Procurement Card News

Procurement Card Policy Changes

Effective immediately, the University of Iowa Procurement Card program will have three significant policy changes.

1. Meal Expense in Travel Status:

UI Cardholders, who currently have travel permissions on their procurement card, will be allowed to use the procurement card to purchase meals while in travel status. 

• The following requirements as outlined in the University of Iowa Operations Manual will be enforced. www.uiowa.edu/~fustd/travel/Domestic Travel/domestic_travel.htm#Meal Guidelines
• The traveler must only charge actual meal expenses and is limited to the daily allowance for the city traveled. 
• Expenses for alcohol are not allowed.
• Any meal expense in excess of the daily allowance will result in payroll deduction.
• Repeat overages of the daily allowance may result in card privilege restrictions.
• All travel related meals must be reconciled to a trip created and approved in ProTrav.
• If a meal is determined to be travel related and not associated to a trip, the voucher will be returned to the cardholder and/or reconciler for edits.
• Travel receipt policy applies - receipts for individual meals are not required to be attached to the voucher, unless the purchase is $75 or greater.

Please contact Karen Housel, karen-housel@uiowa.edu, 335-0409 with any questions related to this change in policy.

2. Procurement Card Single Transaction Limit Increase:

Regents Institutions have recently approved the increase of the procurement card single transaction limit from $3,000 to $5,000.  This policy change will only affect procurement cards in UI colleges and departments that are currently set at $3,000 per single transaction.  All other single transaction limits will NOT be changed. 
The standard, $10,000 monthly credit limit will remain.  Based upon the increased single transaction limit, requests for increased credit limits will be considered by completing the following form and submitting to protrav@uiowa.edu for review/approval.
www.uiowa.edu/~eforms/prch/MonthlyCreditLimit.pdf

Please contact protrav@uiowa.edu, or Phil Danzer 335-0389 with any questions related to this change in policy.

3. Three Year Requirement for Procurement Card Certification:

At a minimum, every 3 years, the procurement card program requires all cardholders to complete “online” procurement card training.  This requirement will ensure all UI cardholders are educated about new or updated policies.  Online training allows cardholders/reconcilers to satisfy this requirement at their convenience.

The date required to complete training coincides with the month and year in which the card expires.
If the certification course is not completed by the end of the month in which the card expires, purchasing privileges may be suspended until course completion.

Reminders will be sent to cardholders well in advance of card expiration to allow for adequate time for course completion.  Click here for details about the available courses: www.uiowa.edu/~purchase/PCard/PCard News/OLTAnnc.htm.

As a reminder approximately 100 cardholders whose cards are set to expire 10/31/2009 have not completed this required on-line training.

Please contact protrav@uiowa.edu, or Jennifer Portwood 335-2762 to verify your training requirement, if you need assistance, or if you have questions related to this change in policy.

Procurement Card Vouchers with a status of “Bypass Loaded” will post to period 13 accounting

All Procurement Card Vouchers that were approved in Workflow by July 6, 2008 should have loaded to General Ledger on July 7, 2008 with an effective date of June 30, 2008. It was brought  to our attention today that the electronic file with this group of vouchers did not properly generate and did not post to GL in period 12.

A new file has been created and will still be posted to FY 08 accounting.  This file will be have an effective date of 6/30/2008 with a Journal id of 1WEBPCARDZ. This will post to FY08, period 13.   These GL entries will be available for your review and/or adjustments as of tomorrow morning, 7/11/08. 

Security Alert - Office Supply/Toner Scams

Be wary of phone calls from anyone who is claiming to your “regular supplier” for office supplies. It could be an office supply scam. The scam artist is generally trying to obtain information so that they will be able to bill the department for phony orders or misrepresented orders. The scam artist may actually send merchandise, however the quality is usually less than desirable and the price is inflated. If you believe you are the victim of an office supply scam, contact our department as soon as possible. For more information about office supply scams, please visit the following link: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/supplies.shtm

NEW PHISHING EMAIL SCAM:  "Refund for your credit card"   

There have been reports that an email is circulating claiming that the IRS will put a refund onto a credit card if you verify your account information.  This is not a legitimate email and should be deleted.

FYI:  Scam emails will ask for your account verification to gain access to your credit card and/or identity.  Never give out your account number or other personal data to someone who contacts you via phone or email.  If you receive a fraudulent email, do not reply to it or click on the link in an email under any circumstances. 

To read more information regarding scam emails go to SECURITY ALERT – PayPal Email Scam.

Please email ProTrav@uiowa.edu if you have any questions.

CASH BACK/FRAUD PROTECTION OFFERS

Technology Allowance Policy Effective October 1, 2007

The University of Iowa has implemented a new Technology Allowance Policy.

• Operations Policy
• Campus Announcement
• Request for Technology Allowance Form
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Verizon Announcement

Questions about this policy can be directed to Debby Zumbach at deborah-zumbach@uiowa.edu or 319-335-3815

Important Message to University of Iowa Procurement Cardholders:

Use of the internet for the procurement of goods and services online has become a common way of doing business across most industries including the University of Iowa. With this method of ordering and payment comes a certain amount of risk. This memo serves as a reminder to UI cardholders to be sure when doing business online that both the vendor and their site are reputable and secure. Be aware of overly aggressive vendors attempting to solicit business from unsuspecting users by offering enticing incentive or customer appreciation offers.

Web Loyalty Inc. is a defined online vendor that has partnered with approximately 140 e-commerce sites. Upon completion of certain online transactions an additional internet window will appear. This advertisement is intended to entice users to become a member of a particular rewards club. The pop up message varies but usually involves an incentive or customer appreciation offer in some form. If the user accepts the incentive or customer appreciation offer, there is a chance that the user might be enrolled into a discount rewards club. The user is then given 30 days to cancel their enrollment before they are charged a monthly fee of $10.

The rewards club obtains the user’s credit card number from the purchase made prior to the incentive message that is displayed. The actual rewards club referenced in this email is run by Web Loyalty Inc. The monthly charges can appear under a variety of names but will begin with WLI (Web Loyalty Inc).

A complete list of vendors partnered with Web Loyalty Inc is not available. A partial list has been provided below.

• WLI*RESERVATIONREWARDS.CO
• WLI*TRAVELVALUES
• WLI*SHOPPERDISCOUNT

If a charge from one of these vendors, or comparable, posts to your procurement card, please contact the vendor immediately for a credit.

If the vendor does not credit your card within a week of the request, please fill out a Dispute form and fax it to the number listed on the form.

Questions can be directed to protrav@uiowa.edu.

Motor Pool-Wex Card-Alternative Payment Tool for Fuel Purchases

Motor Pool is offering a new Wex Card for the purchase of fuel as an alternate to using the procurement card. Participating departments will be charged $5/month/vehicle for this service plus the cost of the fuel. Benefits include; reduced price, tax exemption, and the opportunity to allocate expense to one or more accounts.

Questions can be directed to Michael Wilson, 5-5088, Fleet Services Manager.

SECURITY ALERT – PayPal Email Scam

A fraudulent email scam which impersonates the vendor PayPal has been reported to the Procurement Card Administration team.

These emails “appear” to come directly from PayPal and the subject line is addressed “Letter of Confirmation”.

The email is asking for confirmation of your order. The emails intent is to get the recipient to dispute this transaction and by doing so, provide credit card information. These types of 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 PayPal account.

There has been no breach of any secure account information.

This type of email fraud, called “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. Questions can be directed to protrav@uiowa.edu.

Upper Level Report/Review Now Available in ProTrav:

ProTrav offers an “Upper Level” role to facilitate administrative review of Procurement Card and Travel related expenses. Reviews can be done at a cardholder, traveler, department or organizational level. Individual with budgetary responsibilities, Deans, Directors, Department heads, and other supervisory staff could likely benefit from this type of access to travel and pcard data. If you or others in your department could use this type of information to better perform your job duties, please complete the access request form.

For more information about this role click here or contact protrav@uiowa.edu with questions.

top