Dear Faculty Colleagues:
As you may know, research administration, human resources and purchasing have transitioned from central campus (CSS) to the new service region (BRS), which we have named SHARE. The region services the departments in the divisions of Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities, Undergraduate Studies as well as a number of ORUs in the VCR’s office. The goal of this region is simple. To provide you with the services you need in an efficient and friendly manner. We realize that the quality and level of service provided by SHARE is instrumental in delivering our research and teaching mission. We have been working closely with your department managers and the Dean’s office to improve our service delivery. We are working hard on making your life easier.
We are writing today to make you aware of three important changes, implemented as campus-wide mandates (not our choice), which affect how you purchase travel & entertainment, goods and services.
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Travel & Entertainment Reimbursement: Entertainment direct entry is live (travel has been live for awhile). If you handle your own reimbursements, all reimbursements must now be submitted via direct entry. The new system is really straightforward and easy to use. Also, time to reimbursement is significantly shorter. If you would like to prepare reimbursements for others, but do not have those administrative superpowers yet, here is a handout that describes how you can gain these superpowers!
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Purchasing Goods: If you need to buy something, please make BearBuy your first choice. You don’t have to use your own credit card. Purchases under $1000 are auto-approved, (under $5000 for catalog orders!) making the BearBuy process much faster. It also takes 15 times the administrative effort to process reimbursements for purchases made outside of BearBuy. To help you set up BearBuy ONCE and barely have to think about it again, here is a guide to setup BearBuy default values. After you set these up, here is another guide to show you how to shop in BearBuy going forward. It really is as easy as Amazon!
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Purchasing Services: You cannot purchase services with your credit card. This might have slipped by in the past, but the University is ABSOLUTELY rejecting these now regardless of dollar amount. If you purchase a service without an advanced Purchase Order, you will likely end up footing the bill, because you are no longer allowed to ask to be reimbursed for services. Contact our Purchasing Supervisor Kathleen Tronnes if you need help. Some of these can be done quickly if the vendor is in the system already. For example, let’s say you need a “same day” laptop fix - there are several vendors around Berkeley that are already in the system. Computerland of Berkeley is a popular one, an d as long as the purchase order request is under $1000 it will be auto approved. If you select urgent on the cart, it will generally be approved that day (unless it’s already late afternoon). What is a service? Paid labor performed by another person such as laptop repairs, bookstore operation, transcription, translation, use of security guards, transportation, computer programming, clothing rental and cleaning, tests and analysis, film processing, and service and repairs to: office equipment, transportation equipment, laboratory and medical equipment, and musical instruments.
Thank you for reading this far and we look forward to working with you. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us. Also, much more information can be found on our website shareregion.berkeley.edu.
Warmly,
Max Auffhammer & Teal Sexton
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