When accepting contracts, offers, or placing orders, please be mindful of the limits of your spending authority. Professors generally have a spending authority of 5,000 EUR (research assistants 2,500 EUR, teaching assistants 1,000 EUR, administrative assistants 500 EUR). For orders or contracts exceeding your spending authority, please contact the Departmental Administration in advance (beschaffung@bcp.fu-berlin.de).
Please note that orders for services exceeding 150 EUR must be placed in writing prior to any invoicing (§ 55 State Budget Regulations). As a rule, this order placement is the purchase order generated by UniKAT. If, in exceptional cases, no order has been created prior to receipt of the invoice, please provide separate proof of the order placement (e.g., via an email confirming the order, or a note of acceptance on a quotation).
For procurements exceeding 1,000 EUR, an award record must generally be prepared, and self-declarations must be obtained from the service provider/supplier. Further information and templates can be found in the Central Purchasing Wiki.
Purchases exceeding 10,000 EUR that are not listed in the catalog are generally subject to a competitive bidding process. Please contact your departmental administration in advance for consultation (beschaffung@bcp.fu-berlin.de). This also applies to the booking of hotels or event venues, e.g., for conferences or retreats.
Purchases exceeding 25,000 EUR are handled by the Central Purchasing unit of the Division of Finance. For more information, please refer to the Central Purchasing wiki. Your departmental administration will be happy to assist you in advance with preparing specifications and to provide advice (beschaffung@bcp.fu-berlin.de).
Please do not order from Amazon or other online platforms. Please primarily use the UniKAT catalog and the framework agreement partners listed therein or the available online shops linked via UniKAT (Unite, sonepar, Converge, MUP, Horn, Schlegel, Conrad)
Orders requiring advance payment are generally not possible. If necessary, please look for alternative suppliers or consult your departmental administration (beschaffung@bcp.fu-berlin.de)
Please order software only through the UniKAT catalog. If the software you need is not listed, please discuss your procurement request with software@fu-berlin.de. In some cases, a data protection approval or an IT procedure description may also be required.
When procuring computers not listed in UniKAT (special requirements), please be sure to follow the procedural guidelines of Central Purchasing.
Please observe the FU Berlin’s hospitality policy when hosting events. Please note in particular that hospitality expenses for purely internal events (without external guests) are generally not reimbursable, not even from donation funds.
Are you planning to hold a team event? Please note the guidelines from the Personnel Division’s Personnel Development unit, particularly the rule that for team-building events, a maximum of 25% of the total costs may be spent on miscellaneous items (e.g., food and beverages, etc.). This applies to all types of funding.
Payment orders should generally be avoided and are only permitted in individual cases up to a maximum of 150 EUR. If you have any questions, please contact your department’s administrative office (beschaffung@bcp.fu-berlin.de).