At 10:15 AM 2/26/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Another quick Friday survey:
>
>1) Do you use procurement cards on grants?

Have been using them for about two years.

>
>2) If so, do you issue one card per grant, one card per PI, one card per
>   department?

Issue one card per person. This includes Post Docs, Grad Students,
Technicians, etc. The only rule is that the person must be on the
University payroll and once the person terminates the card is cancelled.
The Department is responsible for the charges and therefore they are the
ones that request and approve the initial card.

>
>3) If you issue one card per PI or department, what is the process to post
>   the charges to the individual grants?

The vendor processes their charge to the bank. All charges that the bank
receives on a particular day are transferred to the University
electronically that night. Each card is assigned a reconciler (usually
two). When the reconciler checks their computer in the morning the charge
will be there.  It is their responsibility to obtain the receipt (should
probably have already), indicate the account to be charged and give an
explanation of what is being purchased and for what reason. This is all
done on the screen. Once the process is complete the receipt is sent to the
central accounting office for imaging for the official records. The only
paper that is handled is the receipt and some Departments require an
information sheet to be filed out by the purchaser and handed in with the
receipt.

A reconciler can not be a card holder. If the transaction isn't reconciled
in 30 days it automatically gets charged to a default account which is the
Department General account.

>
>4) Have procurement cards been successful on grants?  What challenges have
>   you faced?

We currently have over 4000 active cards and have processed over 207,000
transactions for a total in excess of $29 million. The per transaction
limit  is $2,000 with a monthly limit of $18,000 per card.

I can't say that we haven't had problems but they certainly have been fewer
than expected. We monitor the transactions for allowability. Certain
transactions are not allowed to be charged like employee travel expenses.
We have a list of over 20 categories of items that the card can't be used
for (equipment, memberships, leases, maintenance agreements, animals, etc).

The card holder must attend a training session and sign a liability
agreement before they can receive the card. If there is a problem or the
card is lost the limits can be adjusted or the card cancelled electronically.

I'm sure I missed some details but the system seems to be working well. It
certainly has cut down on the number of paper purchases and emergency
purchase requests.

 Bob
***********************
Robert C. Meyer
Eberly College of Science
513 Thomas Building
University Park, PA   16802

Research Office web site: http://www.science.psu.edu/research/funds.htm

Phone  814-863-0301
Fax        814-865-3634

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