronically. TechBuy also processes the spending for non-contracted suppliers when you enter the information on the appropriate form. This purchase must be approved by a departmental approver and purchasing. Spend data held within TechBuy will provide departments and administrators with detailed data for spend analysis.

Supported Browser

If your browser does not support the TechBuy application, you will have to upgrade your browser. Please contact the TTUHSC IT Help Desk at ithelpdesk@ttuhsc.edu or 806-743-1234.

Note: Pop-up blocking should be turned off when working in the Production environment.

TechBuy Definitions

Cart - A virtual shopping cart which holds items selected for purchase. A user can have multiple carts. In the case of multiple carts, one cart will be listed as your active cart and the other carts will be listed as draft carts. When the cart is submitted it becomes a requisition. Once the requisition is completely approved, separate purchase orders are created for each vendor.

Punch-out Catalog - A link in TechBuy that takes you to the vendor's website for shopping. When a shopping cart is finalized in the punch-out site, the cart is returned to TechBuy to finalize the transaction and route for approvals. Pricing is updated as frequently as each particular vendor's contract stipulates.

Hosted Catalog - TechBuy receives a catalog file from a vendor and all item information and pricing is available within the TechBuy site. This allows a user to perform product searches on the TechBuy site.

Pricing updates are scheduled by contract or agreement with the vendor and updated in the site after approval by HSC purchasing. The price at the time the order was placed will prevail.

Science Catalog - TechBuy has approximately 382 Science Catalog Vendors. HSC purchasing will work with researchers to activate each catalog as necessary. The Science Catalog can be used as a sourcing tool within TechBuy to do product searches.

To establish contract pricing, a science vendor must have a hosted or punch-out catalog. If we do not establish contract pricing with a science catalog vendor that has been enabled, the pricing will be nationwide institutional pricing.

Fulfillment Center - The fulfillment address directs the requisition to the correct payment center. The address is defaulted based on the user’s home department.

Requisition - A requisition is a request to order and is created when a cart is submitted. The requisition is then routed through the workflow approval process.

Purchase Order - A purchase order is created when a requisition is submitted to a vendor. After a requisition is approved, a purchase order is created for each vendor.

Invoice - An invoice is a request for payment, a written record of goods or services provided and the amount charged for them sent to a customer.

Ship To Code - This required field determines where ordered items will be delivered. The following is the logic of the naming convention:
First Character = Entity (H)
Second and Third Characters = City
(AM = Amarillo, LU = Lubbock, EP = El Paso, OD = Odessa, etc.)
Last Three Characters = Sequential number

Multi Business Unit (MBU) - This feature allows each institution (TTUHSC, TTUHSC El Paso and TTU) to customize the look, feel and access of TechBuy. Each user is assigned to an MBU, and their MBU will define the specific features and announcements that will be visible.

eInvoicing - eInvoicing is a product provided by Jaggaer that grants vendors the ability to submit invoices electronically through TechBuy for payment. The invoices received through TechBuy are systematically matched against the purchase order. This matching process verifies every line item for contract pricing and quantity. Matched invoices are then sent to Banner for payment. The payment of an electronic invoice will be identified on the general ledger as Banner invoice # V9XXXXXX.

TechBuy Receiving - This feature allows you to enter receiving receipts in TechBuy. In order to maintain an order's history, all receiving information must be submitted through TechBuy. For additional information on required receiving, please review HSC OP 72.09. A tutorial is available at the following link: http://www.fiscal.ttuhsc.edu/fsm/training_home.aspx?category=techbuy.

Receiving report procedures are also discussed in HSC OP 63.05.

TechBuy Document Prefixes

TB - All TechBuy documents that feed and encumber in Banner will be assigned a document prefix of TB. All documents will be fed to Banner as a PO and the TB number will be replaced within TechBuy (see below).

P - Once a TB document has posted into Banner, it receives a Banner document ID with a prefix of P. This Banner document is fed back into TechBuy and replaces the TB document number. If you are searching for a purchase order utilizing the History tab in TechBuy and you cannot locate the order with the TB or P number, we recommend searching by the requisition number.

V9 - A V9 document is the payment document. The V9 number will be the invoice number that is referenced in TechBuy. The payment information section of the Invoice Summary contains a record number. To identify the type of payment received please use the guide below.

Record number beginning with:

  • A letter indicates a State payment.
  • The number 66 indicates a local payment.
  • A ! Indicates a direct deposit was made.

TechBuy Roles

Shopper

  • Shop and add items to cart
  • Apply accounting information
  • Submit for departmental approval

Requester

  • Shop and add items to cart
  • Apply accounting information
  • Approve, reject or edit a requisition submitted by an assigned shopper up to $5000
  • Submit orders under $5000 directly to the vendor for processing unless the item(s) ordered require additional workflow approvals

Departmental Approver

  • Shop and add items to cart
  • Apply accounting information
  • Approve, reject, or edit all requisitions forwarded by Workflow
  • Submit orders directly to the vendor for processing unless the item(s) ordered require additional approvals

Fund Manager

  • Shop and add items to cart
  • Apply accounting information
  • Approve, reject, or edit all requisitions forwarded by Workflow
  • Submit orders directly to the vendor for processing unless the item(s) ordered require additional approvals
  • Assign permission by authorized fund to users in the TEAM application

TechBuy Workflows

Purchasing

  • All non-catalog orders will be routed to HSC Purchasing for approval regardless of the dollar amount.
  • All purchases on appropriated funds regardless of the dollar amount will be routed to HSC Purchasing for approval.
  • Any line item level orders greater than $499.99
  • Any order total greater than $4,999.99
    • Both dollar-value driven approval levels are set up to provide purchasing the ability to make sure that controlled and capital asset coding is applied correctly.

Safety Services

  • All radioactive chemical orders will automatically be forwarded to Safety Services regardless of the dollar amount.
  • Requisitions will route to Safety Services based on Ship To Addresses (Abilene, Amarillo, Dallas, Lubbock, Midland, Odessa)

Sponsored Programs

  • All requisitions on federal grants where the order total is above $4,999.99 will be forwarded to Sponsored Programs. (The system does not have a way to identify a capital asset, so it must use the dollar amount to determine Sponsored Program routing).

Information Technology

  • All orders containing an IT account code or IT vendor will be routed to HSC IT for approval

Tax Compliance

  • Orders that have the ICQ required/attached button selected yes will be routed to Tax Compliance for approval.

*If you submit a requisition against TTU, TTUS or TTUEP accounts, the requisition will route through their institution workflow as well as HSC.