Purchasing

There are five ways of ordering supplies and materials at MRI:

• Purchasing Cards: Authorized by faculty, purchasing cards are the primary mechanism to purchase supplies and equipment under $2000.
• Limited Orders (LOs): For purchases up to $500 (or equipment up to $250) from outside vendors only when purchasing card cannot be used.
• Purchase Orders (POs): For purchases over $2000 (or equipment over $250) from outside vendors.
• Interdepartmental Charges and Credits (IDCC): For all purchases from other departments at Penn State.
• Petty Cash: Purchases and group meals up to $50 are reimbursed in cash and $50 for group meals; receipts are required. Due to limited funds, please use a purchasing card if possible.

A supply of blank request forms is kept in room 243 MRL and can also be downloaded from Forms page . Completed forms should be placed in the Accounting bin in room 201 MRL. LOs, POs, and IDCCs require three days to process. Orders to be phoned or walked through should be clearly marked on the form. Packing slips must be signed and dated by the recipient of the order and returned immediately to the Accounting office.

MRI Order Form

The MRI Order Form is used for vendors who do not accept a credit card, or for items over $2000.

• Please be sure to attach a quote from the vendor
• If the item is over $10,000 you must complete a Single/Sole Source Form.

Purchases of $10,000 or more from a specific vendor: If you are placing an order for $10,000 or more and you specifically want to purchase from a particular vendor, you will need to complete the Single/Sole Source Justification Form along with the department Order Form stating why, otherwise Purchasing will send your purchase order out for bid.

Purchasing equipment > $50,000 from federal funds: If you are purchasing an individual piece of equipment that cost more than $50,000 and is being purchased from federal funds, you must complete the Federally Funded Capital Equipment Form along with the department order form.

For ordering gas cylinders:

1 - Use online Lab Gas Cylinder Order Form

2 - Email the following information to Sharon Holzwarth by 2:00pm: ( Validate to view contact info )

• Name
• Room/Building to be delivered to
• Budget/fund/cost center
• type of gas
• quantity and size