Once you have determined that a Purchasing Card is right for your unit, you need to consider the following questions.  A short discussion is linked to each question.   These will help guide you in determining your departmental policies for Purchasing Cards:

1. Who will be the cardholder(s) in my department, unit, or program?
2. Will student employees in your area have cards?
3. To which chart strings and accounts will cards be assigned?
4. Will cards be held centrally or distributed?
5. Who will be responsible for producing the PurCard Journal Report?
6. Who will reconcile the monthly statements?
7. Who will perform expense reallocations?
8. Notification of new transactions can be emailed on a daily basis. Who will receive these notifications?
9. Who will provide support for card-related activities when the primary person is away or on vacation?
10. What about training?
    

When you have answered the applicable questions, a written policy should be developed and communicated to the members of your unit.

1. Who will be the cardholder(s) in my department, unit, or program?
   
   Purchasing cards can be issued to any regular employee of the University who will be doing small dollar purchasing.  While telephone and internet ordering can be done by anyone, most local merchants require that the cardholder be the person presenting the card for payment.  Once you have determined which faculty, staff and/or graduate students will be cardholders, you must submit a completed Application Form for each card to be issued.
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2. Can any students have purchasing cards issued to them?
   
   Units may issue cards to graduate students who are employees of the University.  All cardholders must complete a card application and mandatory, on-line training.  Undergraduate students will not be issued a purchasing card.  ^

   

3. Which chart strings/accounts will cards be assigned to?
   
   Each card is assigned to a default chart string and account determined by the department or person applying for the card.  All purchases will be charged against this default budget unless reallocated. Multiple cards can charge to the same budget.  One cardholder can obtain cards for different budgets, or obtain a single card and reallocate expenses to other chart strings or accounts.  The default account is 64099 PurCard Purchases.

   Purchasing cards can default to a grant or contract.  
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4. Will cards be held centrally or distributed?
   
   Supervisors have the option of allowing cardholders to retain possession of their cards or holding them centrally and issuing them as needed.
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5. Who will be responsible for producing the PurCard Journal Report?
   
   In some cases, the cardholders will be responsible for tracking, logging, and reconciling all purchases.  In other units, a designated person may be responsible for these activities, but it remains the cardholder's responsibility to provide all receipts and documentation to the person who will manage and produce the PurCard Journal Reports.
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6. Who will reconcile the monthly statements?
   
   The person who performs the reconciliation of the monthly statement from Mellon Bank may be the cardholder or another designated employee.  Reconciliation is the process of comparing the transactions in PeopleSoft to those on the Mellon statement, and producing a Cycle Report.
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7. Who will perform expense reallocations?
   
   The person responsible for reconciling monthly activity may be the one who performs reallocations, although the purchaser can also undertake this responsibility provided the Cycle Report reflects the reallocations.
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8. Notification of new transactions can be emailed on a daily basis. Who will receive these notifications?
   
   Again, either the cardholder or the person responsible for managing the transactions in PeopleSoft can receive these notifications.  There is the ability to send notifications to more than one e-mail address.
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9. Who will provide support for card-related activities when the primary person is away or on vacation?
   
   Cross-training on card management and reallocation is encouraged.
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10. What about training?
    
    Training is mandatory prior to using your PurCard. You will learn how the program works, how to work with your card, where you can use it, and what your responsibilities are under the program.   Visit the Training page on this website.  Web based training is available.  New cardholders are registered when applications are received in Procurement Services, and instructions are sent via email.

       
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