Approver Responsibilities

An Approver is the individual assigned to a Cardholder to ensure compliance with procurement card guidelines and with MFA fiscal and procurement rules by reviewing the transactions found on an expense report. A Cardholder cannot function as his or her own Approver. The Approver plays a critical role in ensuring the integrity of the procurement card program at the departmental level.  Approvers are responsible for:

• Attending PCard training;
• Reviewing all online simulations for iBuy+ Expense Reporting Training;
• Monitoring transactions of assigned Cardholder(s) for appropriateness of purchase;
• Ensuring adequate transaction documentation, including explanation of business purpose for unusual purchases;
• Identifying possible violations of assigned Cardholder(s);
• Taking appropriate action if violations are found;
• Ensuring expense reports are submitted by the Cardholder within 30 days of the transaction date;
• Approving expense reports within 15 days of the submission date; and,
• Notifying the PCard Program of changes in departmental program participants.

Approvers must ensure transactions have the required documentation. If the required documentation is lost, or if the merchant did not provide documentation, the Cardholder should contact the merchant directly to request it. If the required documentation cannot be obtained, the Cardholder must explain the situation in the Comments field in the Expense Report. 

Per MFA guidelines, purchases of $75 or less do not require the submission of a receipt when submitting an expense report in the iBuy + Expense Reporting System. It is the Cardholder's responsibility to gather and retain supporting documentation for their PCard purchases. This documentation will take the form of a supplier-produced document that contains detailed information regarding the transaction. This includes cash register receipts, charge slips, invoices, and/or computer screen printouts. The documentation should always contain the following information:

• merchant name and address
• unit prices
• transaction total amount
• transaction date
• transaction details: item description(s),quantities ordered and received

For travel and entertainment expenses, additional documentation may be required, such as hotel folios, airline flight coupons, etc. Additionally, business meals and entertainment require special notes submitted via the iBuy+ Expense Reporting system, such as:

• attendees’ names, titles and affiliations (company or organization).  If this is a meal with just yourself, then you must add your name as attendee.
• the specific business purpose of the meal/entertainment.  

PCard Delinquent Reporting Protocol

The protocol has multiple purposes:

• Obtain immediate action from employees and PCard holders to submit an expense report to address the aging charges.
• Define the escalation path when timely action by the PCard holder does not occur. At 40 days, escalation to the employee’s manager will occur.
• Define appropriate time frame for additional corrective activity such as declining reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses, suspension of PCard privileges and including the amount on the employee’s W-2.

More details regarding delinquent reporting can be found here.

If a MFA PCard holder transfers to another department:

The PGA of the new department must send a request into pcard@mfa.gwu.edu:

• Requesting that the individual be moved.
• Needs to provide the new Backup 1 and 2 (optional) approvers
• Needs to provide the new alias for the employee. 

The employee needs to:

• Make sure all charges from their previous department are reconciled in Concur.
• Provide their new business address and phone number to pcard@mfa.gwu.edu. At this time it’s good to also confirm your home address and cell phone.
• That any auto billed accounts are adjusted as needed.
• Update to their new default approver.

Please do not have the employee apply for a new card.  If a new card number is needed to assist with the transition that can be done with the current account.

If a MFA P-Card holder is leaving GW, the Cardholder must:

• Email pcard@mfa.gwu.edu with a cc to their PGA stating the MFA PCard (include the last 4 digits only) was destroyed.
  • The PCard Department will cancel the P-Card.
• Assign at least one individual to be your delegate in Concur for any outstanding charges or credits.
• Submit a report clearing out any current PCard charges.
• Provide full back-up on any outstanding charges to their delegate and PGA. This information should include, itemized receipts, business reason, attendee’s names (if needed), itemizations (if needed), Oracle Alias (if charges should be assigned to another) and any other information needed for these transactions. Items without backup will be considered personal use costs and put on the employee’s year end W2.