Process Owner/Key Contacts
To apply for a new PCard, contact Ann Tran at tranx047@umn.edu
To reconcile existing card charges, email the accounting staff at cemscard@umn.edu
About
Research groups in CEMS may request one of their group members be issued a University procurement card (PCard). This card is issued in the name of that research group member and that individual is responsible for its use, including documenting on a weekly basis justifications and receipts on all transactions. Cards may also be issued to administrative staff based on a staff member's job duties.
Timely transaction reconciliation is necessary to ensure up to date financial reporting and to ensure charges are eligible to be charged to all funding sources. CEMS business practice is for cardholders to reconcile their charges in MyWallet on a weekly basis. CEMS staff monitor for charges that slip past 14 days without MyWallet reconciliation and will follow up with cardholders to get caught up. University policy requires all purchasing card steps (MyWallet reconciliation, expense report creation, and all approvals) to be complete within 30 days following the date of the transaction. Failure to reconcile timely may result in pcard privileges being temporarily or permanently revoked.
CEMS does not grant "group" pcards. Instead, each card issued is in the name of a specific group member who is responsible for all card activity. New cardholders should complete the following training linked below in the Forms/Links section:
-Using the University PCard
-MyWallet for Cardholders
Procedures for CEMS Purchasing Card Holders
Are you a CEMS Cardholder? Please see below the instructions to ensure proper, timely reconciliation of your purchasing card:
The department policy continues to be that card holders will enter justifications and account strings as well as scan receipts into MyWallet on a weekly basis. This should be done Monday by 4:30pm for the prior week's activity. If you will be on vacation or unavailable on Monday, please submit information before you go out and e-mail cemscard@umn.edu if there are any transactions you couldn't get to (due to pending receipts, etc) that will need to wait until you get back.
When you have completed entering information to MyWallet, send an e-mail to cemscard@umn.edu indicating that you have entered the information and uploaded receipts. Include the beginning and ending dates of the transactions that are ready to reconcile and note the vendor, date, and dollar amounts of any transactions that are not ready within that date range. Please don't e-mail a reconciler directly to let them know. E-mailing cemscard will allow any of the reconcilers in CEMS to act on your transactions.
If you receive a credit/refund on your card, please indicate in your justification the date and dollar amount of the original transaction that the credit is related to. The reconcilers are required to link refunds back to original transactions and this will substantially ease the burden of that process.
Lastly, please be sure that you provide an adequate justification. The main reason that p-card transactions are delayed or returned is inadequate justification. There is limited space in the system (255 characters) but if you need more room, you can type up the justification and include it in the documents you upload, then reference the documents in your comments. That said, 255 characters is enough for a good but brief justification. Below is an example of a brief justification that answers what is purchased, how it will be used, how it benefits the account, who ordered it and where it will be used, all in less than 255 characters.
"Chemicals used for the synthesis of zeolites. Study of catalytic activity of zeolite membranes is a goal of the project charged. Ordered by Christopher Lew. To be used in Amundson 440. Charge to xxxx-xxxxx-xxxxxxxx"
Reconcilers have been instructed to return transactions with insufficient justifications to the card holders. In other words, they will go back into MyWallet for you to re-do if the justification does not pass approval.
Thanks for your continued help in improving the CEMS purchasing card process and for your patience as we worked through challenges with the new system.