What is the lead time to purchase an item?
One element critical to the success of any program is allowing adequate lead time for the procurement process required to obtain any goods or services. If the expenditure is over $10,000 dollars a public bid is required and public bids can take eight to twelve weeks to issue, conduct, and be awarded by the School Board. After Board award, to further aid in success of any department’s needs adequate lead-time is critical as well when issuing the P.O. to the Board awarded vendor for the goods or services to be provided. It is recommended a committee be formed in advance each year to identify department needs, plan out a bid and procurement schedule with lead times in mind, to help ensure the best result possible, which is all goods and services received on time as needed by the department as planned and budgeted for. Typically an RFP will require 90 – 100 days to obtain board approval. If a bid is already in place, it generally takes 3 – 5 business days to process a purchase requisition.
