Sent August 28, 2026

Dear Faculty and Staff Colleagues,

I am writing to follow up on Jason Parkhill’s email from Friday, Aug. 14, in which he shared that the College will begin decommissioning several of the systems and processes currently used for purchasing, invoice submission, PCard reconciliation, and expense reimbursement as we prepare to transition to Workday on October 1. The following information is pertinent to faculty and staff members that serve as budget managers, have purchasing authorization, have a College PCard or remit for expense reimbursement at the College.

During September, the PCard will serve as the College’s primary means of purchasing, and there will be several important deadlines and hold periods in place for common purchasing processes. Please review this message carefully for detailed information on the following, so that you can plan September purchasing and expense activity accordingly: 

• Purchase requests

• PCard charging

• ESM purchases

• New vendor submission deadline

• Processing deadline

• Workday Procure to Pay and Expense Training signup

• Workday Requisition requirements and Direct-Pay Approved Purchases

We recognize that this transition will require some adjustment to normal purchasing and payment practices, and we will continue to provide guidance as we approach October 1, including information regarding purchasing situations that cannot be handled through the PCard during September. If you have any questions, please reach out to Chris Kane at ckane1@swarthmore.edu. Thank you for your cooperation and for helping us ensure a smooth transition to Workday.

Sincerely,

Rob Goldberg
Vice President, Finance & Administration

Alice Turbiville
Associate Vice President, Finance & Assistant Treasurer

Chris Kane
Director, Procurement

Purchase Requests and PCard Use

Monday, Aug. 31, will be the final day to use ESM Purchase, our current eProcurement system. Beginning Tuesday, Sept. 1, departments will no longer have access to submit purchase requests through ESM. 

The PCard will serve as the College’s primary means of purchasing during the month of September, as Workday purchasing will not become available until October 1. If your department does not have a PCard, the Procurement Office can assist with critical purchases that cannot wait until October 1.

Departments should plan ahead for September purchases and use the PCard whenever the purchase is allowable under the College’s purchasing and PCard policies and procedures. It is reasonable to expect significant purchasing in September with the semester starting up, so please review your department’s needs and consider requesting a PCard Limit Change Request, which can be used to change the standard per transaction limit of $2,500 and/or your PCard’s monthly limit to accommodate your needs for September. PCard Limit Change Requests are temporary and require the approval of your area’s President’s Staff member. 

The procurement team is available to assist with any purchases that cannot appropriately be made by PCard. All PCard transactions that post to the bank from Sept. 1–30 will be fed into Workday on October 1.

Guidance on ESM Purchase Punchout Catalogs

With the closing of ESM Purchase, you must use your PCard to make purchases when ordering from Amazon, Office Basics, and W.B. Mason in September. The punchout catalogs for all three vendors will all be available again in Workday starting Oct. 1:

• Amazon

PCard holders who currently have an account on the College’s Amazon Business account will be able to access Amazon using SSO.

• Office Basics

If you have purchased supplies from Office Basics via ESM Purchase, you can log into their website to make purchases from Sept.7–25. There will be a brief blackout period from Sept 26-30 as suppliers transition from accepting our PCards to Workday. 

• W.B. Mason 

If you have purchased supplies from W.B. Mason via ESM Purchase, you can log into their website to make purchases from Sept. 7–25. There will be a brief blackout period from Sept 26-30 as suppliers transition from accepting our PCards to Workday.   

At launch, Workday will include four of our current punchout catalogs: Amazon, Grainger, Office Basics, and W.B. Mason. We’re working on adding four more as soon after launch as possible (B&H Photo, VWR International, Fisher Scientific, and McMaster-Carr). Additional punchouts from our current roster will follow in time.

New Vendor Submission Deadline

The final day for our Workday project team to pull the vendor list from Banner into Workday is Monday, Sept. 7. Any vendors added to Banner after that date will need to be manually entered into Workday. For this reason, we can only accept new vendors who must be paid before the transition to Workday (i.e., invoices will be submitted for them by the Friday, Sept. 18 deadline). All other vendors will need to self-register in Workday beginning October 1. We will cut off use of the DocuSign W-9 submission forms at the close of business on Wednesday, Sept. 2.

Final Processing Deadline

Friday, Sept. 18, is the final deadline for completing the following activities in our current systems, including all required departmental approvals:

• PCard reconciliations

• Employee expense reports

• Invoice submissions

Importantly, Friday, Sept. 18, is not simply the deadline to submit these items into the workflow. All required departmental approvals must also be completed by Friday, Sept. 18. For example, an expense report or invoice entered on Sept. 18 but still awaiting approval from a supervisor, budget manager, or other required departmental approver will not have met the deadline.

Departments should therefore establish their own internal submission deadlines well in advance of Friday, Sept. 18, to allow sufficient time for all required approvals to be completed. We suggest that departments set a deadline of Sept. 14-15 for submitting expenses and any invoices requiring department approval.

Workday Procure to Pay & Expense Training

As Jason Parkhill shared in his Aug. 25 email, Workday training sessions are planned for September and October to ensure our community members are well prepared to work in Workday. The following trainings will cover procure-to-pay and expense procedures on the platform. We will also host virtual “drop-in” sessions to assist you with both of these functions beginning the week of October 12. Register for training sessions using this form. 

• Procure to Pay Training 

This training will cover the College’s new procure-to-pay process enabled by the move to Workday as well as how to use Workday to complete the processes included in the procure-to-pay cycle. In-person and Zoom sessions will take place during the weeks of September 28 and October 5. 

• Expenses Training

A video training for the use of Workday’s expenses hub will be available beginning Monday, Sept. 28. You can also find training materials on the Workday website.

Workday Requisition Requirements and Direct-Pay Approved Purchases

Beginning October 1, purchasing, expense reporting, PCard reconciliation, and invoice processing will transition to Workday. With the move to Workday, requisitions will be required for all purchases above $10,000 (per the existing Purchasing Policy) and best practice is to issue a requisition regardless of the amount. The exceptions to this policy — items that do not require a requisition — will be presented as Direct-Pay Approved Purchases (DPAP). This DPAP list will be published on the Purchasing Office website by Tuesday, Sept. 15.