Purchasing Card Best Practice Guidelines

Responsibilities	Best Practice Procedures
Cardholder	The Cardholder initiates Purchasing Card purchase transactions in accordance with Program Training materials, University Policy & Cardholder Agreement, BEN Financials Commodity Matrix, and School or Center specific internal requirements. The Cardholder maintains supporting documentation for all transactions. To ensure that transactions are charged to the appropriate accounts, the Cardholder provides the person performing the reallocation from the default account with the appropriate account information (including fund and object code) on a weekly basis. If the Cardholder does not retrieve their monthly Purchasing Card Statement via e-mail, they should do one of the following: If a transaction did not occur that month, they notify the Reviewer that no transactions occurred. If a transaction did occur that month, they contact Danielle Howard, Purchasing Card Administrator, to receive a copy of the monthly statement. The Cardholder prints out the monthly statement. The Cardholder reviews the statement to ensure that all transactions are correct. The Cardholder attaches documentation to support each transaction on the statement. The Cardholder signs the statement, signifying their review. The Cardholder forwards the statement with the supporting documentation to the Reviewer.
Reallocation	To sufficiently segregate duties (transaction initiation, authorization for payment, reconciliation), Cardholders should not reallocate their own Purchasing Card transactions. In this case, the person performing the reallocations will need some reasonable basis on which to determine where to transfer the charge. Cardholders should provide such information on a weekly basis to ensure that transactions are charged to the appropriate fund and/or object code.
Reviewer	If the Reviewer does not receive a monthly statement from the Cardholder or if a Cardholder notifies the Reviewer that they did not receive a monthly statement, the following occurs: If the Reviewer has access to BEN Financials, they review the Purchasing Card default account in BEN Financials to ensure that no transactions occurred that month. If the Reviewer does not have access to BEN Financials, they contact their Business Administrator or Pat Baxter to verify that no transactions occurred that month. If it is verified that no transactions occurred that month, no statement is filed for that month. If it is verified that transactions occurred that month, the Reviewer notifies Danielle Howard that a statement was not received for that month. The Reviewer reviews the statement to ensure the following: The Cardholder signed the monthly statement. Supporting documentation is attached and adequately supports the charges, including the business nature of the transaction. No transaction appears to be for personal item. Purchasing Card was an appropriate procurement tool for the transactions (check transaction type against the BEN Financials Commodity Matrix). There are no split-charges. If the Reviewer finds a questionable transaction, the Reviewer does the following: Review the supporting documentation, if attached. Contact the Cardholder for an explanation of the transaction. If the Cardholder is not able to appropriately support or explain the questionable transaction, the Reviewer does the following: Contact the Senior Business Administrator of the School or Center (or their designee). Contact Danielle Howard. The Reviewer signs the statement, signifying their review. The Cardholder or the Reviewer files the statement with the attached supporting documentation.