On February 14, Financial Management Services improved how Purchasing Cards (PCards) and Travel Cards (TCards) are requested and managed. These changes make the application process more efficient and user-friendly. The changes also provide more guidance on managing spending limits, which strengthens Stanford’s internal controls and reduces the risk associated with these university-liability credit cards.

Changes to the application process help users to track PCard and TCard applications from beginning to end. The changes include:

  • Updated status terms that make it easier to track an application.
  • Revised and condensed workflow notifications that are clear and useful to the recipient.
  • Visibility into the entire application process for requesters, managers, financial approvers, cardholders and custodians, and verifiers.

Changes within the Stanford Credit Card Application in Oracle Financials, including several new fields, make it easier to navigate and fill out the application correctly.

The navigation menu expands at the top left, with options to submit a request or view the status of an application. New information icons also appear next to many fields, which users can click to learn more about that field.

New and updated fields include:

  • Built-in per-transaction PCard limits (capped at $4,999 or less per transaction) and monthly spending limits (capped at $30,000) to match current PCard policies.
    • Note: Departments may choose to set lower PCard limits.
  • A new alert if a cardholder or custodian’s application may already be in the system
  • An option to add an alternate address for card delivery, for example if the cardholder/custodian works remotely and needs the card delivered to their home address. Please confirm that your current Business Address is accurate.
    • Note: PCards and TCards cannot be delivered to a P.O. Box address.
Updated navigation and fields on the credit card application

A new Review and Submit page allows users to review and edit an application before submitting it.

New review and submit screen

The Credit Card Profiles Change Request tool now includes a new temporary monthly limit option for PCards and TCards.

Purchasing Cards also now have two options to request exceptions: a per-transaction limit option, and an option to request a temporary use for a Merchant Category Code (MCC). Because some gift card purchases are declined by merchants who identify themselves as cash merchants, the temporary MCC exception allows users to request this exception for a specific date range within the Credit Card Profiles Change Request Tool, rather than submitting a support request.

 

screen showing per-transation and MCC limit options

To answer questions more easily, both the application and the change request tool now include direct links to Financial Support Center requests.

New and reissued PCards and TCards will now have a new design. PCards will be a silver color, and TCards will be bronze. New and reissued PCards and TCards will still display the Stanford logo, but the account numbers and expiration dates will appear on the back of the card for added security. This change only affects the card design; account numbers and expiration dates will not change.

PCard and TCard cardholders and custodians were notified about this new design in December.

This is the new PCard design:

image of PCard card design

This is the new TCard design:

 

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