IU Financial Training & Communications held a series of Purchasing in 2025 webinars in the fall to explain the new purchasing rules coming Feb. 10. These changes empower departments to exercise their best judgment in low-risk purchasing situations and provide the tools needed to identify and handle high-risk situations.

The automatic purchase order threshold is now $50,000. This means that orders under this amount without contracts or restrictions only require approval from your organization; these orders will no longer route to IU Purchasing.

Purchasing is also eliminating the discretionary bid category for orders between $10,000 and $49,999. The competitive bid threshold is now $50,000, making it easier for departments to plan for this process. Both changes aim to give departments more flexibility and allow for faster decision-making.

A new contract procedure makes it easier for departments to handle situations where a supplier cannot accept a purchase order but requires a contract. The procedure is not meant to circumvent using BUY.IU, but it accounts for situations when it isn’t possible because the supplier only accepts payment via credit card.

When using the honoraria/guest speaker check request form, new compliance rules are in place to ensure payments aren’t made until after services have been provided. These new rules help ensure IU stays in compliance with IRS payment rules.

Financial Training & Communications has created an online training course and many new materials to explain the details of these new processes and how to follow them.

• Purchasing Changes: This online training course covers all the topics listed above and more, and it directs you to helpful training and procedure documentation. Enroll in the course here.
• Office Hours: Join the Financial Training & Communications team for special Zoom sessions to get your questions answered. Register for one or more on the Financial Training & Communications Events page.

For more help, contact the Financial Training & Communications team at estc@iu.edu.