SPS SharePoint HubGeneral/Access
acQuire is Queen’s brand name for our e-Procurement marketplace system. The software provider of acQuire is Jaggaer. The application modules Queen's utilizes within acQuire are: Spend Director, Invoicing and Supplier Management. The system allows for shopping/procuring of Queen’s funded goods and services, remitting goods and service related invoices, submitting credit card applications, the managing of external supplier files and additional internal service requests.
It is recommend that you use the current versions of the following browsers to access the acQuire system: Chrome, Firefox, Safari (Mac), Internet Explorer (not Edge). All other browsers or older versions of supported browsers may not support the functions of the acQuire system.
The acQuire SSO (Single Sign On) link should be present on your Queen’s U portal page. Most Queen’s SSO links cannot be bookmarked and saved like a standard webpage. Consult your browser’s bookmark help features for directions on how to bookmark this link.
acQuire is available to active Queen’s University staff members, students and affiliated group members. There are three main roles available to acQuire users: Shopper, Requester, Approver. A user can hold one or a combination of multiple roles in acQuire. Students and affiliated group members need to request access to acQuire via the online acQuire Access/Support Help Form. Existing staff members seeking enhanced access like the Requester role or additional department viewing access must request so via the acQuire Access/Support Help Form. Valued Queen's University Suppliers can also utilize acQuire, to manage shopping catalogues, receive POs, submit/monitor PO invoice payments and maintain their data.
By default, all active staff are set up with the Shopper role in acQuire. As mentioned above, if you are a student or affiliated group members need to request access to acQuire via the online acQuire Access/Support Help Form. In acQuire, Shoppers can browse from catalogues of items to buy, add items to carts, create non-catalogue carts, create & submit certain form requests. They cannot add chartfields to or submit certain transactions. Training is not required, but recommended.
Requester access must be requested via the acQuire Access/Support Help Form – ensure the request type on the form is “Access Request”. Completion of the FIN ACQ - acQuire Requester training course is also required, in conjunction (this course is available on Queen’s OnQ training platform, is self-register and self-study). Passing the course quiz with an 80% is required for the course to be considered complete. Requesters have the same access Shoppers have in acQuire, plus additional enhanced access (ie. can add chartfields and submit all types of transactions).
Approvers are provided approval access in acQuire via the Queen’s contract/invoice signing authority matrix or other non-signing authority related workflow requirements. Complete a Non-Research Signing Authority & Workflow Configurations request form in acQuire to request non-research signing authority or non-signing authority workflow configurations be established. Complete a Signing Authority & Research Reports Access – Research Funds form to request research signing authority. Approvers have the same access Shoppers do in acQuire, plus additional enhanced access elements that Requesters have. Training is not required, but recommended.
acQuire is a cloud-based system, that will store transactions and attached documents. Procurement and Financial Services will be considering the material (transactions and attachments) to predominantly be the original copies.
Yes – Approvers can assign substitute Approvers within acQuire, for the approval groups they’ve been assigned, for specific date ranges (a start date and end date can be specified)
Approvers can only delegate to other Approvers, not Requesters or Shoppers
The delegation should not go to an Approver who has a lower dollar value approval level – the assignment should be to an Approver with an equivalent approval threshold or higher
Yes – there is an “assign substitute” function that can be utilized by Requesters, within the “Cart Management” page of acquire.
A workflow is a sequence of approval steps that a transaction goes through from submission to completion. Further information on our SharePoint page about acQuire workflows.
You have likely not been assigned the Requester role (perhaps because you haven’t taken the required Requester training). In order to create, submit and also approve a Requisition yourself, you would need to have the Requester role in acQuire.
Currently, non-research Contract Signing Authority Approvers who submit their own orders cannot self-approve the order. Accommodations may be available for small departments, to allow this on an as-requested basis, however. Contact the acQuire Team if you require such an accommodation.
The acQuire Team will be making some user profile adjustments from time to time, during site maintenance or upgrade windows. Inactivations/activation emails may distribute as a result.
For further information on acQuire, please visit the acQuire SharePoint. There are helpful documents like "The Four W's of acQuire" Lunch and Learn package, etc.
Spend Director (Shopping, Requisitions, Forms, etc.)
Your PCard will still be a tool in your procurement tool kit. It can be utilized for the purchase of items <$10k that cannot be procured through acQuire (you cannot use your PCard to purchase/pay for items in acQuire).
Queen’s supplier agreements may not offer the full catalogue of items available from all suppliers. If the item you wish to purchase is not available in acQuire, you may obtain that product through other methods (ie. Purchase through your departmental p-card direct with the supplier or request a quote from the supplier and create a non-catalogue purchase requisition to order that product through acQuire).
The catalogue suppliers are offering Queen’s specific pricing and product. Some individual products may have higher pricing, but overall pricing should be advantageous (shipping costs may also be reduced or eliminated when ordering through acQuire). However, if you notice a price or product that doesn’t make sense, please follow up with the acQuire team.
Most (but not all) of our catalogue suppliers have confirmed that shipping will be free to any location – off campus and on campus – as long as the product is ordered via the acQuire shopping channels.
NOTE: Please be aware that for Life Science Lab Suppliers (lab science catalogue suppliers in acQuire), additional shipping and handling charges may be added for special items.
Procurement policy should be adhered to when ordering via non-catalogue Requisitions in acQuire – Procurement Policy details. Procurement Buyers will be reviewing purchase requisitions over $10,000 CAD – if they require further information in order to approve the order, they will request it from you.
Setup of a blanket PO would be done through a non-catalogue purchase requisition within acQuire. The PO can be set up as an estimate of how much you anticipate to spend with the supplier throughout a specified term. Ensure to check off the “Blanket/Standing Order” and potentially the “Do Not Send PO to Vendor” (if you don’t want the PO to send to the supplier) checkboxes when creating the requisition.
Some of the acQuire catalogue suppliers have a limited character field for the “attn. to” details of a delivery location. Best practice would be to habitually shorten your “attn. to” (ie Jane Smith, to J.Smith).
Yes – there is an “unassign” feature available within the “Cart Management” page of acQuire.
Generally in acQuire, Approvers who submit their own orders cannot self-approve the order. We would suggest having a Requester Submit the order for you, to avoid this situation. Some Approvers can hold the Requester role as well and exceptions exist for those users that are utilizing/have signing authority on research funds (ie can submit and approve their own orders). Accommodations may also be available for small departments, to allow the functionality on an as-requested basis for non-research scenarios. Contact the acQuire Team if you require such an accommodation.
An email should issue to you if your requisition has been returned and you have your notification preferences set to do so, with the return reason detailed at the bottom of the email. If no email has been received or you still need further information, review the “History” tab on the requisition. The options are similar for that of a returned form, except the email may not provide enough information, whereas the "History" on the form will.
Returned requisitions can be accessed by navigating through Shop -> My Carts and Orders -> View Carts -> Draft Carts. Once in Draft Carts, click on the Shopping Cart Name of the returned requisition. This will reactivate the cart and allow you to make any required edits then resubmit the requisition.
To return an item to a supplier, you will need to contact the supplier directly to coordinate the return.
Email the Procurement team at buying@queensu.ca to request approval to do so. In the email, provide an approval email from your Department Head or Manager, the name of the supplier you are ordering from, the amount of the order and the item(s) being ordered. If email approval is provided by the Procurement team, ensure to attach the email to the requisition in acQuire. Then update the ship-to address on the requisition by navigating to the “Shipping” section (or tab), select “edit”, click “select from org addresses”, search “OFF-ON” as the ship-to nickname (assuming the address is in Ontario), then assign this ship-to code to your requisition. This code will offer fields so you can enter the home address in as the deliver-to on your requisition.
Submit a PO Change Order Request form in acQuire and choose close and/or cancel on the form. Note: if a PO has been submitted in the wrong currency, you will have to cancel the PO and submit a new Requisition with the correct currency.
Invoicing
In most cases, a non-catalogue PO is best, as purchases over $10,000 should be on a Queen’s certified purchase requisition/purchase order. If the invoice is not for a standard product or service purchase, a Payment Request Form may be best. Please contact the acQuire team if you are unsure.
These payments can be requested via the Payment Request Form in acQuire.
A Payment Request Form (as well as a One-Time Payment Form, Honorarium Payment Form, Research Fund Transfer Form, Research Payment Form and Physician Payment Form – Single Payment) will create a requisition, a purchase order and a voucher. The purchase order created from these forms will not dispatch to the supplier, they will be for internal use only. The voucher created from these forms will be the document to facilitate the payment through PeopleSoft.
Payment form submissions – upload the invoice to the payment form as an attachment. AP will review the invoice from there.
Purchase Requisitions/Purchase Orders – if the supplier sends you a copy of the invoice directly, or you have a copy prior to submitting the purchase requisition, email the invoice to accounts.payable@queensu.ca. Include the PO ID (you would have to wait until a PO was generated from the requisition you submit), the Supplier Name and “Invoice” in the subject line of the email. OR add a “Comment” to the PO (once you have a PO ID), assign the comment to the Accounts Payable clerk responsible for processing invoices from the supplier, upload the invoice to the comment and ask for the invoice to be applied to the PO in the body of the comment.
The acQuire system will not allow for the same invoice number for the same supplier to be submitted into the system twice. If you receive notice that the voucher associated with your original requisition has been rejected, either contact the acQuire Team for their assistance in resubmitting the voucher, or assign a different invoice number (ie. add a period to the end of the invoice number) to the original requisition and resubmit it.
This usually happens if there are multiple approvers identified to review the transaction and one of those Approvers has already approved it before the other Approvers get to it. If the Approver navigates to the voucher, then to the “Approvals” tab, it will show the Approver that has already approved the voucher. The approval notice can then be discarded.
*For more invoicing related questions, please see the Accounts Payable FAQs page.
Supplier Management
If you need to set up a PO for a supplier who is not in the system, please complete/submit the “Add New Supplier” form on the acQuire Home Page (Shopping Dashboard). These requests will vet to the acQuire Team for review/processing, then to the supplier directly for profile creation/registration. Upon completion of that end-to-end process you will receive notice through acQuire that the supplier is ready for use in the system.
*Note: The Add New Supplier form is only available to Requesters and Approvers (not Shoppers).
If you need to complete/submit a Payment Request Form, Honorarium Payment Form or Research Fund Transfer Form to pay a supplier invoice, and the supplier is not in the system, complete the “Supplier (or Honorarium Recipient) Not Found” section of the form when submitting the form. This will trigger a review of the form to the acQuire Team, who will facilitate processing the request. Your form requisition will be processed through the acQuire system when the supplier/recipient profile is set up and approved.
*Note: The Payment Request Form, Honorarium Payment Form and Research Fund Transfer Form are available to all acQuire roles (Shopper, Requester and Approver).
The Secure Supplier Information Collection Form was created as per recommendations from Queen’s Secretariat & Legal unit. Requiring recipients/suppliers to provide sensitive information via the form ensures Queen’s is doing its part in protecting this information.
Secure Supplier Information Collection Form. The department is required to send the form link to the recipient/supplier.
No, the only information sent/required by secure forms are transaction reference information, recipient/supplier legal structure, SIN and/or banking information.
Currently, if we do not have all the information we require to process the transaction/file as required, we will wait four weeks then try and reach out to the related department and/or contact if it’s available on the form. If not, the information will be deleted from our system. If we have everything we need, we use the submitted information to support the supplier file add/edit, then we delete the originally submitted form from the system right away.
Certain pay methods offered at Queen’s come with quicker pay terms – those are detailed on the Payment Terms and Methods page.
Otherwise, requests for pay term adjustments to supplier files can be requested via the Request for Permanent Payment Term Adjustment form in acQuire - navigate to Forms -> Supplier Request -> Request for Permanent Payment Term Adjustment. Some exceptions can be made for certain types of suppliers as well (ie. individuals).
An ICQ is an Independent Contractor Questionnaire required to be filled out by the department/individual supplier, prior to service engagement, and only for those suppliers located in Canada. The Independent Contractor Questionnaire (ICQ) will determine whether a Service Provider is an Employee or an Independent Contractor for tax purposes. If you have further questions about this form or its requirements, please visit Financial Services’ website, as Payroll owns the form.
The registration email may have deposited into the supplier’s junk mail folder. Ask them to check this location - if they still haven’t received it you can request the acQuire Supplier Support team reissue the invitation to the supplier. Secondary registration invitations can be issued to an alternate email address if required as well.
Solicited: A solicited supplier is one who has accepted a portal registration invitation and filled out address, contact and banking information etc on their supplier profile themselves. Therefore, they have set up a username and password in order to control and update all their company’s information themselves.
Proxy: a member of the Procurement team has set up the supplier’s information on their behalf.
It is Queen’s preference, especially during these times, to submit payment via electronic methods (EFT, ACH, VPA) vs. Cheque whenever possible, as these pay methods are less costly and time consuming than issuing a cheque.
Any individual working within Canada that possesses a temporary SIN – starting with a 9 – must submit a work permit to Procurement’s Accounts Payable Lead, Diane Begin.
If you click on the “History” of the Form beside “Request Actions”, the note detailing why the form has been returned will be detailed there.
Yes – supplier files can be set up to have multiple addresses each with their own contact information.
On the requisition in acQuire, assign the supplier profile to the transaction then select “Different Location” to see/be able to assign the other available addresses for the supplier file.
Check out the following presentations from the acQuire SharePoint for further information on this topic.
If a current Queen’s employee is supplying a service that is part of their job description, this payment should be made under the Payroll - Additional/One-Time Payment Request. Please confirm with the payroll department before submitting an honorarium for a current Queen’s employee.
Either submit a Modify Existing Supplier form within acQuire asking for payment information to be updated, then have the recipient/supplier submit their banking information via the Secure Supplier Information Collection Form OR submit the PRF or HPF and choose “YES – Found Supplier, but Different Payment Method or Address Needed” in section 1a. of the form, then in section 1b. under “Remittance (Pay) Method for Supplier” choose the applicable required pay method and then have the recipient/supplier submit their banking information via the Secure Supplier Information Collection Form.