Purchasing Card Required Practices

Effective Date: 
January 17, 2024
Last Revised Date: 
July 12, 2024

Purpose & Summary

To outline the ALVSCE division-level required practices regarding Purchasing cards.

Purchasing cards (PCards) are convenient and safe ways for designated staff and faculty to make business- related purchases of less than $10,000 including tax and freight. The PCard is to be used for University of Arizona business only, and may not be used for personal use. All transactions made using the PCard must benefit and support the University's mission of education, research and public service.

The ALVSCE PCard Required Practices were developed with the goals of reducing administrative overhead, enhancing oversight, providing equity among all cardholders and creating efficient and consistent operations for the Division.

Scope

This required practice is applied to all ALVSCE units, including Cooperative Extension offices and Arizona Experiment Stations.

Policy

All ALVSCE units and card holders must be familiar and comply with all requirements outlined in the University of Arizona FSO PCard Manual.

In addition to the policies and processes required by the University, ALVSCE units with active PCards must also adhere to the following:

  1. All transactions must be viewable as standalone transactions. eDoc initiators must cross reference any transaction that impacts another transaction to create an audit trail. For example, a DI/GEC to correct an accounting line must be noted on all related documents.
  1. Business Officers must have a process to maintain appropriate limits on all active PCards by reviewing spending limits at least once a year. 

Note: Business Officer should use the PCard Limit Analysis Dashboard to check PCard spending limits in their unit.

  1. Transactions cannot be reconciled and approved by the same individual.  The Business Officer must identify primary and secondary individuals for clear separation of duties to reduce the risk of PCard fraud.

Note: If the unit does not have the capacity to ensure separation of duties for PCard transactions, they can submit a DBS Support Request Form to request temporary assistance from the DBS Team. 

  1. In the event of an auto approved transaction, the reconciler and approver must fully document the transaction with the following steps:
  • The reconciler must add a note indicating that the purchase was reviewed and attach all received paperwork, even after the fact.
  • The approver must acknowledge that the purchase was reviewed and that they approve the transaction.
  1. The unit must have written PCard policy that clearly states the unit’s policy detailing the process for submitting paperwork and actions to be taken for any PCard violations, including unauthorized or prohibited purchases, missing receipts, auto approved transactions, and cardholders who exhibit repeated delays in submitting all required paperwork.  The unit’s policy is to be upheld by the Business Office and disseminated annually to all cardholders within the unit.
  1. To prevent unauthorized purchases and fraudulent charges, PCard information may not be stored with vendor accounts.  In the rare circumstances in which this must be done to complete official university business, the following must be adhered to:
    • The cardholder must request approval from their Unit Head/Director stating why the card must be stored with the vendor and what business is conducted with that vendor. They must receive explicit, written approval from the Unit Head/Director for the specific vendor.  This approval notice must be sent to the Business Officer to be saved in their records.  Blanket approvals will not be given.
    • The card must be an individual PCard. Departmental cards are not allowed to be stored with any vendor account.
    • Cardholder and Business Officer must monitor the transactions closely to ensure that only authorized, business related purchases are processed on the card.

 

PCard Holder Responsibility

  1. Cardholders are responsible for submitting required documentation within 3 days of the transaction and provide a complete and comprehensive business purpose for every purchase made. The business purpose must explain the appropriateness of the expense and justify how it supports or advances the goals and objectives of the university. 

            Note: For detailed examples of business purposes and required associated documentation, please visit the FSO Business Purpose Guide.

  1. Cardholders must be aware of and follow their unit’s processes for submitting required PCard documentation.