New Procedure in Procurement Card Receipt Retention
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Effective with your July 2008 Procurement Card (PCard) statement (transactions from 7/1/2008 – 7/31/2008), the procedure for retaining PCard receipts will change. The main objectives of the change are to ease the burden on departments for proper record retention and storage for state, federal, and private agency audit purposes; to facilitate and expedite Contract and Grant’s invoicing; and to help strengthen the university’s internal control over PCard purchases. The Office of Research & Commercialization (ORC), together with Finance and Accounting (F&A), agreed to retain all PCard-related documentation in a central location. Below is a summary of the new process.
Recently, the PCard Administration sent out requests to each cardholder to provide an updated billing address. Those updated billing addresses have been assigned to each card:
- PCard statements are now sent directly to each department from Bank of America. Previously, all statements were sent to F&A and then forwarded to the designated department recipient. This change should allow for statements to be received faster.
- Due to the change in billing address, merchants will send all receipts to departments directly. This should allow for charges to be approved faster and eliminate the need for duplicate receipts to be requested from the merchant. Please note that you should be using this new address effective immediately when placing any orders with your PCard. Using the F&A address of 12424 Research Parkway will result in your PCard being declined by the merchant.
- Items can now be shipped directly to your department. Some online merchants will not allow items to be shipped to any address other than your PCard billing address, which was causing items to be sent to F&A.
When the PCard receipt retention change takes effect, departments will send all PCard statements and receipts to F&A to be scanned into the university’s electronic DocView filing system (also known as Viewstar). Departments should follow the procedures listed below when submitting PCard-related documents to F&A.
- Upon receipt of your monthly PCard statement, attach all receipts and a signed certification form (discussed below) to the statement and send the package to F&A. Follow these steps:
- Please attach all receipts in the order they appear on the monthly statement. For example, the receipt for the first charge listed on the monthly statement should be the first receipt attached and the receipt for the last charge listed on the monthly statement should be the last receipt attached.
- Please mask all credit card numbers appearing on the monthly statement or individual receipts. Receipts that contain only the last 4 digits of the card number will not need to be masked.
- The cardholder will be required to sign a cover form (available at http://www.fa.ucf.edu, click on the Forms TAB >Procurement Card >PCard Statement Certification, Form 41-970), certifying the legitimacy of all attached charges and the reconciler of the statement will be required to sign the same form, stating that all receipts listed on the statement have been attached. If the cardholder is also the reconciler, sign as cardholder and initial as reconciler.
- Cardholders will NO LONGER be required to sign each individual receipt. The cover form will replace this requirement and should help eliminate duplicate efforts by the cardholder, thus expediting the PCard approval process. However, please remember that PCard approvers must still see the receipt prior to approving charges online and that it is the approver’s responsibility to only approve appropriate, supported charges.
- If cardholders do not want to reconcile their own statements, it is acceptable to have a designated reconciler within your department. This reconciler is required to sign the statement cover form attesting that all receipts listed on the statement have been attached.
- Once the statement has been reconciled, all receipts have been attached, and the statement cover form has been signed, the completed package should be sent to F&A. You will NO LONGER be required to retain these documents within your department. This package can be sent in two ways:
- You may scan the package and send it to PCardStatements@mail.ucf.edu. We strongly suggest this method, as it will allow you to keep copies of the information sent (if desired), it may alleviate the need for small receipts to be taped to an 8 1/2 x11 size paper, and it will facilitate the scanning process in F&A.
- The package can also be sent via intercampus mail. Indicate on the mailing envelope that the enclosed documents are PCard statements. Please tape all loose receipts securely to a blank sheet of paper.
NOTE: Whether option i or option ii is used, receipts held in the department are no longer original documents and are not subject to record retention. Departments can destroy the paper copies once there is no longer value to the department. The scanned copy in F&A will be the official record for retention purposes.
- All submitted documents will be scanned into DocView for record keeping. If a previously submitted document is needed by your department please e-mail PCard Administration (pcardstatements@mail.ucf.edu) and a copy of the receipt will be sent to you via return e-mail.
We understand that this new process may take some additional time to adjust to, so we will be allowing up to 30 days from the close of the statement date for statements to be submitted. Please note that there is no need to submit statements if the cardholder did not have charges during the statement billing period.
If statement packages are not submitted to F&A within a timely manner, the cardholder may have his or her card temporarily suspended. This suspension process will be similar to the suspension process currently being followed for PCard approvals. The cardholder will receive 2 requests for his or her monthly PCard statements to be submitted. If nothing is submitted after the second request, the PCard will be suspended until the documents are received. We plan to offer instructor-led training sessions for PCard approvers starting in August 2008. This class will cover the new receipt retention policy change in detail as well as provide various helpful tips for PCard approvers.
The PCard statement billing period will be changing effective 07/01/2008. The current period begins on the 5 th of each month. The new billing period will run from the 1st of each month to the end of each month, which means that your PCard monthly limits will replenish on the first day of the calendar month.
Please continue to follow the current receipt retention policy for all charges incurred prior to July 1, 2008. As a reminder of the current retention policy, we have included the guidelines from the PCard manual for your reference: http://www.fa.ucf.edu/Procurement_Card/Publications/ch_instr.pdf
Purchasing card receipts must be kept for a minimum of 3 years for departments. For projects, the receipts must be kept for 3 years after a project is closed. Hence, for a 4-year project, this means keeping the PCard receipts for 7 years. For additional information on record retention, click on http://policies.ucf.edu/ select Policy 2-100.1 Florida Public Records Act- Scope & Compliance (PDF file).
The PCard manual is in the process of being updated and condensed. As soon as the new manual is available, it will be placed on the F&A Web site listed above.
The PCard manual is in the process of being updated and condensed. As soon as the new manual is available, it will be placed on the F&A Web site listed above.
Click HERE to download in Word format.
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