The card, which has been used by a couple of hundred university employees in a pilot program throughout the past year, can now be used by any staff or faculty member with approval from his or her department. This new system, which is not mandatory, should simplify the process of making small purchases and reduce the university's cost of doing business, says Paul Beyer, Purchasing director. And it allows the university to get one itemized monthly statement from the bank and cut one check for the full amount instead of getting hundreds of check requests and purchase orders and having to process and write a separate check for each one. Here's how it works. No purchase order is required.
Cardholders sign for the purchase, retain the receipt and maintain a simple transactions log.
At month's end, all credit card information is submitted to whoever in the department is designated as being responsible for accounting. That person will then receive an electronic statement through Purchasing and have approximately three weeks to reconcile the statement with department budget account and object code information. Once the statement is processed, the department is charged for the expenditures. Departments are expected to reconcile their monthly expenditure statements in an accurate and timely manner.