Student Group Purchasing Intructions

• Purchases are made by the department and should not be made by club members without previous permission.
• All purchase requests should come from the club e-mail account on the purchasing form.
• There should only be ONE person placing orders.  Multiple people placing orders, even from the club e-mail can result in missed orders.
• Please only send one purchasing form at a time.  Do not send a form per ‘team’, such as one form for the mechanical team and another one for the electrical team.  It should all be combined on one form.
• It may take 2-3 days before purchases are made.  Please plan accordingly.  If there are issues with backorders or questions of availability, etc. it can take even longer to process an order.
• When considering items, some things to keep in mind are:
  • Consider shipping in overall purchasing of an item.  A $5 item with $1 shipping is much better than a $2 item with $10 shipping.
  • Purchasing is faster to get multiple items from the same vendor than multiple vendors.  It’s better to get an item for $1 more with a vendor you’re already using than ordering from another company and paying for more shipping. (see above)
  • Consider the details.  Do you really need that red wire at $10/yard when grey wire is $5/yard and does the same thing?
  • Check to make sure the items are in stock and available at the quantity you need.  It saves a lot of back & forth e-mails to find alternates.
  • Shop around.  It’s quicker and easier to get something from a known vendor than an obscure vendor.  Getting something from Digi-Key is much easier than getting something from Bob & Dave’s Widget Shop, even if it might be a few dollars more expensive.  Because all purchases must be tax exempt, it can take up to a week or more to set-up a tax exempt account with a new vendor.  This is similar with foreign vendors.  Do you HAVE to have the wheels from an obscure company in Korea, or can you get something similar from a known company?

Club Purchasing Form

• Please name the form with the club and date submitted.  Example:  KUbeSat Order Form 9-8-22.  This makes it easier to track orders.
• Funding Source is where you’d prefer your funding come from.  A different funding source may be used depending on the different guidelines, accessibility, etc. of the funds.
• Please group vendors together on the spreadsheet. 
  • For example, list all of the Amazon items together, then list McMaster-Carr items together.  Don’t list Amazon, Amazon, McMaster, Amazon, McMaster, etc.
• If you’d like to add extra sheets to the purchasing form for your reference, that’s fine, but purchases will only be made from the main sheet. 
  • For instance, if you’re ordering for the mechanical team and the electrical team and want to group them together for your own reference on a separate sheet, that’s okay, but all purchases should be grouped by vendor on the main sheet.  Orders will be sent back if they’re not clear.
• When purchasing from McMaster-Carr you can link directly to a cart without itemizing everything.  You can simply list ‘various’ in the description and put the link to the cart.
• When purchasing a large number of items from Amazon, you can also share it as a link.  Please see the Amazon Wish List Instructions lower on this web page.
• We understand not all vendors, such as Amazon, have part numbers listed.  Please include the part number when available, especially when items are available in multiple sizes.
• If an item is available in multiple sizes make sure the size is obvious.  If it’s not clear in the description add it in parentheses.  In addition to the part number and unique link, in the description list it as ‘Big Piece of Wire (2ft, 12 gauge)’ and ‘Big Piece of Wire (2.5ft, 8 gauge)’
• Use the actual vendor description and not your reference description.  It’s easy enough to copy and paste.  Don’t put something on there like ‘landing gear support 1’ and ‘servo 3’ on the description.  It will be sent back. 
• If it is something sold in lengths, include the length in the description and the quantity of that piece in the quantity field.  If you want 2, 3 foot things the description should include 3ft with 2 in the quantity field.
• When entering the price, use the actual price, do not round.  Formulas are included in the sheet for figuring item price.
• The department has Amazon Prime, so the actual price and shipping may be less than what you entered on your sheet.
• Make sure the link is an actual web address, not a description with a hyperlink built in.
• If you want expedited shipping it should be noted on the sheet.  You can put this in a description line and highlight it in some way. Otherwise, the least expensive shipping method will be used.