Procurement and Payment Services (PPS) reviews what a department buys, which vendors are being used and can advise on purchasing tools, orders and cards. PPS also assists with vendor relationships.

Appointing a purchaser

Ideally each department or area should have a person dedicated to purchasing. This purchaser may create orders on SAP and advise their departmental staff on vendor selection and Finance's policies and procedures.

Purchasing should be a significant part of a purchaser's job and a purchaser must have a financial background. Any new purchasing post must be signed off by the Systems & Process Specialist based on purchasing volumes for the department. Generally only replacement purchasers will be considered.

The minimum job requirement is Matric accounting or an equivalent bookkeeping qualification. A Finance representative must be part of the selection committee (from Central Finance or the relevant faculty Finance Office) and a basic finance competency test should be included in the selection process.

Purchaser training

To access SAP, purchasers need to complete 10 mornings of training over a 2-month period. As soon as the new purchaser has been appointed in compliance with the requirements outlined above, complete the New SAP Access & Training Request form by logging a call via the Service Now platform. The same form may be used to request refresher training.

Emergency purchases

When the purchaser is unavailable: fill in the Purchase Order Request (under 'Downloads' on the right), have it authorised by the fund holder and email to the PPS Purchasing Support team on fnd-purch@uct.ac.za. PPS will create the order and either email it to the vendor or back to the requester.

When SAP is unavailable: request an emergency purchase order form by emailing the PPS Purchasing Support team on fnd-purch@uct.ac.za.

Changing delivery address

Download and complete form SAP05 and send the completed form to:
Procurement and Payment Services
Master Data Section
Email: fnd-purch@uct.ac.za

For more information please consult Overview: Purchasing Groups.