News and Updates

University policy and federal Uniform Guidance require that sponsored expenditures be adequately documented. In order to establish adequate and consistent documentation standards related to sponsored award purchases, a business purpose will be required in Mountaineer Marketplace for sponsored award purchases starting July 1, 2025.  At a minimum, the Internal Notes field on the requisition cart will be the field users need to use when entering their business purpose (see below for screenshots).  The business purpose statement ensures that the benefit to the sponsored award and compliance with award requirements is clearly documented and can be understood by both internal and external reviewers (managers, auditors, etc.).  In order to document that the expense is allowable, reasonable and allocable to the sponsored award, the business purpose must explain how the purchase benefits the work of a sponsored award and why it is necessary.  If allocating a purchase across multiple funding sources, the detail related to the allocation must be provided.  Attachments are encouraged when providing separate supporting documentation, which should be noted on the Internal Notes field.

Guidelines for Business Purpose Explanations:

Staples have provided a new guide for their printing services, which are accessible through the Staples Punchout Catalog.

Please find the updated Hospitality Services policy. It is very important that you review this policy, and particularly the two sections below, as we want to maintain fiscal responsibility. Employee training and development. Light refreshments and meals during planned employee training and development events involving multiple employees. The duration of the training must be longer than two hours. This also includes formal staff retreats. These events should be restricted, must be budgeted for, and require Dean/VP approval. Working Meals. Occasional, non-routine, modest refreshments and meals consumed during working hours, where all attendees are employees, may be permitted under exceptional circumstances. These instances should be infrequent, must be pre-approved by the Dean or Vice President, and must be included in the departmental budget.

To better serve the needs of WVU students, faculty and staff who are traveling on University business, WVU will transition away from the MyTravel booking tool and its current travel management company.

Effective March 17, 2025, WVU travelers will independently book travel through their preferred airline, hotel, etc. and our contracted rental car company.

Employees who travel for University business are encouraged to join Enterprise/National Car Rental’s Emerald Club! The Emerald Club provides membership for both Enterprise and National Car Rental. Enroll with your WVU email.

Already enrolled with Emerald Club? Please send your Emerald Club number to Scott Davisson at Scott.A.Davisson@ehi.com to get your loyalty number linked to WVU!

Given recent changes in the travel industry as well as WVU's experience in using MyTravel enabled by the AMEX Booking tool, the WVU Procurement Contracting and Payment Services (PCPS) team shares updates and exemptions:

A new Payment Services Helpful Hint on how to use the WVU Amazon Business Account has been published on the Helpful Hint Page!

If this article isn't helping to solve your issue, please feel free to Contact PCPS.

To update a policy implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Procurement, Contracting and Payment Services (PCPS) team is revising its guidelines on the shipment of office and computer supplies to home addresses.

Effective immediately, only Dell catalog ITS-recommended* computer supplies may be delivered to employees’ personal homes. All other office supplies, including paper, notepads and staplers, are no longer eligible for home delivery and must be delivered to a WVU address.

What is a confirming order?
A confirming order occurs when an employee works directly with a supplier to have a good or service delivered without first submitting a requisition in Mountaineer Marketplace and having a purchase order issued.

Examples of confirming orders include: