Purchasing Services

Orders may be placed with designated contract suppliers through catalogs in buyLU. Following departmental approval, these electronic orders will be sent directly to the supplier via a Purchase Order and will not flow through Procurement.

A Non-Catalog Purchase Order (PO) is the most commonly used purchasing method. End users may request a quote from a supplier and enter the information into a non-catalog requisition in buyLU. The requisition will be processed into a purchase order and sent to the vendor for fulfillment. Suppliers must be active in buyLU prior to the requisition submission.

A Liberty University Purchasing Card (P-Card) is a Truist VISA corporate credit card intended for small point-of-sale purchases and travel/professional development expenses. This payment method replaces the requisition process for most purchases under $2,500. For more information on P-Card purchases, please see the P-Card web page.

The Sole Source Requisition Form is required for purchases greater than $15,000 when there is only one known supplier for a unique product or service and no other bidding options are available. A justification is required on all sole source requests. Procurement has competitive tools to assist with the competition process. Please reach out to your buyer for assistance.

Liberty University has developed standard purchasing procedures and policies that will guide you with every purchase. Please visit our link below to direct you to the Procurement Document Library.

Procurement Document Library

RFP-Request for Proposal

A RFP is normally used when a specification or statement of work for services has not been fully developed or you do not know the best possible solution to the problem. Normally, you:

• Include what your objective is and as much detail as possible about the current situation.
• Ask potential vendors to submit their recommendations for solutions to your problem.

When creating an RFP, you may or may not wish to include a request for pricing. Pricing may only be appropriate after you have determined which of many possible alternatives is the preferred solution.

RFQ-Request for Quotation

You would want to request for a quotation if:

• You are sure of the product or service you need and there are several potential capable suppliers available.
• You are asking for specific prices, terms, delivery dates and other conditions from all suppliers for substantially the same good or service.

There are countless variations of RFP’s and RFQ’s, each uniquely suitable for a particular good or service. Procurement can help create or fine tune either for you. The more specific information you are able to provide regarding your needs, the more worthwhile the proposal or quote will be.

For our FAQs, please visit our FAQ page below.

Frequently Asked Questions