Sandy,

At College of Charleston, we are using Visa cards for grant accounts.  I
know that some investigators--particularly those who have several grant
accounts but only one card (here, one person may have only one card
regardless of the number of accounts managed) and who have a track record
of giving us fits on the "old" system--continue to give us fits now.
Aside from still having to deal with these "rogue" PIs, there are three
other issues that have come up for us that you should be aware of.

1.  As you approach the ending date on a grant, anything that has recently
been purchased on the card may not be encumbered in the university
accounting system.  Unless (1) the PI remembers that there are outstanding
purchases on the card that apply to the closing grant and (2) the PI can
accurately quantify these outstanding transactions, you may end up zeroing
out the account, only to have the charge card bill come in later and throw
the account into a negative balance. Vendors who don't send all their
charges to the credit card company in a timely manner can really
exacerbate this problem.

2.  Our procedure calls for our card holders to keep all documentation of
card purchases.  I worry about a PI's ability to produce documentation
three or five years down the road upon audit after the close of the
project.  In our old procurement system, we had institutional purchase
orders and other supporting documentation in a central location stored in
an organized manner.  Now we expect PIs to come up with all the order and
packing slips to identify items purchased and charged to the
grants--months and years after the purchases are made.  Knowing the
organizational habits---or, more accurately, the lack thereof--of many of
our faculty members and the shape some of their offices are in, this just
makes me shudder!!!!

3.  The third point really applies more to operational accounts than to
grant accounts.  In our state, we cannot pay for subscriptions for
databases, publications, registrations for meetings, or any other services
or products for next fiscal year out of this fiscal year's funds.  Toward
the end of the FY, it is common practice to spend out remaining funds.
Our current procurement card system has no built in checks to ensure that
purchases for next FY are not made with this FY's money in the big haste
to spend down.

We are so new to the procurement card system (have had it only about a
year) that we don't know exactly how problematic these things might be or
what it may cost us when the auditors visit.  I will be curious to hear if
there are other institutions with similar concerns.

Please let me know if you would like the name and number of our purchasing
card coordinator in Procurement.  I'm sure she would be happy to talk with
you.

Barbara
--
==================================================================

Barbara H. Gray, Director
Research & Grants Administration
College of Charleston
66 George Street
Charleston, SC  29424
Office:  843-953-5673
Direct:  843-953-5885
Fax:  843-953-6577
e-mail:  xxxxxx@cofc.edu
http://www.cofc.edu/~orga/
Campus Location:  407G Bell Bldg.

==================================================================

======================================================================
 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
======================================================================