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Purchase of Airline Tickets
The University Procurement Card should
only be used to purchase tickets for University employees and/or
for individuals that are traveling on behalf of the University.
It may not be used to purchase tickets for family members accompanying
University business travelers. Because this is a personal expense,
such a purchase is considered misuse of the card.
The cardholder agreement states: “The
cardholder may not make personal charges on the card. Personal expenses
processed on The University of Iowa Procurement Card are in violation
of the Procurement Card guidelines. Flagrant misuse may result in
payroll deduction, card revocation and the Cardholder’s termination.”
The payroll deduct function should
only be used when reimbursement for an expenses has been received
from a third party and for deduction of expenses that are disallowed
by the department or policy. Repeated purchases of “disallowed”
charges are also considered misuse of the card. The payroll deduct
feature should never be used as a tool to allow personal or disallowed
expenses on the procurement card.
Your procurement card should be kept
on campus in a secured location except when you are in travel status
or making University purchases at a local merchant. You should keep
the card in a secured place instead of in your billfold or purse
to prevent the mistaken use of the card for personal purchases.
Stating that a cardholder provided the wrong card when making a
purchase is not a justifiable reason for misuse of the card or payroll
deduct feature. Repeated occurrences may result in the revocation
of the card.
If you have questions or comments about
this announcement, please contact Sherri Dusenbery directly at sherri-dusenbery@uiowa.edu.
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New
Release for ProTrav Non-UI Acknowledgement Form
ProTrav now offers three options
for obtaining a Non UI traveler’s signature, or approval, of travel
expenses:
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Send an email to the traveler.
Click the “send to traveler for review” button, enter the traveler’s
email and wait for the traveler’s email response.
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Send an email to yourself. Click
on “Submit to Traveler” button and enter your own email address.
Then print the form that is created and send it to the traveler
via mail or fax for their signature, or have the traveler sign
it in person while they are here.
Regardless of which method you choose,
you must attach the traveler’s signature/approval
to the TEV cover sheet and send along with any required receipts
to the Travel Office, 202 PCO. You must also go back into the
TEV and click on the “Submit to Workflow” button
to route for your department’s approval and send on to the Travel
office for processing.
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PCard
Paydeduct Compliance
The payroll deduction
process should primarily be used when items are disallowed by the
department or UI policy . Payroll deduct process should not be used
to cover personal expenses on a routine basis . The use of the payroll
deduction feature will be reviewed by Accounts Payable and excessive
use due to inadvertently or inappropriate use of the card may result
in card revocation. Personal expense is defined as an expense for
the benefit of the cardholder . Examples would include but not be
limited to purchasing airfare for family members, movies, mini-bar-alcohol,
guest registration, etc. |
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about PCard safekeeping
This is a reminder notice that
your UI Procurement Cards are to be secured on campus, when you’re
not in travel status. This will reduce the chances of misusing the
card; as well reduce the liability to the University in case the
card becomes stolen. |
SECURITY ALERT
– ADDITIONAL FRAUDULENT CARDHOLDER EMAILS
Once again we have been notified that cardholders
are receiving fraudulent emails. These emails appear to come directly
from U.S. Bank, Visa or are being sent from another agency on behalf
of these institutions. These continuous emails are an illegal attempt
by unknown persons to collect personal information and account numbers.
These e-mails are random and are being sent using a spam list that
includes individuals who in many cases do not even have U.S. Bank
accounts. There has been no breach of any secure account information.
This type of email fraud, call “phishing” is under investigation
by U.S. Bank’s Fraud Prevention and Investigation area in conjunction
with Visa and the Federal Bureau of Investigations. However, it
is very difficult to catch cyber-criminals, and so we believe that
these fraudulent emails will continue to be sent for some time.
There are several steps you can take to avoid becoming a victim
of this type of fraud:
- Never give out your account number or other personal
data to someone who contacts you via phone or email. Both U.S.
Bank and Visa already have the information we need to maintain
your account. We would never contact you to ask for verification.
- If you receive a fraudulent email, DO NOT REPLY
to it under any circumstances and furthermore, do not click on
the link in the email.
- To help track these cyber-criminals, the U.S.
Bank Fraud Department is requesting that anyone who has received
a suspicious email send a copy of it to fraud_help@usbank.com,
along with responses to the questions below:
- Do you have an account relationship with U.S.
Bank?
- What Internet Service Provider (ISP) do you use?
- What type of connection do you use to access
the Internet? Cable, dial up, DSL or other?
- Do you have a firewall installed on your computer?
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Procurement Card Foreign Transaction
Change Notice
U.S.
Bank senior management has placed the 1% "Cross Boarder"
Foreign Transaction Fee on hold indefinitely pending further review.
We will notify all when a final decision has been rendered.
As a result of
changes in the commercial card industry, US bank, the Universities
Purchasing card provider, has made changes to their foreign transaction
structure fee.
In the past,
a Foreign Currency Conversion fee of 1.5% has been charged for
every transaction requiring currency version. Effective May
1, 2005 the foreign transaction structure will be as
followed.
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If the transaction
is processed in a foreign currency, the fee will be 2.5% of
the transaction amount.
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If the transaction
is processed in US dollars, the fee will be 1.0% of the transaction
amount.
Notification
of this change dated April 18, 2005 was sent from US Bank to all
UI cardholders. We understand many cardholders did not receive this
notification until this week. We have asked US Bank to extend the
effective date given the delay in receiving the notice. However,
we’re not confident US Bank will reverse the current charges. We
will continue to pursue this issue and follow up with you if we
are successful.
Cardholders/Departments
are encouraged when doing business with a foreign vendor to consider
the transaction fees that will be imposed if processed on the
Procurement Card. Departments will be responsible for the transaction
fee.
Questions, comments,
or concerns can be directed to Sherry
Miller, 5-0656.
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New
Contract with Office Max
February, 2005
Big changes are happening at General Stores.
This is important information:
Please read this entire message if you order office supplies.
On March 1, 2005, we will roll out our
new office supply contract, with OfficeMax. We
will end our contract with Corporate Express on February 28.
We wish Corporate Express and its staff the best.
General Stores is excited to present
its new office supply contract with OfficeMax.
Our new contract is the Iowa Biotechnical Association’s
contract, which is also used by the State of Iowa
and Iowa State University. OfficeMax
takes pride in its customer service and innovation in the
office products marketplace. It boasts more than $8 billion in sales,
more than 40,000 associates, and nearly 1,000 superstores with 25,000
products. Its product line includes office supplies, paper, technology
products and services, and furniture. Our new General Stores/OfficeMax
contract offers a custom catalog and reduced pricing on
most items, as well as a new web ordering system for our Pcard users.
The new General Stores/OfficeMax catalog
must be used for all orders placed on March 1, 2005, and after.
Please note that the prices in the catalog are the manufacturers’
list prices. To find actual prices for The University of Iowa, check
our MIGS online ordering systems or our new Pcard web ordering system,
located at www.officemaxsolutions.com.
All that is required to access the new General Stores/OfficeMax
Pcard system is a user name and password. If you would like to use
the Pcard ordering system please email Gary Anderson gary-anderson@uiowa.edu
with your name, address, and phone number. A user name and password
will be set up. Remember, this new user name and password is
for Pcard web ordering only. This ordering system offers our
customers off-hours ordering convenience from remote locations;
fast and easy search capabilities; and the ability to save orders
for easy reordering, set up and save a shopping list, review past
orders, and email acknowledgements. It is also easy to bring up
previous orders for Pcard reconciliation.
So what changes should our customers expect?
We anticipate very few, beyond significantly lower prices
on similar quality products. Prices will be reduced on over 80 percent
of the items that our customers purchased during the past year.
We expect to save The University of Iowa more than $200,000 each
year with this new contract.
Catalog numbers have changed so you will need a
new catalog, but you will be able to continue to order via MIGS
and the MIGS WEB application. We will also continue to accept FAX
orders (4-3918), but we encourage you to order on line. Regardless
of how you choose to order, shipping and delivery charges are included
in your price, and most items are available for next- day delivery
by General Stores delivery personnel.
For our UIHC customers, a limited number of catalogs
are now available at the Hospital Shipping and Receiving Dock, SRF.
Please pick one up at your convenience. For customers in other locations,
please email your name, department name, campus delivery address,
and the number of catalogs you need to genstores@uiowa.edu. Catalogs
will be delivered during the last week of February. Do not
use the new catalogs until March 1.
The staff at General Stores provides
a high level of friendly and reliable service. We hope you will
take advantage of our online ordering options, particularly the
new General Stores/OfficeMax web ordering system for Pcard users.
We encourage you to offer your ideas and suggestions for continuing
improvement. We would love to hear from you. We welcome OfficeMax
and its staff to The University of Iowa as we begin a new partnership
with a new office supply contract.
Gary
Anderson
General
Stores
384-3917
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Tax Exempt Purchases
at Wal-mart
When
making tax-free purchases with your University of Iowa Procurement
Card at any Wal-Mart or Super Wal-Mart Store, Wal-Mart now requires
you to provide the cashier at the check-out line with a tax exempt
number issued by Wal-Mart exclusively for the University of Iowa.
The number that was provided to the Purchasing Department for departments
to use is 245456. You may satisfy Wal-Mart's policy by doing
one of the following:
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BEFORE
anything is scanned and rung up, inform the cashier that
your purchase will be a tax-free transaction. Note the number
above, keep the number with your procurement card and provide
it verbally to the cashier prior to the purchase. |
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Go
to Wal-Mart customer service area and ask for a University
of Iowa Tax Exempt Card. They should have a supply of pre-printed
cards available for you to keep with your procurement card
for future transactions. Provide this card to the cashier
prior to checkout. |
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If
you already have a University of Iowa Tax Exempt Card issued
to you by Wal-Mart, the number on it may not match the one
referenced above. However, it should remain valid and can
be provided to the cashier prior to checking out.
Always notify the cashier before they start scanning your
items that your transaction will be tax exempt. This will
save you time checking out by eliminating the cancellation
of the transaction, having the cancellation approved by a
supervisor, and the rescanning of each item. |
Again,
please send your comments or questions to Sherry Reynolds-Miller
(335-0656).
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List Server Messages
Once
again we have had multiple reports of an email scam attempting to
get card information from our Procurement Cardholders.
Below is an example of what the email looks like. Please be aware
that under NO circumstances should you share your card information
as a result of an email request from Visa. We have been instructed
by Visa that any attempts for this information made through email
should be discarded. If you have any questions or concerns please
contact me directly at
Sherry Reynolds-Miller, or 335-0656.
From:
Visa Service [mailto:security@visa-security.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 10:46 PM
To:
Subject: Visa Security Update
Dear
Sir/Madam,
We were informed that your card is used by another person or stolen.
It could happen if you have been shopping on-line, and someone
got your "Billing information" including your card number.
To avoid and prevent any billing mistakes and to refund your credit
card, it is strongly recommended to proceed filling in the secure
form on our site and applying for our Zero Liability program.
This program is free and it will help us to investigate this accident.
Sincerely
yours,
Visa
Support Assistant, Alwin Desagun.
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PCard Functionality
PCARD has been
upgraded to include functionality for the Upper Level Administrative
User. This functionality allows the user to review Procurement Card
activity at either an Organizational or Departmental level. The
user will have access within the Procurement Card Web Application
to;
• A summary of the new transactions in their ORG or ORG/DEPT combo
(by cardholder)
• A listing of “new" cards for the ORG or ORG/DEPT combo during
the past 60 days
• A listing of delinquent vouchers for their ORG or ORG/DEPT combos
• Links to view cardholder’s transactions, vouchers, receipts, and
card information for their ORG/DEPT combination.
• Reports of vendor spending, travel information, summary spend
per cardholder, dept, and dollars spent
• Search function that allows you to search travel related transactions,
and voucher/transactions within the users ORG or ORG/DEPT combo
The following
access request form must be completed to obtain this role. A
training document has been provided. If you have any further
questions or concerns feel free to contact me at Sherry
Reynolds-Miller, or, 335-0656. Departmental training is available
upon request.
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Departments which Accept Procurement
Card
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Barnes & Nobel PCard Discount
Barnes & Noble offers the University
of Iowa a 20% educational discount for all Procurement Card transactions.
To receive this discount you should reference the University of
Iowa account number #5364666 at time of check-out. Purchases should
be for institutional use only. Discounts apply ONLY to book purchases.
Discounts DO NOT apply to magazines, music
dept., cafe, textbooks, publishing orders and gift cards. |
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