For those of you who use Rainin’s pipette calibration services, we are pleased to announce new dates for monthly service clinics. The first clinic for 2023 will be on 01/10/2023.

Please see the following link for the 2023 calendar: https://supplychain.berkeley.edu/bearbuy-rainin-pipette-calibration-service-clinics

Business Services (BearBUY, Procurement, Business Contracts & Brand Protection, Property Management, and Library Bindery) will observe the winter curtailment/holiday break beginning at noon, 12/22/2022 and returning to the office on 01/03/2023.

Catalog orders that meet auto-approval thresholds will continue to dispatch normally in BearBUY. Orders requiring additional approval levels may be delayed based on departmental staffing levels across campus.

Emergency Life-Safety acquisitions and automatic approvals (such as catalog orders under $1,000.00) will continue to be processed over the curtailment periods.

If you have an emergency during this time, please email your assigned buyer and copy supplychain@berkeley.edu with the subject line "Emergency Acquisition" and be sure to include a description of the business need as well as a PO or Requisition Number. A buyer will contact you as soon as possible during regular business hours.

As a reminder: Only those emergencies necessary to protect the life-safety of the campus community will be processed. Departments must plan to obtain sufficient safety stock to maintain research continuity.

Please report any service issues or unscheduled downtime to bearbuyhelp@berkeley.edu. When checking Service Levels(link is external), please note a delay in turnaround time due to limited staffing.

For emergencies related to Moving Services and Property Management, please contact Eric Anglim, Director, 510-409-0044, eanglim@berkeley.edu ; include a description of the emergency and return contact information.

We are releasing the planned 2023 BFS maintenance schedule, to provide time in advance to prepare for planned system downtimes. 

Historically, we performed maintenance and upgrades on the weekend. However, we are moving some of the work to be performed during regular business hours, out of respect for our staff’s schedules. We will continue to try and perform the work during low-impact times and provide BFS users with notice ahead of time. As a reminder, BearBUY has real-time integration into BFS and is not available during planned downtimes.

Please note that BFS will not be available on Friday, January 27, 2023, for approximately 11 hours due to regularly scheduled system maintenance, which keeps the system current. More precise times will be provided as we get closer to the event.

The scheduled maintenance for BFS in 2023 is below. We’ll post the schedule and any updates to our BFS Updates webpage. These dates are subject to change and we will update the list if necessary. 

CPU release

Friday, January 27, 2023 - approximately 11 hours (BearBUY and BFS)

BearBUY upgrade

Saturday, March 18 - Sunday, March 19, 2023

CPU and major release

Friday, April 28, 2023 (BearBUY and BFS)

BearBUY upgrade

Saturday, July 15 and Sunday, July 16, 2023

CPU release

Saturday, July 29, 2023

CPU release

Friday, October 27, 2023 (BearBUY and BFS)

BearBUY upgrade and major release

Saturday, November 4 - Sunday, November 5, 2023

If you have any questions, please contact the BFS Help Desk at bfs@berkeley.edu or call (510) 664-9000, then press Option 1 (for IT), then Option 2 (for Business Application Support, including BFS).

Join us on January 23 at 11 am for a training session covering the Supplier Onboarding process and campus payment methods

At this session, we will also demystify how to find the best method for purchasing the many different types of goods and services that campus uses.

The Accounts Payable team is hosting regularly scheduled training sessions to share information about the different services that the Accounts Payable department provides to campus to ensure better communication and transparency. The first session was in September covering the ConnexUC travel program, an overview of the reimbursement system, and the different credit cards offered. A second session will be held on Monday, January 23, 2023, at 11 am covering the Supplier Onboarding process, and a review of the Purchasing and Payment Matrix to try and demystify the best method for purchasing the many different types of goods and services that campus needs. There will also be a Q&A opportunity for any Accounts Payable-related processes. If you are interested in attending, contact travel@berkeley.edu to request the Zoom information. Please share this announcement with your team members who may be interested in these topics.