How to do business with NTU

Typically for contracts under £50,000 we will invite suppliers to provide quotations for the goods and/or a proposal for delivering the services.  These will usually be requested in writing via email.

For any contracts valued at £50,000 or more, we will invite suppliers to tender. All bids submitted will be evaluated in accordance with the criteria and any weightings described in the invitation to tender documents. We also use third-party frameworks to appoint suitable suppliers (more information is given in Using Collaborative Frameworks below).

The University, as a public body, is also bound by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.  Any contracts over the threshold defined by UK Government must comply with the requirements of the Regulations.

Current thresholds (from 1 January 2024) are as follows:

• Supplies and Services £214,904 (including VAT)
• Works (including subsidised works contracts £5,372,609 (including VAT)

The contract thresholds are updated every two years and will next change on 1 January 2026.

The Regulations in the UK are scheduled to change during 2025, with the new Procurement Act 2023 coming into force on 24 February 2025.

The Cabinet Office have produced a dedicated web page for suppliers which provides information and guidance on the new Act, the changes that are coming and details how suppliers can register for the new Central Digital Platform being introduced from 24 February 2025. It will act as a single place for suppliers to register, and store core information which can be used for multiple bids, for any public sector customers. More information is available on the gov.uk website.

The University has standard terms and conditions it enters into with suppliers, which are below:

• Purchase Order terms and conditions — standard terms and conditions applicable to any Purchase Order.
• Goods & Services terms and conditions — standard terms and conditions issued with any invitation to tender for goods and/or services.
• Framework terms and conditions — standard terms and conditions that are used where the University enters into a contract with more than one supplier which will be issued as part of the procurement process.

Whilst the University uses standard terms these will be adapted as required to suit the purchase or procurement, and specialist terms may be used where more appropriate, e.g. JCT or NEC for construction or refurbishment projects, so the above are shared for guidance only.

The following policies and procedures are key for our suppliers:

• Supplier Code of Conduct
• Sustainable Procurement Policy
• Slavery and Trafficking Statement
• Plastic Pledge
• Net Zero Carbon Roadmap

Information about our strategic commitments can be found here:

• Sustainability
• Equality, diversity and inclusion
• Graduate outcomes and employability

To be able to send you a Purchase Order we must first be able to set you up on our finance system.  We need some key contact information for this, including your bank details.  In order to ensure we have accurate and correct bank details we must verify the bank details you provide to us.

We have an independent team who conduct this on behalf of the Procurement team, who use various means to verify bank details. This may include identifying a general contact number or email address from your website, which we will use to contact you to verify the details.  If you have an online contact form, we may use this too.  Please ensure you respond to this request as soon as possible.

At NTU, colleagues must spend university money wisely. There is a procurement policy in place that dictates how purchases should be made, depending on the value.

We also have a Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) process that starts when a colleague at NTU wants to make a purchase and ends with payment of the supplier’s invoice.

It is important suppliers understand the key steps within the P2P process, which are as follows:

Requesting goods or services

• When requesting goods/services from you, NTU will send to you a formal Purchase Order which will confirm what we need you to supply, to where, by when, and will confirm the agreed price and terms.
• The University’s finance system will generate the Purchase Order which will be sent to you electronically, and you will need to quote the Purchase Order reference on any invoice you submit for payment.

Delivering goods or services

• Where possible, any delivery note or goods note which accompanies goods delivered to any NTU premises should include the Purchase Order reference number, plus the name of the person or department named on the Purchase Order.

Submitting an invoice for payment

• As part of our commitment to sustainability, we require suppliers to send us invoices in an electronic (PDF) format via email to the NTU Payments team at purchase.ledger@ntu.ac.uk
• When you are ready to submit an invoice you must send this direct to the NTU Payments team as above and it must include other specific information, alongside the Purchase Order Reference Number.  This is explained in detail below, please read carefully and make sure you understand the process.
• We use software to read the invoice and enter the invoice details into our finance system, so if the invoice is incorrect or incomplete, it will not pass for payment and may be returned to you.
• The University will not pay invoices without a Purchase Order Number so you must make sure this is visible and correct on your invoice.

Invoices must contain all of the standard information as per the gov.uk website, plus:

• A valid NTU Purchase Order (PO) reference number
• Our correct legal entity name as per the ‘Please address and submit invoices to:’ section of the purchase order document   (for example, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham Consultants Limited, MTIF (BEZ) Limited etc).
• Name of person requesting goods or services

We use software to read the invoice and enter the invoice details into our finance system, so if the invoice is incorrect or incomplete, it will not pass for payment and may be returned to you.

Suppliers should not provide goods and services to the University until they have received a valid Purchase Order.

Invoice queries should be sent to the NTU Payments Team by email to purchase.ledger@ntu.ac.uk, or by phone on 0115 848 6660.

Please quote your Invoice reference and our Purchase Order reference.