Purchasing Card Procedure

1. Requesting the Purchasing Card

• The manager requesting a card or cards will make a request in writing or email to the Purchasing department.
• The Employee Agreement Form will be completed and signed by the budget holder, signed by the employee, and forwarded to the Purchasing department for submission to the Bank of Montreal.
• Each card is issued to a specific individual, is not transferrable, and may be used only by that person.

2. Card Usage

The Purchasing card shall not be used:

• for college travel, conference, and convention expenses other than senior officers and other employees whose duties require frequent travel
• when a contract or quotation is in effect for the product
• personal use, including personal vehicle expenses
• computer hardware, software, or equipment
• textbooks or custom print material
• when total purchase price exceeds the single purchase limit
• when a competitive bid is required under FIN 200 Procurement
• for services performed on college property
• for out of country purchases

3. Card Holders

Cardholders must reconcile their expenditures to the detailed reports generated by the bank and forwarded by the bank, with itemized receipts. If receipts are not itemized, the cardholder must indicate in writing on the Purchasing Register what items were purchased. Authorized and verified by budget holders, reports, receipts, and purchasing register (if necessary) should be sent within the Accounting department within three (3) days of receiving the bank summary reports to the Purchasing department who will review the account coding and forward to the Accounting department.

4. Purchasing Department

• The Purchasing Card Program will be administered by the Purchasing department who will maintain a master list of all purchasing cards with the original employee agreement forms, signed by budget holders and the employees.
• The Purchasing department will arrange for the monthly distribution of bank reports by employee (Individual Billing Report 1630) summarized by costs centre (Central Billing Report 1631) and summarized at hierarchy level (Billing Summary Report 1330) to the budget holders.
• The Purchasing Department will scrutinize the monthly Employee Activity Summary Report (1637) and vendor analysis reports to ensure the policies and practices under FIN 200 Procurement are adhered to and account exception reports to isolate employee card abuse for spending limits and identify overlimit accounts.
  • NOTE: The Purchasing department reserves the right to change account numbers if they are not in keeping with the appropriate accounting treatment.

5. Accounting Department

• All purchasing cards will have a default general ledger account and to avoid the payment of interest. Payments to the bank shall be made within the agreed seven day period following the monthly statement date.
• Accounting will approve all general ledger account distributions, which will be charged against the predetermined default account coding.
• Accounting will file for audit record keeping; the approved cardholder reports with receipts.

6. Related Documents and Links

• FIN 206 Purchasing Card Policy
• FIN 206 Appendix A Purchasing Cardholder Agreement Form
• FIN 206 Appendix B Cardholder Transaction Reconciliation
• FIN 206 Appendix C Mastercard Change Request Form
• FIN 206 Appendix D New Mastercard Request
• FIN 206 Appendix E PCI Staff Compliance Form
• FIN 206 Appendix F Alternate Statement Printing
• FIN 200 Procurement