Finance > Procurement Services > Glossary

Glossary

Below is a glossary of common procurement terms.

 

Please minimize your use of acronyms when communicating with UT, and third-parties, about procurement.  I’ve included the list below to help you understand common acronyms you might see.

 

  • ACH: Automated Clearing House
  • ADA: Americans with Disabilities Act
  • ADR: Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • Agreement vs. Contract: For the university’s purposes, there is no difference between an agreement and a contract.
  • Amendment: The word “amendment” is often misused. At the university, an “amendment” should only be processed if the original contract has already been signed.  Therefore, amendments should only be used to modify agreements that have already been fully executed.  With that said, please do not argue with a supplier over such minutia as “amendment” vs. “addendum.”  Some suppliers use “addendum” interchangeably with “amendment.”
  • APICS: American Production and Inventory Control Society.
  • ASTM: American Society of the International Association for Testing and Materials.
  • Attachments: There is no formal or universally accepted way to title an attachment to a contract. An attachment to a contract could be called any of the following: addendum; appendix; attachment; exhibit; schedule; rider.   However, a best practice is to use “Exhibit” when the attachment is a stand-alone document and “Schedule” when the attachment contains information that could be included in the body of the contract[i].
  • B&P: Bid and Proposal
  • BAFO: Best and Final Offer
  • Best Value Bid: A bid where the University considers technical and price. UT calls this type of bid an RFP.
  • Boilerplate: “Boilerplate”: Generally speaking, “boilerplate” refers to an assortment of “standard” terms and conditions that cover issues that arise in most contracts, such as governing law, dispute resolution, notice, etc. Colloquially, many people use the word “boilerplate” as a dismissive term, inferring that the “boilerplate” terms and conditions are not important and should not be reviewed.  You should never merely skim boilerplate.  Simply stated, the “boilerplate” language tends to contain the most problematic items to the university.  To quote Professor George W. Kuney, “Much mischief can be hidden [in boilerplate]…Transactional attorneys are cautioned against taking the other side’s boilerplate for granted.”
  • Cash: While most people think of cash as paper money and coin only, in accounting, “cash” actually means “cash and cash equivalents.” Generally, “cash equivalent” means any asset that can easily be converted into cash, or “highly liquid” assets.  Examples are savings accounts, bonds nearing their maturity (less than 3 months away), money market accounts, US Treasury Bills, and Certificates of Deposit.  Liquid securities typically are those that can be sold easily with little or no loss of value.  Money transferred via checks, ACH, or wire transfer is considered cash.
  • CDA: Confidentiality agreement
  • CFR: Code of Federal Regulations
  • COB: Close of Business
  • Consideration: Consideration must be of value (at least to the parties), and is exchanged for the performance or promise of performance by the other party (such performance itself is consideration). The word “consideration” does not mean money.  Consideration can be money, but it can also be other things.
  • Contract Administration: The process of actually administering the contracting.
  • Contract Management: The process that oversees how contracts are routed.
  • CONUS: Continental United States
  • Cooperative: Consistent with Tennessee law, our office uses the term “cooperative” to include: (1) Group Purchase Organizations; (2) bids by any government (state, federal, local); and (3) traditional cooperatives, such as U.S. Communities.
  • CPI: Consumer Price Index (note, there are several types of consumer price indices)
  • CRAF: Contract Review and Approval Form [Definition: the university’s official contract review form].
  • CRF: Contract Review Form (see CRAF)
  • CRM: Customer Relationship Management.
  • DFARS: Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement
  • ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning.
  • ETPA: East Tennessee Purchasing Association.
  • FAR: Federal Acquisition Regulation
  • FEIN: Federal Employer Identification Number, also known as Employer Identification Number or EIN, also known as Tax Identification Number (TIN) or “Tax I.D.”
  • FERPA: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
  • FOB: Free on Board (almost always used incorrectly in the U.S.!)
  • FOIA: Freedom of Information Act, a U.S. federal law applying to U.S. federal agencies
  • FTE: Full-Time Employee (most commonly used internally at the university); or Full-Time Equivalent (most commonly used in the context of subscription agreements.
    • Full-Time Employee (most commonly used internally at the university)
    • Full-Time Equivalent (most commonly used in the context of subscription agreements)
  • GPO: Group Purchasing Organization.
  • HIPAA: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
  • INCOTERMS: International Commercial Terms.
  • IRS: Internal Revenue Service
  • ISM: Institute for Supply Management.
  • ISO: International Standards Organization
  • ITAR: International Traffic in Arms Regulations
  • ITB: Invitation to Bid (the term that most state central procurement offices use to describe a request for quotations).
  • KPIs: Key Performance Indicators.
  • Lean: Word used to describe the operations management/process improvement philosophy of the Toyota Production System.
  • LGI: Locally Governed Institution (schools that were originally part of the Tennessee Board of Regents: East Tennessee State University, Middle Tennessee State University, the University of Memphis, Tennessee Technological University, Austin Peay State University, and Tennessee State University.)
  • LOA: Letter of agreement
  • LOU: Letter of Understanding
  • MOA: Memorandum of agreement
  • MOU: Memorandum of Understanding
  • MSA: Master services agreement
  • MTA: Material Transfer agreement
  • NAEP: National Association of Education Procurement.
  • NAICS: The North American Industry Classification System.
  • NCE: No-Cost (Time) Extension
  • NCTE: No-Cost Time Extension
  • NDA: Non-Disclosure agreement
  • Net: In payment terminology, the word “Net” refers to forms of trade credit which specify that the net amount (the total outstanding on the invoice) is expected to be paid in full and received by the seller within 10, 15, 30 or 60 days after the goods are dispatched or service is completed.
  • NIGP: National Institute for Governmental Procurement.
  • NJPA: National Joint Powers Alliance.
  • No-Cost Time Extension: An extension of the period of performance beyond the expiration date to allow the Principal Investigator to finalize a project. No additional funds are provided.
  • NTE: Not to Exceed
  • OCONUS: Outside the Continental United States
  • OMB: Office of Management and Budget
  • P-Card: Procurement Card
  • PCI: Payment Card Industry
  • PDF: Portable Document Format (a cross-platform document type developed by Adobe).
  • PI: Principal Investigator [Definition: an individual who has primary responsibility for the design, execution, and management of a research project and who will be involved in the project in a significant manner].
  • PO: Purchase Order
  • Policy: Official University policies. If you want to refer to behavior not governed by policy, use the word “practice” or “procedure.”
  • POS: Point-of-Sale.
  • Principal Investigator: An individual who has primary responsibility for the design, execution, and management of a research project and who will be involved in the project in a significant manner
  • Red lines: “Red lines” or “Red-lined” is a phrase that certain people use for the “tracked changes” feature in Word.
  • Req.: Requisition
  • Respondent: A company or person who responds to a bid solicitation.
  • Proc.: Revenue Procedure [definition: A revenue procedure is an official statement of a procedure that affects the rights or duties of taxpayers or other members of the public under the Internal Revenue Code, related statutes, tax treaties and regulations and that should be a matter of public knowledge. It is also published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin. While a revenue ruling generally states an IRS position, a revenue procedure provides return filing or other instructions concerning an IRS position].
  • RFI: Request for Information [definition: An RFI is generally used when the solution to a business problem is not immediately evident or clearly defined. The RFI is used to gather information].
  • RFP: Request for Proposals [definition: An RFP is used when the Customer understands the business problem and what’s needed to solve it, including specifications and procedures. Price is usually not the determining factor in the evaluation of an RFP. Factors such as quality, service, and reputation are also taken into consideration].
  • RFQ: Request for Quotations [definition: an RFQ is generally used to obtain pricing, delivery information, terms and conditions from suppliers].
  • RFQ-S: Request for Qualified Suppliers.
  • RFx: “RFx” is a term used to refer to a family of ‘Request For…’
  • SaaS: Software as a service [Definition: a software delivery model in which software and associated data are centrally hosted on the cloud].
  • SEC:
    • Securities and Exchange Commission
    • Southeastern Conference
  • SKU: Stock Keeping Unit, is a number assigned to a product by a retail store to identify the price, product options and manufacturer of the merchandise. A SKU is used to track inventory in your retail store.
  • Sole Source (or Sole-Source): Acquiring a good or service from a supplier without bidding.
  • Solicitation Coordinator: The staff member responsible for the bid.
  • Solicitation: The University’s formal invitation seeking responses to a bid.
    • Southeastern Conference
  • SOW: Statement of Work
  • Sponsor: An entity that provides funding for a project conducted by the university. May be a government sponsor or a private organization. Also referred to as “Agency.”
  • SRM: Supplier Relationship Management.
  • SSRM: Strategic Supplier Relationship Management.
  • SSN: Social Security Number (Note: Social Security Numbers should never be listed in a contract)
  • Supplier: A company or person who provides services to the University.
  • T’s and C’s (also, T & C’s; T’s & C’s; Ts&Cs; Tee’s and Cee’s): Terms and Conditions
  • TBR: Tennessee Board of Regents
  • TCA: Tennessee Code Annotated
  • TCO: Total Cost of Ownership.
  • Terms and Conditions: The phrase “terms and conditions” is redundant. A “condition” is a type of term, so it’s fine to simply refer to a document’s “terms.”
  • TIN: Taxpayer Identification Number
  • Tracked changes: The “tracked changes” feature in Word which allows a user to see and accept changes made to that document by another user.
  • TSCA: Texas Supply Chain Alliance.
  • UBIT: Unrelated Business Income Tax
  • UNSPSC: The United Nations Standard Products and Services Code.
  • Universal PO: A University-issued purchase order that is open to all UT departments.
  • VAT: Value-added Tax
  • VAT: Value-added Tax
  • Wire Transfer: is a method of electronic funds transfer from one person or institution (entity) to another. Wire transfers cost the university extra money per wire, and are generally disfavored (but not prohibited).
  • ZIP Codes: ZIP stands for “Zone Improvement Plan.” The first digit represents a region of the country. The next two digits stand for a central post office facility in the region. The last two digits represent a post office or a postal zone.