Bank of America Payment Card Program - Most Common Violations
Now that we have been with the new payment card program through the Bank of America for about six months, we wanted to review the most common policy violations we are seeing and provide reminders about the requirements. Contrary to popular belief, we are not out to close payment cards. While the payment card (pcard) is available to departments to make purchases, we must also balance its use with respect to the established policies and procedures and our fiduciary duty to safeguard university funds. As a large public institution, the university is held to a high degree of public scrutiny and accountability for its business practices and the issuance of a pcard is a privilege. Every reasonable effort must be made to verify that funds are used responsibly and, in a manner consistent with the university mission, in a timely manner. It takes all of us doing our individual part to keep cards active and in good standing - and the cardholder and approver play critical roles in that process!
To date, the top three violations include:
- This is by far the most common violation of policy - Failure to update transactions within 28 days. All card transactions must be verified in Concur within 28 calendar days of the transaction post date. The cardholder can delegate updating their transactions in Concur to another employee; however, the cardholder is still responsible for the transactions charged to the payment card and for providing all necessary documentation to the delegate to update the transaction in the system in accordance with policy within 28 days of the post date in Concur.
- Personal use of university payment card is the second most common infraction. Personal purchases are unallowable on any university provided payment card.
- Finally, software purchases - Software cannot be purchased without first completing the Information Technology Security & Accessibility Review process and having the terms and conditions associated with the software reviewed and approved by Purchasing Contracts or Legal Affairs and signed by an authorized employee under University Signature Authority prior to the purchase. Once these steps are completed you can purchase the software on your payment card.
Concur is configured to send reminders to both cardholders and approvers to help them meet the deadlines established in policy. These reminders include:
- Unassigned Transaction
- Reminders will be sent at 7, 14, and 26 days and you’ll be encouraged to notify your CFAO if you are traveling and unable to meet the 28 day time limit.
- On day 29, you will be advised that your card will be suspended until the transactions are substantiated and report submitted. Additionally, this will count as a violation of policy
- Unsubmitted Report
- Reminders will be sent at 21 and 26 days and you’ll be encouraged to notify your CFAO if you are traveling and unable to meet the 28 day time limit.
- On day 29, you will be advised that your card will be suspended until the report is submitted. Additionally, this will count as a violation of policy
- Unapproved Report
- A reminder will be sent to the approver on day 7 reminding them that policy requires that reports must be approved within 9 days. On day 10, the approver will be advised that it is a policy violation to not approve reports within 9 days.
- Returned Report
- Reminders will be sent to the cardholder reminding them that a report was rejected/returned from an approver and needs to be resubmitted. Reminders will be sent at 7 and 14 days.
In addition, planning unit CFAOs receive Concur reports, directly to their inbox, every Monday and Thursday to assist them in monitoring compliance of cardholders within their planning units.
For information on whether the payment card can be used to pay for a transaction see the following resources:
- Purchasing Guide
- Section 7.3 Unallowable Purchases in the Payment Card Procedures Manual
- Section 7.4 Restricted Use in the Payment Card Procedures Manual
Questions? Please contact financecustomercare@ohio.edu