February Confirming Order Report

As was discussed with the SSC Management Council in January, and as a follow up to the January Confirming Orders Report, attached is the February Confirming Orders Report for all Colleges, the System Office (SO), and the Shared Services Center (SSC).

We’re thrilled to give a big shout out to Mountain Gateway Community College for being the first College to achieve a Confirming Order percentage under 5% at 1.79% for February! And we want to give another shout out to Virginia Western Community College for being in-reach of 5% at 6.09%! 

Congratulations and great job to all Colleges that made significant progress in February! Your dedication to lowering the Confirming Order percentage is truly appreciated! We’re excited to see us continue to progress over the coming months. 

As you can tell from the report, there is more work to do. Remember, DGS will be conducting a Procurement Management Review (PMR) of the VCCS Procure-to-Pay function this year. The review will include a deep dive into the compliance of requisitions, including confirming orders. 

The intent of this message is to educate and inform so we can make improvements. 

The VCCS Confirming Orders rates have been a known issue for a while but have not been strictly enforced as the SSC understands that this change is difficult. With the upcoming Procurement Management Review (PMR), it is most important that we:

• Show improvement
• Document instances where Confirming Orders are uniquely required by our organization (and capture those instances in a Business Rule)
• Reduce our percentages of Confirming Orders to the 5% range
• Demonstrate that we have a process to monitor and educate when invalid Confirming Orders are created

As a reminder, a Confirming Order is "a purchase order issued after the fact by a procuring agency to a vendor for goods or services ordered orally or by some other informal means," [APSPM]. In other words, it is when the end users have committed the VCCS to a purchase before entering a Requisition. The end users then attach the invoice to the Requisition as a way of processing the payment or registering the purchase. We will be working this year to move towards a 5% or less use of Confirming Orders (primarily for emergency purchases).

It is critical that each VCCS entity (College, SO, and SSC) work within their organization through the change management process. In support of that effort, we will also be sharing the learning that is identified throughout this effort. For example, here are some pointers we've learned from some of our VCCS entities:

• Goods and Services Under Contract (including cooperative contracts)
  If a procurement has a contract, a Requisition should be created and include a reference to the contract number.
• Government-to-Government Purchases
  Procuring goods from other Government agencies should be processed via the normal Requisition process.
• Food
  Food purchases require a Meal Form attached to a Requisition. Obtain and attach a quote and the Meal Form to the Requisition.
• Sole Source
  When there is only one source available for the good or service, then the VCCS is required to submit a Sole Source Justification that is reviewed by DGS.
• Confirming Orders
  Confirming Orders should be reserved for emergencies and should represent fewer than 5% of our Purchase Orders. 

Please try to plan ahead. The SSC is here to help. If you have any questions regarding this information, please contact SSC Customer Engagement at 877-340-5577 or help@ssc.vccs.edu.