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Frequently Asked Questions |
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General Information (back to top) Q: What is the Purchasing Card? A: The PCard is a University of Hawai`i MasterCard issued by First Hawaiian Bank. It's a new procurement tool that provides an alternative to the existing small-dollar University procurement processes. It's fast, easy and drastically reduces the time and effort required to make payments for your purchase. Q: Are University employees required to use the PCard in place of existing purchasing methods? A: No, use of the purchasing card is on a voluntary basis. Q: Who can get a Pcard? A: University of Hawai`i faculty and staff. This includes any UH employee delegated authority by an Approving Official (Vice President, Chancellor, Dean, Director, or Provost). Students, non-UH employees, and casual hire employees do not qualify for a PCard. Q: How does a PCard work? A: Just like a regular credit card but with built-in spending limits and merchant controls that determine where the card can be used. Each card is assigned a default account code and object code. You can view individual transactions on PVS Net, the PCard Internet reporting system, and alter the account and object code distribution as necessary. Q: Is the Purchasing Card the same as a personal credit card? A: The card is similar to a personal credit card but differs in that it is the property of the University of Hawai`i and may only be used for University-related purchases. Q: Who pays for PCard charges? A: Charges are paid by the University. The Cardholder is responsible for appropriate use of the PCard but does not pay the bill. Q: Since the card is in my name, am I personally liable and will it affect my personal credit history? A: No, the cardholder's personal credit is not affected. However, it is the cardholder's responsibility to ensure that the purchasing card is used within the guidelines of the Purchasing Card Cardholder Procedures as well as University Administrative Procedures relating to the expenditure of University funds. Q: How does the Cardholder benefit from the PCard Program? A: The Cardholder has controlled empowerment and accountability for purchases; delivery time is accelerated resulting in overall increased productivity; and budget monitoring can be enhanced due to greater access to purchasing data. Q: How does our Department benefit from the PCard Program? A: Your Department should experience a substantial reduction in processing costs (resource time); administrative cost savings (postage, printing costs, etc.); reduced inquiries from vendors on outstanding payments; and there is no vendor file management required. Q: How does the vendor benefit from the PCard Program? A: The card settlement process provides vendors with an improved cash flow. Emergency Purchases (back to top) Q: Can I obtain an exception to the $2,500 transaction limit for emergency purchases? A: No, $2,500 is the maximum transactional limit for the Purchasing Card. Federal Funds (back to top) Q: Can a federal account act as the default account? A: No, federal accounts cannot act as the default account. You can reallocate PCard charges to federal accounts, as long as the item procured is necessary (allocable) for the project and not expressly prohibited by sponsor regulations or other federal guidelines. Q: My federal grant will be expiring soon. Is it okay to charge items during the last weeks of my grant? A: During the last 90 days of a Federal grant, care should be taken when using the Purchasing Card. If items are unavailable at the time of order, vendors will not be able to put through the charge until the item is shipped. Also, your PCard purchase will not be downloaded and recorded in the UH FMIS accounting system until after the billing cycle in which the item appeared. Since Purchasing Card transactions are not immediately booked into the University system, it is recommended that other forms of procurement be used when funds must be expended and booked by approaching deadlines. Using the Card (back to top) Q: Can I use my card at the UH Bookstore? A: Yes. Cardholders should go to the Customer Service desk at Manoa, since discounts may need to be applied to the purchase. Q: Can a co-worker borrow my PCard? A: No. The bank requires that only the cardholder can utilize his/her PCard to purchase goods and services. Q: My project requires that I purchase a category of goods that is blocked. Is there anything that can be done? A: Yes, certain categories can be unblocked if justified. A written justification (email is also acceptable) and Fiscal Officer approval are required for "unblocks". Q: Can I have a category unblocked for just one transaction? If so, how long will it take? A: A category can be temporarily unblocked for a transaction. Your Fiscal Officer should contact the Purchasing Card Administrator with the name of the vendor and purchase amount. FHB (First Hawaiian Bank) will be notified to allow the transaction to be processed. Q: How do I handle disputed items? A: First, try to resolve the dispute directly with the vendor. If that does not bring resolution, contact the PCard Administrators at 956-8687 (email: gwon@hawaii.edu or teraoka@hawaii.edu) or First Hawaiian Bank's Customer Service Center at 844-4444, 847-4444 or toll-free at 888-844-4444. All notices of disputed items must be made to First Hawaiian Bank within 60 days of the cycle in which the item first appeared on your statement. Q: If my single transaction limit is $1,000, can I purchase two items that total over $1,000 from the same vendor? A: No, not if you are splitting one purchase into multiple transactions to evade your transaction limit. Your Department has designated a single transaction limit for your Purchasing Card; if your purchase exceeds the limit, you should use another form of procurement. Q: When I ordered an item, I was asked for our billing address. What address do I give the vendor? A: The billing address is your statement address (usually your department's address). CompUSA, however, requires the central billing address which is 1402 Lower Campus Road, Rm. 26. Airline Tickets (back to top) Q: Can I purchase airline tickets with my Purchasing Card? A: No, only your Fiscal Officer can use his/her Purchasing Card to procure airline tickets for authorized University business travel. Q: If the Fiscal Officer purchases airfare in advance and the price of the ticket goes down before the date of travel, will the airlines credit the purchasing card for the difference (if requested)? Or will the airlines issue a travel voucher to the traveler? If a travel voucher is issued, will they notify the University? A: Airlines have various policies regarding this matter. In order for the airline or travel agent to re-book the flight at the lower price, the traveler must requalify for the new fare. Some of the airlines and travel agencies will issue a travel voucher to the traveler and will not notify the cardholder (Fiscal Officer). Some airlines/travel agencies will issue credit back to the charge card, but others will issue travel credits to the person who charged the ticket. The latter may cause an accounting problem (getting the credit back to the account that paid for the ticket) and may result in unusable travel vouchers. Q: When purchasing E-tickets from United Airlines, we were advised that the credit card being utilized to purchase the ticket must be presented upon check-in at the airport. Only the Fiscal Officer has the ability to use his/her PCard to purchase airline tickets, therefore the Fiscal Officer would need to go down with the traveler to check in? A: Book United Airline E-tickets via travel agencies. If E-tickets are purchased directly from United Airlines, both picture ID and charge card are required upon check-in as a form of fraud control. Only picture ID is required upon check-in for E-tickets purchased from travel agencies. Bookkeeping / Reconciliation Information (back to top) Q: Is there any way to make the Reconciliation process easier? A: Review your transactions on a frequent basis (daily, weekly) throughout the month rather than at the end of the billing cycle. Utilize the "description" field in PVS Net for purchase or project details (this information will be printed on your PVS Net statement). If your receipts contain adequate detail to provide insight into your purchases, don't repeat the details in your Transaction Log. Just indicate the general category of goods, eg. office supplies. When ordering over the phone or Internet, check availability of goods. If items need to be backordered, consider another form of procurement. Q: What happens if I'm on vacation when my reconciliation is due? A: Leave your receipts, Transaction Log, etc. with your supervisor or Fiscal Officer for processing in your absence. Q: What do I do if I don't see my transaction posted to the allocated account in FMIS? A: Check the default account. If there is any problem with the allocated account, e.g. insufficient funds, frozen account, invalid account, erroneous subcode, etc. the expenditure is automatically posted to the default account. PVS Net Information (back to top) Q: I heard that there are different levels of data capture (information) available on PVS Net. What are the different levels of data capture? A: There are 3 levels as follows:
A: Data is captured at the vendor's point-of-sale terminal and transmitted through the MasterCard network. The sophistication of the vendor's point-of-sale device determines what data is captured and transmitted. Definition of Terms (back to top) Q: What is an "Approving Official"? A: An Approving Official is a Vice President, Chancellor, Dean, Director or Provost. This person has the authority to select cardholders in your Department and determine their purchasing limits. Q: Who is the card issuer? A: First Hawaiian Bank. Q: Who is the Purchasing Card Administrator? A: The central administrator located in the Office of Procurement, Real Property and Risk Management (OPRPRM) who administers the purchasing card program for the University and acts as the University's intermediary in correspondence with FHB. Q: What is a department liasion? A: An employee in each department who will be responsible for proper use of the Purchasing Card within that department. Each cardholder is assigned a department liasion who is responsible for reviewing transactions of individual cardholders to make sure the transactions are classified as appropriate University expenditures. Browser / Technical Problems (back to top) Q: When printing the PCard web pages, the right margin is cut off. How can I print the entire page? A: Either adjust your margin settings OR print in landscape mode. To do this, in your browser click File, then Page Setup. You may then adjust both the margin settings and page orientation. |
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