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Commodity Code Update for CruzBuy

Summary: Learn why commodity codes are needed, and how to correctly identify the UNSPSC-based commodity codes for your products and services.

UNSPSC-based Commodity Code Lists

• CruzBuy Forms & Codes for Commodities Not Available in Hosted Catalogs or Punchouts – list of UNSPSC-based commodity codes for products and services, along with which CruzBuy form must be used to request each specific commodity.
  
• Commodity Codes (pdf) – the complete list of CruzBuy UNSPSC-based commodity codes and descriptions

Introduction

The UCSC Procurement Department is responsible for the overall procurement activities to ensure UCSC obtains goods and services utilizing best business practices. These practices are consistent with University of California Business and Finance Bulletins and State Laws. Part of these best practices is tracking and classifying goods and services the university procures via a commodity code. The current standard of commodity codes used in CruzBuy is the(UNSPSC (United Nations Standard Products and Services Code). The UNSPSC code is a hierarchical convention that is used to classify all goods and services. By embedding UNSPSC commodity codes into CruzBuy purchase requisitions and Banner purchase orders, Procurement and Divisions/Units/Departments can view how much money is being spent on various commodities. This enables Procurement to spot buying patterns and allows the university to leverage better contracts from suppliers and realize overall savings on identified commodities.

Stakeholders

Every CruzBuy user at UCSC plays an active role in the purchasing process. Whether you're a professor requesting a particular textbook, or the employee who enters a CruzBuy requisition online, or an administrative assistant who makes arrangements for delivery with a supplier, everyone has an active role in making purchasing decisions on behalf of the University. Part of this active role is the entry of the UNSPSC commodity code on CruzBuy requisitions.

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Project Implementation and Definition

Currently, CruzBuy automatically supplies commodity codes for all hosted catalog and punchout supplier purchases. For purchase requests made on forms, for more than $500, if a commodity code is not entered by the requestor, the order will route to Purchasing and a Buyer will evaluate the commodity description and enter the required commodity code.

Effective Monday, March 30th, 2009, the Procurement department requests that commodity codes be entered on all CruzBuy requisitions submitted using CruzBuy forms. Procurement will rely upon the CruzBuy requester and approver to carefully select the correct commodity code for each purchase made.

If you need help choosing a commodity code, contact the CruzBuy help desk or the appropriate Buyer in your Procurement Team for assistance.

Benefits

The UNSPSC commodity code classification system enables the following functions:

• More complete spend analysis for UCOP, UCSC and Divisions/Units/Departments
• Analysis of expenditures and strategic sourcing by Procurement
• Cost-effective procurement
• Full use of electronic commerce (CruzBuy) capabilities
• Ability to obtain a uniform picture of university expenditures – by using consistent coding across university divisions, suppliers and information systems

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How to Add or Change the Commodity Code

1. Within the Accounting Block, click the Edit button to the far right of the in the Other Codes row.
2. Choose a Commodity Code from the values in your profile
   
   OR

3. Use Select from all values... to search all of the Commodity Codes by description. Click Search without entering a search value to view the first 20 codes. Change the Results per page dropdown to 100 to view all codes. You can sort by either the value or the description. Select the most relevant commodity code associated with your purchase.

Contact the Buyers assigned to your Division/Unit/Department with any purchasing related questions. Their contact information can be found at: http://purchasing.ucsc.edu/contact/index.html.

Thank you for your cooperation.

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Last revised: March 26, 2009 (am)