Purchase Guidelines

Before You Buy

  1. Determine if the purchase is within delegated limits or is exempt.
  2. Determine if the purchase is allowable on funding sources to be used for the purchase.
    • If using state funds, remember to include Required State Documentation*.
    • Review Disbursement Guidelines for restrictions on funding sources.
  3. Some purchases on the Payment Card are not allowed, although they may be allowed through the procure to pay system (AggieBuy). See list below:
    • Capital Equipment (equipment with a cost of $5000 or greater)
    • Cash advances
    • Software Purchases (renewals/subscriptions) are NOT allowed on the ONE Card unless they’re considered off-the-shelf and shrink-wrapped software OR you have received prior written approval from Contracts because there may be terms and conditions that need to be reviewed. Software purchases should be procured through AggieBuy as a purchase order. You will also need to submit an IT Accessibility Review Routing Form as well as request a Cloud Service Review if the product is cloud based and provide each of these items with your purchase. See more information here Purchasing Procedures under Purchase of Specific Goods or Services.
    • Cardholders are not authorized to sign agreements or accept terms and conditions. If attempting to make a purchase and there is an agreement that must be signed or terms and conditions that must be accepted stop the purchase and submit a requisition with the agreement or terms and conditions attached or link to terms and conditions provided. If less than the delegation of authority, please manually select the Route to Procurement flag on the requisition.
    • Travel/Transportation and related expenses for employees, prospective employees, students, prospective students or guests. These expenses should be on the Travel Card.
    • Tuition and Fees of TAMU or other system member students. These should be processed through the appropriate student payment/scholarship system.
  4. For purchases greater than $500 on the payment card, you must verify that the vendor is not on one of the list of prohibited vendors. See Vendor Verify.
    • If using state funds, it is required that the state hold check performed be documented in Concur for the charge transactions greater than $500. The screen can be printed to pdf and attached with the receipt for the transaction.
  5. Decide if the goods or services are available:
    • From a vendor with a contracted price
    • From a Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) vendor
    • From the Texas Industries for the Blind and Handicapped (TIBH)
  6. Do not pay Texas State Sales Tax! Present the Texas Sales Tax Exemption Form to the vendor prior to purchase.
    • Exemption also applies to Texas Hotel Occupancy Tax and Texas Motor Vehicle Rental Tax.

* If the purchase will be funded with state funds and purchased outside of the Regular order process in AggieBuy, then the state requires the purchaser to get a quote or document the order date, quantity, description of item, price, and shipping cost prior to or at the time of order. The state expects for the invoice to be matched against this "Required State Documentation" with any overages not paid to the vendor with state funds as it was outside of the agreement with the vendor. Any overages would have to be paid with local funds. However, an appropriate reason would have to be provided to pay any overage.