Purchasing Card Best Practices
Shana Hart May 4, 2017
Which Card? Pcard
• Low dollar purchases otherwise not available through Penn Marketplace or PO Suppliers • Miscellaneous supplies not available through contract suppliers • Conference fees • Professional membership fees • Subscriptions • Mobile phone charges • Incidental purchases with non-contract suppliers
Meeting Card • Business expenses directly associated with off-campus meetings, conferences and events within University and School policy
Travel Card • Reimbursable expenses incurred while traveling or conducting approved University business
entertainment • Lodging • Ground transportation • Reimbursable meals • Airfare as alternative to the central business travel account (BTA), a.k.a. airline billing account • Conference fees and other departmentally approved individual expenses when a Purchasing Card or PO
payment is not available
http://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/purchasing/making-purchases/purchasing-basics/card-programs.html
PCARD Defined
The Purchasing Card is the authorized buying method for low dollar one time purchases from external suppliers. All authorized Cardholders must utilize their purchasing card in accordance with Financial Policy #2303 - Use of a Purchasing Card and the Ben Financials Commodity Matrix. At no time is an authorized Cardholder to use their Purchasing Card for a personal purchase. Site resource: Usage Guidelines
Review Commodity Matrix and Restrictions if item is allowable.
Cardholder Role Responsibilities
Review purchasing transactions and document the business purpose of
the purchase in PaymentNet. Put Notes into each transaction. • View detailed instructions on “How to Review a Transaction”
Monthly: Print the monthly Statement of Account
• View detailed instructions on “How to Run Reports” • Month is from the 28th to the 27th of the next month
Attach original receipts and/or supporting documentation of each
transaction to the monthly Statement of Account for approval and retention
Provide to Business Administrator or F&A (if cardholder is BA)
Review a Transaction Make Notes on what was purchased, why, and account
number to be charged. • Friday to Thursday after the transaction to write notes (unposted in Ben
until the next Friday)
Transaction Approver/Reallocator should be someone else within Ben other than yourself
Note: The default Chart of Account can NOT be changed in
PaymentNet Split Transaction-Red flag will denote when a transaction is made
on the same day to the same vendor.
May receive email from Card Administration to verify there were multiple invoices and not a split transaction.
Transaction Approver
Role & Reports
PaymentNet role allows access to view all cardholders All Business Administrators should have this role for their orgs Resource for weekly reallocation via supporting notes
Reports for Monitoring Activities Transaction Detail- transactions with cardholder account codes, notes and
custom fields. Schedule to run automatically on a weekly basis
Statement of Account - transaction detail for all cardholders within your scope or responsibility. Schedule to run automatically on Billing Cycle
Declines (MS EXCEL)- list of declined charges for all cardholders within your
scope or responsibility. Schedule to run automatically on Monthly Billing Cycle
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PO Supplier & Limit Increases
Check first for PO supplier before requesting an increase
Single Limit request form
When a transaction is above the single card limit Limit is good for a week for processing
Monthly Limit request form
When monthly transactions exceeded monthly limit before the end of the month Used for a month time or for a permanent change to limit * Require evidence of invoice and business purpose & Senior BA approval on all increase requests
PayPal and eBay
Only sign in as guest Don’t keep your Pcard number on file with vendor
No University protection when purchasing ebay products
Purchases are made at own risk
Tax Refund Request Form
To request a refund for taxes: http://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/purchasing/policies-a-forms/forms/tax-exemption-certificate.html
Tax exempt number is on the back of the card
Tax exemption for Amazon
• When submitting the tax exempt form for Amazon include the 17 digit shipping confirmation number and email that was used when creating the order
Keeping your card safe & Fraud
For more information: Best Practices to Keep Your Card Safe Fraud: If your card is lost/stolen or to report suspicious transactions call
JPMorgan Chase immediately 800-316-6056For more information: Best Practices for Fraud
BEN Financials Commodity Matrix • http://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/purchasing/making-
purchases/purchasing-basics/commodity-matrix.html
PaymentNet Quick Reference Guide • http://cms.business-
services.upenn.edu/purchasing/images/stories/pdfs/pcard_quick_reference_guide.pdf
Purchasing Card Application & Delete Forms
• http://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/purchasing/policies-a-forms/forms/card-program-forms.html
Purchasing Card Best Practice Guidelines
• http://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/purchasing/images/stories/pdfs/bestpracticestokeepyourcardsafe.pdf
Purchasing Card/PaymentNet FAQ’s
http://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/purchasing/making-purchases/purchasing-basics/card-programs/purchasing-card/purchasing-card-faqs.html
Resources