P-Card Frequently Asked Questions
What is the payment process?
Answer: Each cardholder receives one monthly statement of his/her transactions from their agency coordinator. Each agency verifies and reconciles one monthly total for all agency transactions and processes one monthly payment to U.S. Bank.
What is the difference between a State issued commercial credit card (P-Card) and a regular credit card?
Answer: The P-Card is a commercial Visa credit card and facilitates more options than a personal credit card. Dollar and transaction limits can be encoded directly into the magnetic strip, allowing each card to be individually customized to meet the cardholder and organization’s needs.
Controls include:
• Monthly spending limit
• Single purchase transaction limit
• Limit the number of transactions daily and monthly
• Restrictive or permissive commodity classification
What is the benefit for the Cardholder?
Answer: The P-Card allows the cardholder to get the job done with greater efficiency by reducing processing time to obtain commodities and facilitates the purchase of travel services.
What is the benefit for the Organization?
Answer:
The P-Card reduces the time and paperwork associated with:
• Purchase Orders
• Invoices
• Checks
The P-Card offers an alternative to a variety of processes including:
• Petty cash
• Check requests
• Low dollar purchase orders
• Travel reimbursement
• Online purchases/registrations
What is the benefit for the Vendor?
Answer: Accepting the P-Card ensures the vendor payment within 48 hours; increasing cash flow, reducing wasteful paperwork, and reducing accounts receivable overhead costs.
What are the perks associated with the P-Card Program?
P-Cards offer flexibility and security including:
• Streamlines and simplifies purchasing & accounts payable functions
• Reduces transaction costs
• Facilitates timely acquisition of materials
• Supports travel services
• Offers flexible controls
• Automates data transactions
• Tracking purchases
• Reports for transaction spend
• Improves vendor relations
• Rebates can be earned
