Amazon Business Account

Missouri State University is participating in the US Communities Cooperative Contract R-TC-17006 with Amazon Business.

Financial Services has paid for the Amazon Business Prime membership so individual departments will not have to pay for individual Amazon Prime accounts.

The Amazon Business account is different from our Office Depot office supplies contract in that you are not always buying directly from Amazon and that most often you are buying from other sellers through Amazon. We do not have the same customer service and after sales assistance like we do with Office Depot. Departments must use their own judgment when buying from Amazon.com!

Features

Setting up a New Account

Account Usage

Shipping

Sales Tax Exemption

Restricted Categories

Blocked Categories

Features:

  • Free two-day, same-day delivery and one-day shipping on eligible orders.
  • Setup up as a sales tax-exempt account.
  • Business pricing and quantity discounts on select items.
  • Access to a specialized customer service team for business customers only.
  • Guided buying.
  • Spend visibility.

Setting up a New Account:

If you would like to be setup on Amazon Business account, the following information will need to be emailed to Isaac Balasundaram, Office of Procurement Services at IsaacBalasundaram@MissouriState.edu:

  • Name:
  • Department:
  • Email address:

When setting up your Amazon Business Account, kindly use the first name and last name as it is listed on your P-Card.

Account Usage:

The Amazon Business account is ONLY for university business!

Personal orders are not allowed on the Amazon business account. All orders placed through the Amazon Business account are setup for sales tax exemption which is not permitted on personal orders. If you would like to use your university email for personal purchases, your university email will need to be removed from the Amazon business account. The option would be to use a departmental email instead. You cannot select on a per order basis if the order is business/personal.

Personal purchases made using the Amazon Business account are a direct violation of the university's code of conduct.

Shipping:

All orders have to be shipped to a university address and cannot be shipped to a personal address!

Per the university policy, all purchases on the P-Card have to be delivered to a university address. My office will be doing a regular audit and will send out reminders as needed.

You will have to use 945 East Grand Street as the Ship To address for Amazon purchases being delivered to the Springfield campus. This applies only to Amazon and not to other vendors.

Sales Tax Exemption:

Amazon started charging sales tax for purchases in Missouri on February 1, 2017.

Missouri State University’s Amazon Business account is setup to for Sales Tax-Exemption. You will have to be on the Missouri State University Amazon Business account in order to get the sales tax-exemption.

We only get the sales tax exemption on ‘Amazon Fulfilled’ items. A good way to filter those items is by clicking on the ‘Amazon Prime’ filter option on the left of your search results. Some third-party vendors will charge us sales tax and we do not have a choice but to pay the tax listed. You can check to see if you can get the same items from other vendors that do not charge tax but that would be your only option.

If you are using the Amazon Business account and you are being charged tax you are allowed to pay it. We are getting as much of a sales tax exemption through the Amazon Business account.

Restricted Categories:

Certain categories of products are listed as ‘Restricted’ on the Amazon Business account. The categories included are based on the University’s fiscal and P-Card policies. As a caveat, the notification has been setup by category and Amazon is very broad on what products fall within those categories.

The restriction notification is only a reminder, it does not prevent you from actually buying the restricted item on Amazon. Once you confirm that the purchase is allowed, you can bypass the notification and continue with the purchase. It is the cardholder’s responsibility to make sure Amazon purchases are compliant with established policies.

Below is a list of Restricted Categories:

  • Alcoholic beverages
  • Desktops
  • Gift Cards
  • Laptops
  • Office Supply
    • Reminder to compare prices for office supplies & printer ink to the Office Depot contract. Also, to use Central Stores for paper supplies.
  • Stamps
  • Wireless Services

Blocked Categories:

Certain categories of products are ‘Blocked’ on the Amazon Business account. The categories included are based on the University’s fiscal and P-Card policies. The codes listed are based on the United Nations Standard Products and Services Codes (UNSPSC).

Below is a list of the Blocked UNSPSC codes:

  • 43211903-Touch screen monitors
  • 46171612-Video monitors
  • 43191501-Mobile phones
  • 43211500-Computers
  • 43211507-Desktop computers

For additional information on Amazon Business: Take a video tour of Amazon Business or check out the Amazon Business FAQ page.