Team Purchasing of Material/Services

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Matt Reiland

Just a question for the teams out there.

How does your team purchase material and services. Right now the money from the sponsorship (My Employer) gets transferred to the school. The mentors have to buy everything on our credit cards then submit the invoice and a copy of our credit card receipts showing the charge. Then it goes to the school who audits it (and usually finds some BS problem with it) then a while later the school cuts a check and mails it to you. I personally have had it with the system and think it is terrible to have the mentors floating sizable loans to the team then jumping through hoops to get reimbursed.

So how does your team do it?

We started out doing pretty much the same thing. But as the team became well established with the school, and the school system became more comfortable with the way the team operated, we were able to make some changes. Now, for most of the vendors that we expect to use regularly (MSC, Enco, Boster Gear, Small Parts, etc.), we establish a team account and then issue school purchase orders for each order. For other purchases we have been able to have the school issue a school credit card to the team that goes directly to our team account. We use that for most small purchases and one-time purchases for new vendors. Those two options seem to cover just about everything that we may need.

-dave