Finance and Purchasing

BearBuy is the UCSF campus eprocurement system. There are BearBuy training materials that will help you use BearBuy to place orders with suppliers and pay invoices, understand roles, and additional shopping resources.

BearBuy should be your first destination for purchasing and extra effort given to locate necessary items or services within the system. Lack of planning for lead time with a BearBuy cart is not a justification to utilize the P-card or MyExpense. Any purchases on grant funding should be routed to the Research Finance Analyst as an ad hoc approver. The Division Manager is the BearBuy cart approvers. The Division Manager is the only approver for meeting/entertainment expenses. Please allow 1-2 business days for review.

For this fiscal year, a tiered stipend will be provided for academic related activities as follows:

The Chart of Accounts for CME funding is as follows:
SpeedType: Leave Blank
Campus: SFCMP
Department: 138384
Fund: 5014
Project: 2011629
Function: 45
Activity Period: NA​​​​​​
FlexField: Leave Blank

Keep in mind the following key information:

• The primary use of these funds should be to support academic development and dissemination (for example, conference registration, license renewal, professional organization membership, and books/materials) If you’re unsure whether a particular expense would be appropriate, please get prior approval from the Division Manager before you purchase the item.
• Unused CME funds do not roll over into the next year.
• Funds are prorated based on your appointment percentage.

DHM will provide up to a total of $1,000 of additional funding to support you in presenting your academic work at conferences (oral presentation, invited talk, or workshop) and/or for professional development opportunities in which a faculty member is selected through a competitive process.

This benefit is limited to one conference or professional development opportunity per faculty member per year while we have sufficient funds.

Before submitting expenses for reimbursement, please provide documentation of your accepted presentation/workshop or professional development participation selection to the Division Manager for review.

In order to purchase non-payroll expenses through the DPH, the employee must have access to the FSP system. The DPH Executive Sponsor's delegate can initiate the FSP trainings and access set-up. Below are the four courses that are required through the DPH in order to access the FSP system.

When an employee's profile is being set-up, use the following IDs:

• Buyer ID: 251667 - HGH General Accounting
• Shipping ID: 25320 - Hospital Admin

Gift Card on Affiliation Agreement Funds

Gift cards are not allowed to be purchased using funds, including:

• Affiliation Agreement
• Below the Line
• CCSF Contracts that flow through the Affiliation Agreement
• SFGH Foundation gifts that flow through the Affiliation Agreement

In limited cases, where there is an existing budget and use of gift cards is an evidence-based practice, programs can work with DPH/ZSFG staff to purchase gift cards directly using DPH funding (not funding in the affiliation agreement).

Gift Card Justifications

There are several allowable uses for gift card purchases, including:

• Research participant incentives
• Patient incentives
• Support for event participants

Purchasing Options

There are a few purchasing options for gift cards based on the use and funding source. Below summarizes the options:

Option 1 - Bearbuy via Change Order Request form

• Tremendous (via UCLA): E-cards available ONLY – Walmart, Target, other options available. You cannot use the Amazon punch out for gift card purchases. If you want to purchase through Amazon, see Option 2. 

Option 2 - Amazon (e-cards and physical) via Amazon Business w/ P-card

• Purchaser will need to ensure they have an Amazon Business account. UCSF has provided instructions here.

Under no circumstances should gift cards be purchased for reimbursement via MyExpense.

Purchase Process Information

Option 1 - BearBuy Change Order

1. Create BearBuy order (full process here)
2. Attach approval from Pl or their delegate
3. Attach IRB approval letter (if applicable)
4. Include budget document
5. Add Division Manager as requisition pre-approver
6. Add Laurae Pearson as the 1 ad hoc approver
7. Add Simon Schuster as the 2nd ad hoc approver

Option 2 - Amazon Business via divisional P-card

1. Complete the P-card gift card form (access form here) and include the following documents when routing for signature:

• Approval from Pl or their delegate
• IRB approval letter (if applicable)
• Budget documents

2. Route full documentation and purchase request to P-card holder.

DOM policies regarding cash and cash equivalent handling

• All gift card purchases are exceptional and require exceptional DOM and SOM approvals.
• Holders must have a background check (standard with all hires) on file with Central.
• Training must be completed, refreshed every 2 years and on record with Central
• Current staff do not need to be fingerprinted, HR acknowledges a gap in this criteria and we are working with them. NEW hires/positions need to be fingerprinted. 
• All cash and cash equivalent accounts need to have a log of distribution.  
• VISA gift cards are discouraged for a variety of reasons, including the additional fees associated with usage. If you are seeking a Visa gift card, please provide a clear, strong justification for consideration by the approvers.

The School of Medicine has provided two "quick guides" that summarize the expcetional expenses policies, linked below:

• Travel and Entertainment Exceptional Expenses Summary as of 05/23/2022
• Meeting and Entertainment Exceptional Expenses Summary as of 11/09/2022

Further, the UCSF Supply Chain Management provides a thorough set of policies related to Meeting and Entertainment Expenses that outline allowable/unallowabled expenses, pre/post-planning info, exceptional expense information, funding source restrictions, and approval information. Before planning a meeting or other entertainment activities, contact the Division Manager.

Of note, the current meal maximums (as of 12/06/2022) are as follows:

Breakfast - $31

Lunch - $54

Dinner - $94

Light Refreshment - $22

MyExpense is the UCSF campus automated reimbursement system for employee travel and non-travel, and guest travel expenses. MyExpense is available through MyAccess. There is a helpful cheat sheet of information available to aid in your MyExpense reporting.

MyExpense should be the last choice when purchasing items for work since it is primarily intended for travel related reimbursement. There are exceptional reasons to use MyExpense for reimbursement requests that are outside of travel; however, exceptions should be obtained from the Division Manager prior to making the purchase. The Administrative Officer provides initial reviews and approval for all MyExpense requests, then routes to the Division Manager for final approval.

Some helpful tips when submitting MyExpense reports:

• Redact all personal information (home address, personal email), except for name, from receipts before attaching to expense report.
• If expense report is not related to travel, include a clear justification for purchase in the report header and include additional comments to provide context to purchase.
• If personal information is on the invoice/receipt (home address etc), please black it out.
• If the last 4 digits of the cc payment are on the receipt, or the last line shows a $0.00 balance, you will NOT need to submit a credit card receipt. If neither is on the receipt, you’ll need to submit a statement or online snapshot that shows the cc charge. Please remember to black out all information on the statement such as other purchases, balance information, home address, etc. 
• All UCSF-issued computers can get Adobe Pro installed for free. This will allow quick and easy redaction on pdfs. If you do not have Adobe Pro, please call ITFS (415-514-4100) and they will help you with the download.

To order items that are not available in BearBuy, please submit your requset through the P-Card Request Form to initiate the process. Reasons to use the P-Card may include conference registration fees, professional organization membership fees, software license fees, manuscript fees, and books/training materials. Before using the p-card, if the vendor accepts PO numbers, the vendor needs to be added to BearBuy, then the purchase made through BearBuy.

For more information and policies related to the P-card program, visit the UCSF Procurement Card website. Individual purchases made on a credit card, intended for MyExpense reimbursement, must not overlap with the allowable items for purchase with a P-card.

When gift funds are recieved through the SFGH Foundation, funding is split between the ZSFG-DPH and UCSF. Non-UCSF payroll expenses are charged through ZSFG-DPH purchasing and UCSF payroll, employee reimbursements flow through UCSF. Expenses incurred through UCSF are considered "Below the Line" funding, which means that UCSF invoices the DPH for reimbursement on a quarterly basis and each line item is reviewed for approval.

Any variation of the aforementioned separation of expenses requires approval, in writing, from the ZSFG Executive Sponsor.

Procurement through the DPH requires training and authorization (see FSP section on this page).

Procurement 101 is a series of training pages created by Supply Chain Management (SCM) that take you through some of the guidelines, policies and useful references you need to purchase goods and services at UCSF. This is a great resource to get started with purchasing.