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Purchasing and P-Card Administration

Purchasing and P-card Administration

All Financial Processing/AP group personnel should be checking the FP/AP box in the mailroom at least twice a day.  At this time, all requests should be date stamped as received.  If there are pieces of information required but not received on a reimbursement request or order, then a log should be kept either on a separate sheet of paper or on the back side of the main summary page as to what is missing, when it is requested, and when it is received.  This will show due diligence if a reimbursement or order is not completed in the usual timeline. 

Purpose/Benefit Statements

For the purpose/benefits statement guidelines, see the Purpose/Benefits Statements header in the Accounts Payable section of the Business Manual.

 

Timeline for Business Office Completion of Purchasing Tasks

Purchase requests under $5,000:  1 days from AP box to being purchased from suggested vendor or to the DBA for approval

Purchase requests over $5,000:   3 days from AP box to the DBA for approval

SDOL entries/uploads:  by the dates published by UH P-card Administration

 

Purchasing Guidelines

For general purchasing guidelines, see the Purchase Requests header in the Reimbursement and Purchasing Guidelines section of the Business Manual.  That section, however, does not cover the business process involved (continue reading).

Anyone purchasing controlled or capital equipment should inform the Property Custodian (property@math.uh.edu) at the time the order is made so that arrangements can be made for the efficient tagging of the items upon receipt and before use.  The email should include a one-line description of the purchased controlled/capital item, the quantity, the person requesting the item, and the method of purchase.  Upon receipt of the property, the Custodian should have first access to the equipment (the purchaser should bring the item to the Property Custodian before use). 

For items that are less than $5,000, see the P-card Administration section below to determine if the item can be purchase on a P-card.  For items that cannot be purchased on a P-card, or for items required to be purchased by a Purchase Order (see MAPP 04.01.01, section III.C) utilize the PeopleSoft 8.4 Requisition Training for entering requisitions.

When the Purchase Order is created by the UH Purchasing Department from the Requisition, you can cross reference by navigating in PeopleSoft Finance Purchasing-Requisitions-Review Requisition Information-Requisitions, and entering the requisition number.  Then when the requisition comes up, click Show PO, and find the PO number in the PO ID column.

 

P-Card Administration Guidelines

See also the P-card and T-card Review Process.

I.  Responsibilities of the Pcard Cardholder

In addition to the duties required of Pcard Cardholders in the UH PCard Guidelines and MAPP Policy on Pcards,  the following are required by the Math Department:

  1. Please note that the P-card is your responsibility (if items are not proven to be allowable and allocable on university funds, you are required personally to pay the amount back to the bank and/or UH).  For this reason, we suggest that you keep personal copies of your P-card backup for your own personal proof.  Please note the UH consequences for unauthorized transactions.

  2. In order for department staff to meet the deadlines and requirements of the Pcard program, you will need to turn in your pcard receipt with a purpose/benefit statement and account number within 3 business days of the purchase. This will allow for the staff to get all Pcard information entered in to the system and meet the budget checking requirements by the deadlines set out by accounts payable.

  3. If your backup is not received by the cutoff, you run the risk of having your Pcard shut down by AP.

  4. Business staff who hold P-cards should scan and upload their transaction backup as soon as possible after the transaction to R:\Backup FY XX\Pcard\<MONTH OF PURCHASE>.

II.  Responsibilities of the Pcard Business Staff

Enter Transaction Details into SDOL

In addition to the duties required of business staff in the UH PCard Guidelines and MAPP Policy on Pcards,  the following are required by the Math Department:

  1. Use the P-Card Work Aid to audit your work before sending it for approval.

  2. All Pcard entries should be entered in Filemaker Pro (FMP) and the Check Cost Center button should be used BEFORE getting a certifying signature on your SDOL report. This will ensure that everything is entered in FMP in a timely manner for budget and reconciliation purposes.

  3. To assist in auditing, number each SDOLline, and reference that number on all pages of the corresponding backup.

  4. If you have to change something in SDOL, make the same changes in FMP.

  5. Reference field in FMP: enter the month/year/pcard. Example: DEC 08 PCARD. Do not type in the whole month, only the first three letters of the month. This will ensure that when finds are done for a particular month all Pcards will be pulled.

  6. If you run the final SDOL report too early, the billing cycle may not have all expenditures in the report.  Run a working copy quickly, but rerun a new copy at least four business days after the end of the billing cycle to ensure that all items were caught.

  7. All completed P-card SDOL reports must be signed by the cardholder and the certifying signature by the 20th of each month (or the deadline published by the UH AP P-Card Administration).  I.e., the SDOL report ending ~ the 5th of the month must be completed and signed by cardholder and certifier by the 20th of that same month. 

  8. Keep a scanned copy of the P-card for easy reference on R:\Backup FY XX\Pcard\<BILLING CYCLE MONTH> with a filename in the format Lastname.Pcard.MonYY.pdf.  This will also easy reference.

Clearing P-card Liability

In addition to the duties required of business staff in the UH PCard Guidelines and MAPP Policy on Pcards,  the following are required by the Math Department:

At the end of each month, a pcard liablity query UHS_PCARD_LIABILITY_BALANCE should be run in PeopleSoft for the total still listed on P-card liability to clear.  At least semesterly, just in case, the UHS_ACCOUNT_SUMMARY_DEPT query should be run in PeopleSoft with your department ID and account code 20109 to determine if transactions have hit the liability cost centers in the department.

A journal should be created to move all expenses from the department liability cost center to the correct cost center monthly.  Note that if items post to a liability account code (20109), you may use the FMP entry created in the Enter Transaction Details into SDOL header section above (#1), by just changing the type to Journal Entry and adding the journal entry number into the Document # field in FMP.

Note:  if the P-card liability balance is not zero at the end of a fiscal year, the card will be cancelled and may not be reissued at the beginning of the new fiscal year.