Procurement Services Blog

The University of Washington is now offering ChatGPT Edu to UW faculty and staff through the UW Software Catalog (UWare).

ChatGPT Edu provides access to ChatGPT, a generative AI assistant that can help with tasks such as drafting and revising documents, summarizing text, exploring ideas, generating images, and supporting research and administrative workflows.

National Procurement Month is a time to recognize the role of purchasing professionals in helping people change the world through collaboration, consultation, and financial stewardship. 

While we celebrate our profession this month, the Procurement Services Department wants to highlight that our biggest success is working with you. Thank you to the entire campus community for your continued collaboration in getting the goods and services needed to move the University's mission forward. We appreciate our partnership!

Ever wish Workday gave you a quick hint right when you needed it?

Now it does.

Procurement Services is excited to introduce Workday Quick Tips for Improved Navigation — a new just-in-time resource designed to guide you directly within your Workday tasks.

Travel Tasks Just Got Easier:

We’ve added helpful tips within select Travel task fields to provide immediate guidance while you’re completing your work. These embedded tips are designed to:

Need a quick answer? Want a fast refresher? Don’t have time for a full training session?

The Procurement Center of Excellence (PCOE) has launched a brand-new Microlearning Video Series designed to give you exactly what you need — in just 5–10 minutes.

Summary of what is changing: Workday is adding the ability to specify an order-from connection on non-catalog requests in the Requisitions Worklet. 

Impact: Requisition worklet users will see the order-from connection field when filling out details for non-catalog requisitions.

Impacted roles: Requisition Requestors

Due to the WA State Sales 2025 Update (ESSB 5814), the reimbursement procedure for live presentation expenses within Washington State has been changed (See Conference Expenses). These expenses include registration, membership, and abstract fees for conferences, seminars, workshops, lectures, etc.

What’s New

Adding Use Tax to Card Verifications now requires an additional visual confirmation step. Users must visually confirm that the Tax Code is added by Workday to the Transaction Details, before submitting or approving verifications.

To ensure timely payment of customs fees and smooth clearance for your goods, a valid Purchase Order number must be provided before import shipments are initiated with Expeditors. 

If you do not provide a purchase order to Expeditors, the invoice will be sent to your department for processing. 

The UW is contractually obligated to pay invoices Net 30 days from receipt. Failure to pay invoices promptly may result in the UW being put on credit hold.

To help avoid delays processing your requisition, please take extra care to ensure your justification clearly addresses why competition is not feasible, what makes the supplier uniquely qualified, and what steps you took in determining the sole source.

Please refer to the Sole Source Job aid (link at the top of the form) for examples and more detail. Sole source should be a justification for an exception to competition, rather than a default option.

In mid-February, the process for suppliers onboarding into UW Workday systems will be changing.

Suppliers will create accounts and onboard in a different area of Workday, called Workday Strategic Sourcing (WSS). The login requires all new suppliers to use a Multi-Factor Authentication app, keeping their information and attachments secure, such as required IRS W-9 and W-8 documents.