1. AWC PURCHASING CARD PROGRAM
The do’s and do-not’s of our program
Presented by Peggy Hayes –

2. The Purchasing Card is offered as a privilege and not a right of your position.
There is a great deal of responsibility associated with both the use and the administration of a P-Card Program, and it must be taken seriously and used with care, or the privilege will be revoked.
Deliberate misuse of a Purchasing Card has consequences ranging in severity, including, but not limited to cancelation of the card, dismissal from employment, and even possible criminal charges being brought against the cardholder depending on the severity of the infraction.

3. WHEN AND WHERE TO USE YOUR CARD
P-Cards can be used at a variety of retailers in person, on the phone and on the internet.
Cards can be used to pay most bills within the limits of the card. They cannot be used for food unless associated with travel, through the Travel Office, or through AWC Conference and Events for an AWC sanctioned event. Some preapproved exclusions have been made to this rule.
They can be used to pay for some services, but remember, if a Vendor is coming onto AWC property, Certificates of Insurance must be obtained from the vendor, prior to them doing the work.
Most cards currently have a $500 limit for a single purchase. This is a result of too many people not properly tracking their budgets. Funds used on a P- Card are not pre-encumbered the way they are on a PO.

4. DO NOT’S TO REMEMBER
Do not use the card to purchase food, liquor, cigarettes or any of the other items on the list in the P-Card Manual.
Do not attempt to make purchases in excess of the single purchase limit on your card.
Do not split orders to a vendor in order to avoid the single purchase limit.
Do not allow a vendor to split an order in order to force it through and avoid the single purchase limit.
Do not exceed $5k in purchases with the same vendor in any 3-month time period, unless operating under an approved contract.
Do not use a PO to pay for charges under $500 if the vendor will take a P-Card payment. It cuts down on the amount of processing time and earns the college a rebate with Chase when we use the cards.
Even though SmartData allows a Cash Line to be entered on a statement (similar to an OOP) AWC does not want this option utilized. Cash returns need to be processed via a requisition.

5. CYCLES
Generally, the billing cycle ends on the 10th of each month, but this can vary slightly if the 10th falls on a weekend or holiday. This will cause it to close on the next business day. So if the 10th falls on a Saturday, the cycle will close the following Monday, the 12th.
You can view the cycles in the drop down selections when running reports or viewing card activity.
Regardless of when the cycle ends, the cardholder has from the 10th to the 17th to process their review. The approver has from the 18th to the 25th to process their approval. The rest of the time is used by P-Card admins and Accounts Payable to receive Expense Reports and receipts, process corrections and do the GL download.
If you have a correction to make and the line has already been marked as reviewed and approved and locked, please contact an administrator to unlock it for you.

6. REVIEWING AND RECONCILING CHARGES
Cardholders can go into SmartData at any time to view what charges have been posted to the card. Once a charge has posted, it can be populated with the account #’s and description. Receipts can also be uploaded at this time. There is no reason to wait until the end of the cycle to do these processes.
After all information has been entered, the “Reviewed” boxes on each line need to be checked, and saved.
After the cycle ends and all info has been entered, an Expense Report must be run and signed. Original, itemized receipts are attached to this and forwarded to the approver. This must be done before the approver’s cycle starts.

7. APPROVING IN CHASE
After the cardholder has entered appropriate account numbers and uploaded receipts, they will print an expense report. The approver needs to receive a signed report along with an itemized receipt for each line of the report.
Be sure to look at the dates at the top of the report to verify it was run within the correct cycle.
Verify that each charge has the appropriate codes, i.e. location, fund, cost center and object code.
Verify that the receipt attached to that line is the correct one.
Verify that the description is accurate to the charge.
Checkmark the approved box and click on Save.

8. SMARTDATA
SmartData log in is located at
Documents and tutorials for P-Cards are located on the P-Card tab on the Purchasing Page at services/purchasing

9. QUESTIONS??