Buy responsibly
Departments follow thresholds, competition, accessibility, sustainability, conflict-of-interest and public-record requirements.
Travel and reimbursements
Travelers document approvals, receipts, business purpose and grant or program restrictions before reimbursement.
Get help
Finance staff explain chartfields, purchasing cards, budgets, invoices, contracts and year-end close.
Buying for a polytechnic
Porter buys a lot of specialised equipment — lathes, manikins, kilns, network gear, safety supplies — and departments follow dollar thresholds, competition rules, accessibility and sustainability requirements, and conflict-of-interest disclosure. Local and regional vendors are used where they can meet the spec.
Travel and reimbursement
Travellers document the approval, the business purpose, itemised receipts and any grant restrictions before a reimbursement is processed. Finance staff will walk a first-time traveller or a new grant PI through chartfields, cards and the year-end close.
In and around Porter Falls
Business Services in Millwright Hall handles purchasing, travel, contracts and the year-end close for a university that buys a lot of specialised equipment — lathes, simulation manikins, kilns, network gear. Local and regional vendors are used where they can meet the requirement, and every purchase is a public record.
The practical details
Purchasing card: For low-dollar, pre-approved buys. Competitive bids: Required above the posted threshold. Everything: A public record, subject to open-records requests. These specifics can shift from term to term, so confirm anything time-sensitive — a deadline, an appointment, an eligibility rule — before you count on it.
If you have a question
This is handled by Business Services (Millwright Hall, Room 60). Call (715) 555-0255 or email purchasing@uwporterfalls.edu during the fall and spring terms, or use MyPorter to send a message or book a time. If another office turns out to own the question, they will pass it along rather than send you back to the beginning.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.