Managing your order

How to manage your purchase orders at UW–Madison.


Current requisition and purchase order information is available in ShopUW+. For ShopUW+ reference information, visit ShopUW+ Essentials.

Information about older purchase orders created in the legacy system (prior to April 26, 2021) can be found below.

Your order number

For legacy orders, your requisition number stayed with your order through the entire purchasing process. The legacy requisition number and purchase order number were the same.

Please visit the Purchasing Information Inquiry Menu.

There is instructional documentation with screenshots detailing how to find legacy PO information using the Purchasing System Inquiry and WISDM, including finding Department PDF copies of POs.

View – Finding Information about your Purchase Orders (POs) and Requisitions processed before April 26, 2021 (PDF)

Common tasks

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Check the status of your requisition

Use the Purchasing Information Inquiry tool.

You can check on things such as where the requisition is at in the process and whether or not the requisition has been released and turned into an official Purchase Order.

  • You’ll need requisition number (and if there’s any other key info they need to complete the form)
  • Select the “Specific Requisition Status Lookup” link and enter the requisition number. The log will show when your requisition was last updated in the requisition generator, when the paper copy was received in Purchasing, where/if the paper copy was further routed for approvals, and once processed will show the detail information from the requisition.

Look up Purchasing Orders and requisitions for your department

Use the Purchasing Information Inquiry tool.

Select the “Search Purchase Orders/Requisitions” link and enter your Department ID and/or Project to find orders of interest.

Searching for Requisitions in the External Requisition Generator – In the External Requisition Generator, to find requisitions that have not yet been processed, choose “Click here to search for Requisitions not yet processed by Purchasing Services” near the bottom of your screen. This search can also be used to find any unprocessed CORs for your division and/or department.

Find individual Purchase Orders and associated information (including payments and department PDF copies of POs)

Use the Purchasing Information Inquiry tool.

Select the “Specific Purchase Order Lookup” link and enter the Purchase Order number.

Making changes to an existing Purchase Order

Change and cancellation orders are issued to modify existing Purchase Orders (POs) with the submission of an Encumbrance Management Form from the department. If the change order results in a dollar amount change to the PO, your encumbrance will be adjusted in the Shared Financial System (SFS) and the change will be viewable in WISDM. Changes to the funding string using the EMF will be made by Accounting and not communicated to the supplier.

Change orders can be issued for:

  • To add or delete an item or items on a Purchase Order.
  • To change the ending dates on a blanket order.
  • To change the description of an item(s).
  • To change price(s) and/or item(s) if the order total changes by $100 or more.
  • Per vendor request with consultation of the user department.
  • To change an order to/from positive approval (to approve invoices prior to payment).

Cancellation orders can be issued:

  • When the vendor cannot provide product.
  • By request of department when item(s) are no longer required.
  • When funds are no longer available.
  • When changing vendors.

Closing Purchase Orders

Purchasing Orders are closed by Business Services on a monthly basis to help better manage open encumbrances displayed in WISDM, reduce the need for manual requests for closure, and to relieve the buildup of POs to be closed at fiscal year end. POs that meet the following criteria will be closed every month:

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Monthly PO auto-closing criteria

Orders with a Purchasing Order end date

Automatically close 90 days after the end date listed on the purchase order.

  • Note: The funding used on your order may also have a project end date separate from your PO end date. The close criteria refer to the end date on your PO, however; if your funding has an end date, POs should not be written to exceed that date.
  • A Continuing Order Requisition (COR) will be produced approximately 3 months before the end date to remind the user to recreate the order if necessary

Specific orders

Automatically close 90 days after the last payment if*:

  • at least 95% liquidated and
  • the balance does not exceed $1000

Orders that do not fit the above monthly closing criteria can be closed via an approved Encumbrance and PO Management form submitted from your Dean’s office to Purchasing Services.

How does this affect campus?

  • The PO Close Process runs on a monthly basis according to the established close criteria listed above and reduces the need to request a PO close.
  • Dean’s Offices and Departments will NOT need to complete the PO and Encumbrance Management form for their POs to be closed according to these criteria, this will happen automatically when Business Services runs the close process monthly.
    • Dean’s Offices and Departments will only need to complete the PO and Encumbrance Management form to close POs when they do not meet the criteria.
  • Invoices arriving for payment after a PO is closed will be paid as a Direct Payment referencing the PO number in the Description column. This means that inquiries in WISDM for invoices against the PO number will NOT show the direct payment. However, queries in WISDM looking for the PO number in the Description field will show the payment. No one search method for an individual PO will capture both payments. However, both payments will show up if you are viewing a summary report for an entire department or project, or if searching for all payments made from a specific vendor.

*At fiscal year end, a special close for specific orders takes place that will not use the 90 day activity criteria, meaning any specific PO that is at least 95% liquidated and has a balance less than $1000 will be closed.

Contact

Purchasing Services
21 N. Park Street
Madison, WI 53715

(608) 262-1526