Purchasing

Overview on Gifts

Gifts for opportunity drawings can be purchased as long as the business purpose and amounts are within the allowable limits set in policy. As a reminder, the gifts must have a clear benefit to UC San Diego and/or your department and should not cost more than the expected benefit.  

**NOTE: Gifts (including gift cards) should NEVER be used as a form of compensation.** 

Before purchasing, please review which category your purchase falls under, all amounts must be within allowable limits set in policy:

• Please note we need to select vendors from the University’s pre-approved list.

• For additional information regarding branding, please visit the UCSD Bookstore website with information on trademarks. 

• Employee Gifts: For employee recognition, retirement, length of service, or sympathy.  

• Retirement/Length of Service gifts note: please reach out to your department’s financial contact for further information since there’s time of service qualifications.  

• Non-Employee Gifts (UC San Diego students, alumni, volunteers, etc): appreciation, recognition, sympathy 

• Note: if the gift recipient is a current UC San Diego employee, employee status overrules the Non-Employee rules.  

• Opportunity Items: door prize or participation incentive 

The State stipulates that you can hold an opportunity drawing (and not have to file with the State) if all of the following are true: 

• It involves a general and indiscriminate distributing of the tickets. 
• The tickets given away have the same winning opportunities as the tickets for which a donation is given. 
• The scheme does not require any of the participants to pay for a chance to win and that fact is clearly advertised. 
  
  

How to pay for gifts? 

Amount Limitations 

Per VCSA BO policy, gifts should be less than $75 per person and per calendar year. If there’s interest in exploring other limits, please reach out to your department’s financial contact. For more info, please see the FAQ section.  

For more information regarding gifts, please check out the following University resources:  

• Gifts for Non Employees
• Employee Non-Cash Gifts and Awards
• Disbursements Gift Card Program
• Non-Cash Award types

Purchasing gifts is not allowed for occasions that are personal in nature, such as:  

• Recreation memberships  

• Season tickets to sporting or cultural events  
• Gifts provided to employees in connection with birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, holidays, farewells, graduations and other occasions of a personal nature  

FAQ 

Q: How to purchase graduation items (giveaways) for students? (IE. yearbooks, cords, medallions, bookstore grad packages) 

A: This is considered a non-employee gift, we can try to request a T&E exception, request a check payable to the vendor, or pay with personal funds and then ask for a reimbursement.  

Q: We buy our student stoles in bulk. How can I pay for this expense? 

A: According to the central office, per case CS0480017, if we give our graduating students a stole in order for them to represent the program when the students “walk” BUT NOT AS A GIFT, this expense can be claimed as a “program supply” expense and we can use our p-card. No recipient list required.  

Q: Are high value gifts allowable? 

A: The short answer is yes, it is possible. However, THIS IS HIGHLY DISCOURAGED!!! The moment we do a high-value opportunity drawing opportunity expense reconciliation, this will automatically become a high-risk expense and will automatically accrue a higher level of scrutiny. We will kindly ask you to please find ways on how we can incentivize more students as a group instead of a single big-ticket item. 

Items for Student Staff or Pro-Staff Gifts 

Q: How to purchase shirts (or jackets, blazers, hats, etc) for employees to wear?  

A: This is an employee-wear expense, you can pay using your p-card or a PO.  

Q: How to purchase end of the year gifts for employees from UC San Diego Bookstore? 

A: Since this is a gift, we need to request a check payable to the vendor (even if it’s UC San Diego), pay with personal funds and then ask for a reimbursement or request an exception on your T&E card.  

Q: What should we gift our employees… gift cards or in-kind gifts items?            

A: This is a decision up to the department to choose. However, since we are in a hybrid environment, we believe e-gift cards are easier (and possibly more cost-effective) because there won’t possibly be mailing and shipping expenses related.  

Purchasing Gift Cards 

If we decide to buy gifts… our recommendation is buy e-gift cards. It’s usually easier and more convenient.  

As a friendly reminder, a gift certificate or card will qualify as tangible personal property if it is: Inscribed with the recipient’s name, Not transferable, and Cannot be redeemed for cash or used to reduce the balance due on the recipient’s account with the merchant.  

• Monetary value range is a $10.00 minimum up to $75.00 maximum per person.  
• Method of Payment: please use personal funds or ask for a T&E exception  

Purchasing Disbursement’s Gift Cards 

Please follow this KBA for instructions on how to purchase gift cards.  

For additional information, please check out the following resources: 

• Disbursements Gift Card Program
• Visa Gift Card
  

Asking for a T&E Card Exception 

The process:   

• If you’re not sure the purchase is allowable, we will kindly ask you to please check in with your department’s financial contact.  
• Please submit a Service & Support ticket directly to the central T&E card team.   

• Go to SNOW ---> Get Help & Service Request
  

Service Portal - Budget & Finance 

Call the UC San Diego Finance Help Line at (858) 246-4237. Knowledgeable agents are standing by to assist you. 

ucsdservicedesk.service-now.com  

Submit a Ticket: In your request, please include the following info:  

• the number of cards they will need to purchase  
• value of each card  
• expected purchase date  
• the merchant they will use 
  
  To give you some context/example, please see below:   
  “The general business purpose is to purchase e-gift cards as opportunity drawing incentives for UC San Diego undergraduate students to participate in our virtual events. The maximum allowable card would be up to $50.00 USD. Request: may I have my T&E card open to purchase two Amazon gift cards for $25.00 USD each? They were opportunity drawing prizes for students who attended our Scholar's Society Valentine's day community (virtual) event.”  

 In addition, it would be great if I can please be added as a “WatchList” person. In this way, your department’s financial analyst is aware of the exceptions requested and we  can help with the request if needed. The watchlist is found in the right bottom section once the ticket has been submitted and it looks like this:    

After the purchase, we will need to reconcile the expense in Concur. Expense reports should be submitted within 2 weeks from purchase.  

To reconcile the T&E expenses, please follow this KBA under “How to Itemize a Gift Expense with Different Denominations”

Procurement Card

Program Highlights

• Limits transaction amounts to $4,999 (including tax, freight, and handling charges)
• Limits monthly cycle limit to $20,000
• The monthly cycle is the 16th of the month through the 15th of the following month 
• For more information, please visit the Blink page.
  
  

P-Card Concur Reconciliation

P-Card Concur Reconciliation Deadlines

The P-Card team’s recommendation is to create reports on a monthly basis. However, if there is a month with a significant volume (10+) transactions, please split the expenses into different reports. 

Personal Identifiable Information

If any receipts/documents include any of the following information, please redact them from the receipts.

• Home addresses
• Social Security numbers
• Birth dates
• Home phone numbers
• Home/Personal email addresses
• Credit cards

For personal/home address, please only include the city, state, and zip code OR redact the specific street address from the attachments. Personal/home addresses are considered sensitive information and should not be included within a Concur Expense Report. 

Tools that may be used (but not limited) to redact receipts are:

• Adobe Acrobat Pro
• Windows’ Paint
  
  

How to reconcile the P-Card transactions?

• Note: Per VCSA BO Policy, itemized receipts must be attached to each transaction.  
• Please follow the “How to Reconcile Transactions and Create a Procurement Card Expense Report” KBA instructions
• A list of the most common used Expenditure Types can be found in here under the P-Card folder
  
• Your department’s COA list can be found in here under the COA folder (access must be requested if it’s the first time logging in)
  
  

How to reconcile P-Card Fraudulent Charges?

Please review the KBA instructions.

Concur Delegates/Delegation of Authority Users

• If an individual needs support for an authorized individual to prepare Concur documents, a delegate needs to be added.  The instructions for “How to Add a Request Delegate and an Expense Delegate in Concur” are here

• Delegation of Authority means an authorized user can submit P-Card reports on behalf of the cardholder (See KBA instructions)
  
  

P-Card Merchant Code Category (MCC)

If the desired purchase is allowed on the p-card but the card is declined, there may be a merchant code category issue.

1. First, call US Bank to learn the reason why your p-card is declined. For more details, please check out “Why did my transaction decline?” FAQ section.  
2. Once US Bank confirms we have a MCC issue, please submit a Concur P-Card MCC request with a DETAILED valid business purpose of what is being purchased and why.
3. View KBA instructions for more.
   

If the desired purchase is NOT usually allowed but we can request an exception, follow the same steps as above. The list is:

• Flower Arrangement/Center pieces for a University event 
• Postage – Off campus usage
  
  

P-Card Restricted Purchases

The most common restricted purchase policy violations are: 

• Gifts (including gift cards)
• Meals
  
• Goods & Services in excess of $4999
  

For a more comprehensive list, please review the blink page regarding common purchases with a p-card.

Policy on Promotional Materials

Promotional materials include goods strictly for non-employees (UC San Diego students, volunteers, etc) and organizations outside of UC San Diego  

• Must be tangible, personal property (non-cash) 
• Cannot exceed $75 per recipient per calendar year  
• Includes the UC San Diego or University logo 

Examples: T-shirts, caps, pennants, mugs, and pens bearing UC San Diego logos 

VCSA P-Card Policy Violations

When a policy violation happens, the cardholder must fill out the VCSA P-Card Policy violation form within 14 days of the delinquent purchase.

Per University’s process requirements, notices of non-compliance will be reported to UC San Diego’s P-Card team. Receipt of 3 (three) notices within a 12-month period (starting from the first infraction purchase date) will result in loss of P-Card usage. 

Shipping Items to Non-UC San Diego Addresses

In order to have items shipped to Non-UC San Diego addresses, a Home Address Authorization must be in place.

Process:

1. Download the Home Address Authorization Form
2. After completing the form, please email it to your department’s financial contact to route it for signatures (allow 2 weeks for documents to be returned)  
3. Cardholder submits P-Card Action/Update Request in Concur using the “P-Card Ship Goods to Off-Campus Address“ option and include a DETAILED valid business purpose of why you need to be able to ship goods to an address other than campus 
4. Concur P-Card Action/Update Request KBA
5. When adding a Project/Task, the system will require an Expenditure Type. To “allocate” the line requests, please follow Method 2

Applying for the P-Card

P-card are primarily allowed for permanent UC San Diego employees (not TES nor STE employees). (*VCSA BO policy)

Process:

1. The employee needs to have a discussion with their supervisor/Unit head if there is a need for them to have a p-card.  
2. The prospective cardholder must attend the University Procurement Card Program UC learning training.   
3. Then, the employee needs to complete the Procurement Card Cardholder Agreement and submit it via email to their department’s financial contact for signatures.  
4. Applications will be routed within 3-5 business days from initial request. Request completion will depend on how quickly the application is signed by the supervisor, MSO, and Department’s DA. 

(Optional) If the employee wishes to have the P-card sent to a non-UC San Diego address, please follow this KBA instructions 

1. Once the application has been signed, the employee needs to submit the Concur P-Card request  
2. Step by Step instructions
3. When adding a Project/Task, the system will require an Expenditure Type. To “allocate” the line requests, please follow Method 2
   
   

Cancelling the P-Card

It is the employee’s responsibility to cancel their corporate credit card(s) before they leave the University or the issuing department. For more information, please follow the KBA to cancel your p-card.

FAQ

Why did my transaction decline?

If your Procurement Card is declined:

The first step is always to contact U.S. Bank at (800) 344-5696 and request the decline reason. Once the decline reason is provided, contact the Procurement Card team to troubleshoot specific issues such as limits and opening vendor codes.

Contact P-Card team by submitting a Services & Support case

For more information on this, please review the blink page.

Who is my Department Administrator?

The department’s Department Administrator (DA) are:

• For AVC Student Retention & Success, Virginia Gross 
• For Changemaker and VCSA, Sara Kaup
• For AVC Global Initiatives, Casey Stilwell
  
• For AVC Student Affairs, Casey Stilwell
    

Need additional support?

Please attend the P-Card team office hours

Travel and Entertainment Card

The Travel & Entertainment Card is used to pay for:

• Official UC San Diego business travel services for the cardholder only.
• Entertainment expenses when the cardholder is acting as the host of official University-sponsored business entertainment
• Food/beverage expenses for events/meetings
  Note: The card is not to be used for personal use.

Before you use the Travel & Entertainment Card for travel or entertainment expenses, you must review card management guidelines.

• For travel: You must ensure that you have an approved Travel Request in Concur before you use the Travel & Entertainment Card for travel expenses.
• For entertainment expenses: Review the guidelines for allowable official entertainment.
  
  

Apply Travel & Entertainment card: Please proceed to Blink to learn more on how to apply for a T&E card.

Reconciliation: Reconcile your Card transactions directly in Concur. For more assistance on this, please refer to this Knowledge Base Article

Benefits:

• Eliminates out-of-pocket expenses: All transactions on the corporate billed Travel & Entertainment Card are automatically billed to UCSD and will post in Concur within 2 business days.
• Real-time fraud alerts provide on-the-spot communication via text or email to approve valid transactions, avoid unnecessary declines and protect account from fraud attempts.

Additional Information:

• Use and benefits
• Management
• For Conference and Hotel prepayments

How to Access Request Forms

1. Go to Oracle Procurement Webiste
2. Login using Single Sign-On
3. Go to "Procure to Pay" and proceed to Purchase Requisitions to view request forms section

For all request forms, it is important to keep in mind the following:

• Shipping should not be added as a line item in your requisition. Instead, you can reference shipping as a comment on your order.

• Purchasing categories are very important both for taxability and for routing. Please refer to the list of purchasing categories as selecting the wrong one may result in your order being rejected or delayed, or in tax being incorrectly applied.

• Forms which are defined by quantity will always have a line type of Goods whereas those defined by amount will always have a line type of Services. The line type has no bearing on whether the form is actually used for goods or services.

Primary Request Forms

Quantity-Based

When using the Quantity-Based request form, the PO generated will close when the full quantity has

been invoiced. It is important to be on the same page with your supplier about how often this order will

be invoiced. If you set up your PO with a quantity of one, then after one invoice, the PO will close. Please

clearly itemize your order so that the first invoice does not close the entire PO. Since amount is

irrelevant for quantity-based POs, it is not necessary to submit change orders to correct line amounts.

Amount-Based

When using the Amount-Based request form, the PO generated will close when the full amount has

been invoiced. Your order does not have a quantity associated at all. Please make sure to put the full

dollar amount of what you’re ordering in the Amount field of the form. For example, if you’re ordering

four units of something, put the price of all four units in the amount field and not just the price of one

unit. You are welcome to group line items together when using the Amount-Based request form, but do

not combine taxable and non-taxable lines.