Note: Beginning in Fiscal Year 2024, to support compliance with policies related to proper use of PCard and TCard, a suspension process will be implemented for individual PCards and Travel Cards (TCards) with certain force cleared transaction patterns. Learn more in the Fingate Announcement.
Clearing transactions in a timely manner, ensuring expenses are appropriately allocated, and conducting reconciliations and reviews as needed are critical activities at the department level. These best practices help mitigate fraud, waste, and abuse and support financial stewardship excellence for the university. The quarterly clearing process, managed by Stanford Financial Management Services (FMS), represents an additional control in this process, ensuring that transactions are cleared and identified for management review and further reinforces the department-level activities. The quarterly clearing process is based on fiscal quarters within the fiscal year.
Stanford’s policy for Travel Cards and Purchasing Cards requires transactions to be verified and approved within 60 days of the completion of travel (for TCards) or the SU Credit Card Posted Date (for PCards). Advances must be cleared or returned within 60 days of their expected clearing date.
FMS will force clear transactions aged beyond 60 days to the card’s guarantee PTA (for PCards and TCards) or to the org’s AP Default Account (for advances). Budget units will be charged $35 for each transaction that is force cleared. For current fiscal year deadlines and reminder dates, see the aging transactions clearing deadlines below.
When an expense is force cleared, it is still critical to create and store supporting documentation for audit per Admin Guide 3.1.5 Retention of Financial Records as well as move charges to an appropriate PTA and expenditure type if the force clear PTAE was not appropriate.
For more information on viewing, monitoring, and clearing aging transactions, visit Topic Overview: Managing Aging and Outstanding Expense Transactions.
Below are the important dates and deadlines to clear aging transactions for FY24. Per policy, FMS will force clear advances to the org’s Accounts Payable (AP) Default PTA, and clear PCard and TCard transactions to the card’s guarantee PTA, charging a fee for each force cleared transaction.
Transactions that are not cleared in a timely manner may also result in tax reporting impacts.
Fiscal Year 2024 Aging Transactions Clearing Deadlines
This chart shows the clearing deadlines for all of fiscal year 2024 (FY24), based on the fiscal quarter.
| Transactions begin aging* | FMS sends reminder to finance contacts about approaching deadline | Last day for departments to resolve (or clear) transactions | FMS force clears outstanding transactions and charges fees ($35 per transaction line) | Force cleared transactions viewable in Force Clear Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sept. 1, 2023 through Nov. 30, 2023 | Jan. 17, 2024 | Jan. 31, 2024 | Feb. 2, 2024; posted to FEB-2024 | Feb. 29, 2024 |
| Dec. 1, 2023 through Feb. 29, 2024 | April 16, 2024 | April 30, 2024 | May 3, 2024; posted to MAY-2024 | May 31, 2024 |
| March 1, 2024 through May 31, 2024 | July 17, 2024 | July 31, 2024 | Aug. 2, 2024; posted to AUG-2024 | Aug. 31, 2024 |
| June 1, 2024 through Aug. 31, 2024 | Oct. 17, 2024 | Oct. 31, 2024 | Nov. 4, 2024; posted to NOV-2024 | Nov. 30, 2024 |
*Note: PCard starts aging on posted date, TCard starts aging on posted date if there is no expense end date, and advance aging begins with the expected clearing date.
