FAQs

As of June 1, 2021, only contract requests submitted to the following four Central Contracting Units will be processed through Conga Contracts: Contract Administration (Business Services), Office of the General Counsel, Purchasing (Academy), and UHealth Supply Chain Services.

Contracting processes for all other central contracting units at the University will continue outside of Conga Contracts. Examples of these include, but are not limited to, research collaboration agreements, material transfer agreements, inbound material transfer agreements and clinical trial agreements managed by the Office of Research Administration (ORA); gift agreements managed by Advancement; construction agreements managed by Facilities Operations & Planning; licensing agreements for licensing of UM-developed intellectual property and outbound material transfer agreements managed by the Office of Technology Transfer.

There are several aspects of the contract submission and review process that changed when Conga Contracts went live to the University on June 1, 2021. For a list of the changes, please refer to the Conga Contracts Informational Presentation.

Most contracts should be submitted either in Workday or Conga Contracts. It is recommended to review the Contract Routing Matrix in order to confirm you submit your request to the appropriate Central Contracting Unit.

If you are unsure of where your contract falls in the Contract Routing Matrix, you may reach out to one of the Central Contracting Units for futher support. 

Conga Contracts allows the University to track the progress of contracts, as well as renewal deadlines once a contract is fully executed. It also creates an archive of contracts that may be referenced later. The system helps us ensure that nothing gets lost along the way. For more information on the benefits of the system, please refer to the Conga Contracts Informational Presentation.

Please complete the Conga for Contract Requesters computer-based learning course (CBL) for a helpful guide on system roles. The main roles in Conga are:

• Requester – A Requester is any UM faculty or staff member who initiates a request for drafting or review of a contract.
• Contract Owner – A Contract Owner is a member of one of the Central Contracting Units tasked with drafting or reviewing and negotiating your contract.
• Approver/Reviewer – An Approver/Reviewer is a subject matter expert from one of the other central offices at the University who have been designated to review certain aspects of contracts when they arise; for example, compliance, human resources or IT.

It is each Central Contracting Unit's (CCU's) goal to process your contracts quickly and efficiently. However, it may take longer to draft or review more complex contracts or contracts with unusual components, and appropriate time must be allowed for negotiation of the terms if necessary. Timing also depends on each CCU's volume at the time and responsiveness of party we are contracting with. Please submit your contracts as early as possible to allow ample time for processing.

Please submit a ticket to the UMIT Service Desk via UService or via email to help@miami.edu.

Please complete the Conga for Contract Requesters computer-based learning (CBL) course for a helpful guide on how to initiate contract requests in the system.

Please complete the Conga for Contract Requesters computer-based learning course (CBL) for a helpful guide on the differences between the Request Forms. Additionally, please refer to the Request Form descriptions next to the Request Form names in Conga Contracts. These descriptions offer additional information about when to use each Request Form.

Reminder: If your contract request will require a Purchase Order because it involves the purchase of products or services, please initiate your request in Workday, not in Conga.

Many of the Request Form questions contain helpful Quick Tips that provide additional guidance about what information is being requested. Locate a Quick Tip by looking for the following symbol to the left of a question: [?]. Position your mouse tip over the symbol, and the Quick Tip information will display.

If you are still unsure how to answer a particular question, please reach out to the Central Contracting Unit to which you are submitting your contract request. Click here for a list of contacts.

The documents you should submit will depend on the contract type. The following are intended only as examples:

• If you are requesting a services agreement (either where UM is providing services to or purchasing services from another party), you will need to submit a detailed statement of work (Word document) that includes as many details as possible, including, but not limited to:
  1. An overview/background description
  2. A detailed list of all services to be provided
  3. A detailed list of deliverables, if any
  4. A timeline for provision of the services and deliverables
  5. A list of the responsible personnel for each party who will manage day-to-day communications related to the services
  6. The fees to be paid for the services/deliverables
  7. The payment schedule
  8. How payment will be made
     
     
• If you are purchasing equipment or products and you have been provided a quote from the seller, please attach the quote and any other documentation relevant to the purchase.
  
  
• If you are submitting a request to amend or extend the term of an existing contract, please submit a copy of the existing contract with your request, along with any prior amendments to the contract.

While you cannot edit your submission after it has been submitted, you may use the Messaging feature on the Contract Profile page for your contract and send a message to the Central Contracting Unit with the attachment. Using Messaging within Conga ensures your document becomes part of the record in the system.

• For contracts initiated in Workday (because they require a Purchase Order):
  • Prior to financial approval being completed in the Workday workflow: You may view the status of your request by accessing the Process History tab for your Purchase Requisition in Workday.
  • After your contract is in Conga Contracts and you have been prompted to and completed the Workday-Initiated Request Form: You may log into Conga Contracts at any time to track the status of your contract request.
    
    
• For contracts initiated directly in Conga Contracts (because no Purchase Order is required):
  • You may log into Conga Contracts at any time to track the status of your contract request.

You will be notified via a system-generated email when your contract is complete. You will be able to access the fully executed contract from the home page in Conga Contracts.

Yes, you will receive a notification from Conga Contracts that signature has been completed, and you may access the completed contract by logging into Conga Contracts. If a fully executed contract involves issuance of a PO, Purchasing will also attach the fully executed contract to the PO upon issuance.

Yes. One of the advantages of Conga Contracts is that it provides the Requester access to their previously submitted contracts. Note that only the Requester will be able to view the Requester’s previous contracts.

Yes, we can! In fact, it is preferred that we utilize the University’s contract template, as opposed to using the Counterparty’s agreement, whenever possible (with some limited exceptions). You can follow the same steps for requesting a contract as you otherwise would and the Contract Owner will generate the contract template once your request is assigned.

It is likely that the document is a contract. All contracts must be reviewed and signed by an authorized representative of the University, regardless of the length of the document. When in doubt, please reach out to the relevant Central Contracting Unit. Click here for a list of contacts.

Yes, the quote needs to be reviewed by the appropriate procurement team, which is determined by the Workday Company code associated with your purchase. For example, Company 200 purchases are handled by Purchasing (Academy/Research), and Company 300 purchases are handled by UHealth Supply Chain Services.

Please initiate your contract request in Workday as a Purchase Requisition, which will automatically route your purchase to the correct procurement team. Upon submitting your Purchase Requisition in Workday, a financial approval process commences in Workday. Once financial approval is in place, the contract review process commences in Conga Contracts if the Buyer determines that it is a contract that should be in Conga Contracts. You will receive an email inviting you to complete the Workday-Initiated Request Form in Conga Contracts, where you will be asked to provide more details from which the Central Contracting Unit can draft/review and negotiate the terms.

Generally speaking, if it will be paid via a Purchase Order, the University prefers to have its PO terms and conditions govern the purchase; this will be handled by the relevant Central Contracting Unit.

Not necessarily. If your existing Services Agreement has not expired, then it likely does not need to be redone at this time. However, there may be circumstances where the scope of work is being expanded, resulting in a different or new regulation applying to the new services. These or other circumstances may require an amendment to the Agreement to add additional required protections for the University.

If your existing Services Agreement is expiring and you wish to renew it, please submit your renewal as far as possible in advance of the expiration date. The Central Contracting Unit to which you submit your renewal request will assess whether any amendment is required to the terms and conditions of the Agreement beyond extending the term. If the Agreement terms and conditions are determined to be too outdated, the Central Contracting Unit may, in its discretion, require that a new Agreement be put in place.

It is generally preferred that we utilize the University’s contract template, as opposed to using the Counterparty’s agreement, whenever possible (with some limited exceptions). This is due to the fact that the University’s templates include all required protections, whereas Counterparty agreements are usually drafted in favor of the Counterparty.

Yes. Each department must read through the contract (and all related attachments and exhibits) before submission to ensure that the business and operational terms accurately reflect the proposed arrangement. The department remains responsible for operationalizing all business obligations imposed on the University in the contract and ensuring that the other party meets all required milestones and otherwise complies with the terms of the agreement. When submitting a contract for review, please note if changes to the business/operational terms in the draft are needed or confirm that it is acceptable before submission.

As a general rule, requests that must be initiated in Workday (because they require a PO) should not be submitted directly in Conga. However, please consult with the relevant procurement team (either Purchasing or UHealth Supply Chain Services) for guidance on how to proceed. Click here for a list of contacts.