{"id":224,"date":"2025-08-21T21:37:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T21:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-business-services\/when-to-use-a-purchase-order\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T21:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T21:37:15","slug":"when-to-use-a-purchase-order","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/business-services\/policies\/when-to-use-a-purchase-order\/","title":{"rendered":"When to use a Purchase Order"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Purchase orders are not required by the college but may be used for major purchases.&nbsp;The use of purchase orders creates an additional level of safety for the college, departments and employees in regards to liability, negotiating and leveraging with the vendor.&nbsp; If a you would like to issue a purchase order, or a vendor requires a purchase order, email <a href=\"mailto:accountspayable@macalester.edu\">accountspayable@macalester.edu<\/a> with the vendor&#8217;s quote, FOAPAL and proof of approval by a college employee authorized to spend from that FOAPAL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Major Purchase Examples<\/strong> &#8211; <em>(Consider using a Purchase Order)<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Vehicles<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Building projects<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Services under contract<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Furniture and office equipment<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Computer hardware and software<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Electrical and mechanical equipment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><strong>Non-Major Purchase Examples<\/strong><\/strong> &#8211; <em>(Consider using a Pcard)<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Office supplies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Conference fees<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Food and catering<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Instruction\/lab supplies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Minor equipment<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Travel expenses: air, hotel, taxi, meals<\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Purchase orders are not required by the college but may be used for major purchases.&nbsp;The use of purchase orders creates an additional level of safety for the college, departments and employees in regards to liability, negotiating and leveraging with the vendor.&nbsp; If a you would like to issue a purchase order, or a vendor requires [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":215,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-224","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/business-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/business-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/business-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/business-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/business-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/business-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9581,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/business-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/224\/revisions\/9581"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/business-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/business-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}