Procurement FAQs

To apply for a Purchasing Card:  

• Complete the Corporate Purchasing Card Employee Agreement Form
• The applicant and reviewer must successfully complete the Purchasing Card Training in Blackboard
• Send the completed agreement form to Procurement Services for processing
• Purchasing cards are mailed to the departmental P.O. Box number listed on the Corporate Purchasing Card Employee Agreement form by the card provider within seven to 10 business days of processing

Full-time faculty and staff may apply for a purchasing card by completing both pages of the Corporate Purchasing Card Employee Agreement form and submitting it to Purchasing.  In addition to submitting the Employee Agreement Form, the employee and the reviewer for the account will be required to complete mandatory, annual Purchasing Card training on Blackboard.  Training is required annually on a calendar-year basis at the direction of the program administrator.  Employees may apply for additional cards if they have access to multiple funding sources, but no cardholder will be issued more than four Purchasing Card accounts.  Cards issued in the name of a designated employee are intended for use by that employee only.

Upon receipt, the cardholder must activate the card by calling the number on the back of the card.  The activation process requires you to provide the 16 digits of your card number and your verification code, which is 236 followed by your 6-digit date of birth (for example, a person born on Dec. 3, 1985 will enter 236120385).

Purchasing Cards are issued with various monthly and transaction limits, but most are issued with standard limits of $5,000 per month and $2,500 per transaction.  You are only authorized to spend up to your monthly and transaction limits.  The maximum allowable transaction limit for the purchasing card is $5,000.  Any charge over $5,000 must be submitted as an Electronic Procurement.  While the eVA-delegated authority for departments has been increased to $10,000, the delegated authority for P-Card transactions is still $5,000. 

The majority of your orders will be placed in eVA as Purchase Card Orders (PCOs), but orders may also be made in person, over the phone or electronically (provided the website has the required level of security).  Cardholders may never fax, email or mail full account numbers.  Keep in mind that confirming orders need to be placed in eVA for any order that is not originally processed as a PCO and is not for an item on the eVA exempt list.

If the vendor asks for the billing address the cardholder should provide their P.O. Box number where the monthly statements are sent.  If the vendor intends to charge tax, the cardholder should provide the Sales and Use Tax Certificate of Exemption form.

Visa will impose automatically a 1 percent foreign transaction fee on any charges which are processed outside of the U.S.  This fee is in addition to any currency conversion fees.

Please view the Purchase Transaction Processing document or contact the appropriate Procurement Services staff member for additional information on placing orders.

Use of the P-Card is limited to the person who was issued the card.  The card or account number may not be loaned to another person or entered into another person's eVA account.  If the cardholder will be away from the University for an extended period, another person in the department should obtain a card.  If card sharing occurs, P-Card accounts and eVA access for all involved parties will be suspended or revoked.

The P-Card must be kept in a secure location at all times.  The account number must not be posted, photocopied or left in a conspicuous place. The complete 16-digit account number must never be faxed, mailed or emailed (including attachments) to the vendor.  The order can be faxed but the account number must be phoned to the vendor.  Cardholders may purchase over the Internet, provided the company's website has a Secured Socket Layer (SSL) Version 2.0 or greater at the point of order entry.  A website that has this level of security has https:// in the URL address window.  These procedures are put in place to help avoid fraud from occurring on your account.

If the card is lost or stolen, the cardholder must immediately notify VSU's program administrator.

Monthly reconciliation procedures are located on our procedures page for cardholders who are not part of the online reconciliation program and on our online reconciliation page for cardholders participating in the online reconciliation program.

Purchasing Card policies and procedures may be found on our Purchasing Card Procedures Page.

The Bank of America online system can be accessed through the following link: http://payment2.works.com

Purchasing Card holders can log into the online system by entering their username which consists of 236, followed by an underscore, followed by the cardholder's first name, followed by an underscore, followed by the cardholder's last name (for example, a cardholder named Thomas Smith would have the username 236_Thomas_Smith).

Cardholders will not receive paper statements in the mail for cycles where no activity occurs; however cardholders must still reconcile P-Card accounts during these cycles.  (Note:  Cardholders participating in the online reconciliation program are not required to print reports showing no activity.)  To do this you must log into Works, print a memo statement (see instructions below), and attach it to a log showing no activity.  This log sheet must be signed and dated by the cardholder and reviewer prior to the receipt of the following month's statement.

1. Log into http://payment2.works.com
2. On the left hand side click on Reports > + Reports > select Spend Reports.
3. Click on the drop-down bar ("Please select a report template") and select "Choose from all available templates."
4. A separate box will open.  Select the radio button to the left of the name SPCC, Gold and ATC Memo Statement.  Press Finish.  To run a report with no activity, click on "Show Expert View" in Choose Report Template.  Then go to Step 4: Add General and Column Filters and click on the drop-down set to "is exactly" and enter the last four digits of your card.  The report is already formatted to default to the previous billing cycle.  If you need to run a different cycle, you can click on the Date box and select the dates needed.
5. Go down to the bottom of the page and click Submit Report.  You will be prompted to save or download the report.

P-Card training is available on Blackboard.  Visit the training section for more information regarding required online training.