USE OF CARD

• The Purchasing Card may be used for the following travel expenditures:
• Registration fees
• Airfare
• Hotel
• Taxis
• Tolls
• Parking
• Gas (for rental cars only)

• Prepare a TAR in accordance with established procedures.

• Obtain appropriate approvals.

• Fax approved TAR to the Travel Section. Fax number is 6998.

• Provide original TAR to your purchasing card approver.

• After obtaining your TAR # from the Travel section you may contact the conference provider to charge your registration fee. You may not charge the fee on your Purchasing Card for others, even if they are traveling with you.

• Make a copy of the registration form and write the TAR # on it. Give this to your approver along with a copy of the conference agenda.

• Notes

AIRFARE – USING THE UNIVERSITY TRAVEL AGENCY

• Contact the University's Travel Agency to make airline reservation. Ensure that the dates and destination(s) correspond to what has been approved on the T.A.R.

• Provide the TAR number to the Travel Agency when booking the airline ticket.

• Pick up airline ticket within 48 hours of booking.

• Provide the airfare receipt from the Travel Agency to your purchasing card approver within 48 hours of booking.

• Airfare charge "must be approved" by your purchasing card approver within 5 calendar days of the date the charge appears on the purchasing card module.

• Airfare charge will appear on the purchasing card module 48 hours after booking the airfare.

• Approver must verify the amount on the purchasing card module to the airfare receipt.

• The University travel agency will be provided with your purchasing card number upon issuance. All airline tickets booked in your name will be charged to your card.

• If you are combining a business and personal trip you cannot use the Purchasing Card. You will need to use your personal credit card and then be reimbursed for the business portion. Upon booking of the ticket you must obtain a written letter from the travel provider explaining what the airfare would have cost without the personal portion and include it with your reimbursement.

Although the University does not have an exclusive contract with its travel agency on campus, it is strongly encouraged that such agency be used when traveling on University business.

When an outside travel agency is used, the procedures outlined below must be followed.

• Complete a TAR form and obtain appropriate approvals. While a TAR number is not required when using an outside agency, you must still have an approved TAR on hand before making travel arrangements.

• The cost of the airline ticket must not exceed the contracted State rate, if any, to the city you are traveling. You may obtain a list of the contracted State rates through the Controller's Office web page @ http://www.fiu.edu/orgs/controller. Remember that you must always book economy class. The State will not reimburse for a higher class of travel.

• Provide the airfare invoice from the travel agency to your purchasing card approver within 48 hours of booking the airline ticket.

• Airfare charge "must be approved" by your purchasing card approver within 5 calendar days of the date the charge appears on the purchasing card module.

• Airfare charge will appear on the purchasing card module 48 hours after booking the airline ticket.

• Approver must verify the amount on the purchasing card module to the airfare invoice.

• If you are combining a business and personal trip you cannot use the Purchasing Card. You will need to use your personal credit card and then be reimbursed for the business portion. Upon booking of the ticket you must obtain a written letter from the travel provider explaining what the airfare would have cost without the personal portion and include it with your reimbursement.

• Provide your purchasing card number to the hotel when making reservation and upon check-in. Ensure that the dates and destination correspond to what has been approved on the T.A.R.

• Personal expenses are NOT authorized to be charged to the purchasing card even if you intend to reimburse the University for those charges upon completion of the trip. Charging personal expenditures to the card is specifically prohibited by the State Comptroller's Office.

• Review your hotel bill carefully upon check-out. Request the hotel to remove from the bill personal charges and to provide you with a revised bill. You must pay for those charges with your personal funds at the time of check-out.

• Provide the original hotel bill to your purchasing card approver.

• Remember that the charges will show up in the purchasing card module 48 hours after check-out. These charges must be approved by your purchasing card approver no later than 5 calendar days after they appear in the module.

• You may use the purchasing card to purchase gasoline when using a rented car or university owned vehicle.

• You may not use the purchasing card when traveling on your personal vehicle.

• Meals are NOT AUTHORIZED to be charged to the purchasing card.

• Use the purchasing card for other "authorized" charges such as parking, tolls, taxis, etc. Obtain a copy of the receipt and forward to your purchasing card approver.

• You are NOT authorized to use the purchasing card to pay for personal emergencies incurred while traveling on University business. Example of unauthorized personal expenditures are:

CHARGING OTHER TRAVELER’S EXPENDITURES

• You are NOT authorized to use your purchasing card to charge travel expenditures of others, even if those individuals are also traveling on University business and the expenditure will be charged to your department's account.

The purchasing card is NOT AUTHORIZED to be used outside the United States. However, you may use the purchasing card for the purchase of an international airline ticket.

SUBMISSION OF RECEIPTS

• Sign receipts and submit to your purchasing card approver within 48 hours of charging the transaction to your card.

• Write the account number on the receipt, if other than the purchasing card default account.

• If you will not return to the University in time to meet the approval deadline, you must fax copies of the receipts to your purchasing card approver, or otherwise provide the information to that individual.

As noted throughout these procedures, charges made to the purchasing card will appear in the purchasing card module 48 hours after the transaction takes place. These charges must be approved by your purchasing card approver within 5 calendar days.

• Provide all signed receipts to your purchasing card approver with sufficient time to meet the approval deadline.

• Purchasing card approver must approve charges no later than 5 calendar days after the charges appear in the purchasing card module.

• Purchasing card approver must notify the purchasing card administrator in the Controller's Office at 348-2131 if receipts for unauthorized expenditures are submitted by the traveler.

• Purchasing card approver must retain receipts for 5 years.

TRAVEL REIMBURSEMENT VOUCHER

• The travel reimbursement voucher must be filed with the Travel Section of the Controller's Office within 10 days after completion of the trip.

• If all travel expenditures were charged to the purchasing card and no reimbursement is owed to the traveler, a travel reimbursement voucher does not have to be completed and filed with the Travel Section. You must, however, notify the Travel Section to close the TAR and unencumber unspent balance.

• At the present time, this exemption applies only when using the purchasing card. If you do not use the purchasing card and reimbursement of travel expenses is not owed to you, a travel reimbursement voucher with $0 must still be filed with the Travel Section.

RANDOM AUDITS

• Travel expenditures charged to the purchasing card are subject to random audits by the State Comptroller’s auditors. Failure to provide receipts and appropriate documentation upon audit, will result in the termination of the purchasing card privilege and possible disciplinary action.

• Travelers will be personally liable for unauthorized charges uncovered during the random audits. This will also result in termination of the purchasing card privilege and possible disciplinary action.

CARD REVOCATION

Use of the purchasing card for travel is a great convenience. You are no longer required to pay for most travel expenditures with personal funds and wait for reimbursement later on.

The procedures and deadlines described in this document have been developed to comply with rules of the State Purchasing Card Program. Failure to comply with these procedures will result in revocation of your card privileges.