Only Delegated Purchasers or members of the Purchasing team are authorised to make purchases for the Client Company, except in certain authorised cases.

Purchasing Cards, Procurement Cards or P-cards

Purchasing cards, also known as "Procurement Cards" or "P-Cards" will be used by members of the Purchasing team and Delegated Purchasers for transactions of less than € 500 / £ 300 in the UK. Purchasing cards are similar to credit cards but in the UK have the ability to capture Net and VAT information if special Purchasing Card capable suppliers are used. Outside of the UK credit cards will be used for the same purposes.

Purchasing Card Process Flow Chart

Royal Bank of Scotland OneCard

the Client Company has selected the Royal Bank of Scotland Procurement Card / Purchasing Card as its purchasing card.

Royal Bank of Scotland Purchasing Card Help-line

0870 909 3702
Monday - Friday: 8.00 - 18.00
Saturday: 9.00 - 13.00

Purchasing Cards Complement JD Edwards Oracle ERP system

Purchasing cards complement Oracle ERP system in several ways:

Purchasing cards can substitute up to 50% of Oracle ERP system purchasing and invoicing transactions, yet this only affects ~2% of the total value of the Client Company’s purchases.
Transactions with purchasing card are easier. Purchases can be made in person, over the phone, by fax or at secure websites (but not by e-mail).
Purchasing-cards save Accounts Payable substantial time for low value purchases:
- Instead of hundreds of invoices from different suppliers, Accounts Payable receive one credit card statement.
- Because purchases below £ 300 (or € 500 outside of the UK) represent <2% of the Client Company's spend, costs don’t need to be coded by category.
- In the UK if one of the listed suppliers are used, the Client Company's VAT returns are simplified dramatically because reclaimable VAT is itemised on the purchasing card statement and doesn't have to be calculated manually.
Lower transactional costs than Oracle ERP system purchase orders.
Better for higher-volume / lower-value transactions.
No contractual protection from the Client Company's standard terms and conditions of contract (on the back of ERP Programme purchase orders).
Because of their lower value a approval for purchasing-card (p-card) transactions can occur after the event. However, if they wish, budget holders can require Delegated Purchasers to seek approval before using the p-card.

The Client Company Forms

The Client Company Purchasing Card Log Purchasing Card Form Purchasing Card Forms

Purchasing Card Administrators

The following individuals are Purchasing Card Administrators;

United Kingdom: Sxxxx Pxxxxxx

Monthly Credit Limit

An initial monthly credit limit of £ 5,000 has been set for each card. If this is found to be insufficient contact your Purchasing Card Administrator to discuss a revision.

Transaction Limit

the Client Company has an agreed maximum purchasing card transaction limit for Delegated Purchasers of £ 300 / € 500 inclusive of any VAT, carriage charges etc.. The card must not be used for purchases in excess of this limit. Attempts to do this will be met with a decline when authorisation is sought for the transaction.

Furthermore, making any one purchase of more than £ 300 / € 500 split between more than one purchasing card transaction is not authorised within Delegated Purchasing authority rules. The following procedures apply in the case of purchasing transactions above this limit.

More about placing orders for > £ 300 but < £ 2,000 / € 3000 per transaction
More about placing orders for > £ 2,000 / € 3000 per transaction

Where Purchasing Cards Can be Used

Suppliers that accept purchasing cards fall into two categories;

Purchasing Card Capable Suppliers

Purchasing-card capable merchants or suppliers provide the following substantial benefits to the Client Company above those offered by a suppliers which simply accept MasterCard transactions. This category sub-divides into two more categories.

All merchants / suppliers which are purchasing card capable (said to be ~8,000 currently in the UK) have special payment terminals which automatically enable the Royal Bank of Scotland to provide a VAT breakdown on the Client Company's purchasing card statement. This means that input VAT can be reclaimed by the Client Company without having to analyse any receipts. This either saves a substantial amount of time and effort for the Finance team or increases the amount of VAT which can be re-claimed.

A smaller proportion of the above suppliers (usually the larger businesses) additionally report what was purchased to "line item detail" (LID) on the credit card statement e.g. "twenty blue pens".

Suppliers That Accept MasterCard but Aren't Purchasing Card Capable

There are hundreds of thousands of businesses which accept payment by MasterCard and since a purchasing card is in essence a special credit card, these a purchasing card can be used at any MasterCard capable supplier. However, unlike Purchasing Card Capable Suppliers because they don't have special payment terminals, the VAT element of a purchase can't be identified automatically on the purchasing card statement.

In these cases VAT receipts must be collected by card holders and the input VAT from non Purchasing Card Capable suppliers recorded on the Purchasing Card Log and following budget holder authorisation, forwarded with the receipts to the Purchasing Card Administrator at the end of each month, so that VAT can be reclaimed.

The Purchasing Card Administrator may decide that because of the value of transactions placed with a non Purchasing Card Capable supplier, that it would be worth attempting to have them upgrade their MasterCard terminal to one which is Purchasing Card Capable. In this event the Purchasing Card Administrator would call the Help-line.

New Suppliers ?

Whilst Delegated Purchasers may not add new suppliers to ERP Programme / Oracle ERP system without the authorisation of a member of the Purchasing Team, no such supplier restrictions apply to new suppliers for purchasing-card transactions. It is not necessary for a new supplier for a purchasing card transaction to be approved by the Purchasing Team.

Introducing New Suppliers

If you are regularly placing p-card orders with a supplier which is not Purchasing Card Capable and as a consequence it is more difficult for the Client Company to collect a significant value of input VAT, propose that the supplier becomes Purchasing Card Capable, by completing the appropriate part of the Purchasing Card Forms and sending it to your Purchasing Card Administrator.

Placing Purchasing Card Orders

The card holder personally needs to place the order. This can be in one of four ways: -

Ordering the goods/service by telephone.
Ordering by mail where an application form can be completed with details for charge card payment.
Ordering by fax, providing the necessary card and delivery details.
Personally visiting the supplier’s premises and purchasing the goods / service face to face.
Ordering from a secure website.

NOTE: Providing card details to suppliers by email is not permitted.

NOTE: All purchases (whether transacted with a purchasing card or through ERP Programme) must be delivered to a the Client Company address and never to a private address.

N.B. where documentation is used for ordering the card holder should not leave paperwork around displaying the card number.

In all instances the card holder must inform the supplier of: -

The full purchasing-card number and date of expiry.
The full name of the card holder (as shown on the card).
The company name
The Customer Code which may be constructed of 16 characters (alpha / numeric) : e.g. 8800 5260 where 8800 is the cost centre and 5260 is the account code. (To be customised to companies requirements – if using enhanced data capable suppliers)
When undertaking transactions by mail / telephone order or over the internet you may be asked to quote the last three digits of the number printed within the signature slip on the reverse of your card (CVV number).
You may also be asked to quote the numbers in the company's billing address; which is the UK Plant site address
The full delivery address.
A clear description of the goods required.
The delivery note should be marked prior to shipment :-
- “MasterCard purchasing card paid”
- card holder’s Name and Location/Department

Details of the transaction must be recorded on each purchasing card holder's Purchasing Card Log and updated when the goods/service are received. If there are any items under dispute with the supplier they should be clearly identified as such on the log .

You will be made aware from the monthly individual card holder statement from Smart Data whether an invoice is required or not (depends on card holder viewing capability).

Where the supplier needs to send an invoice (i.e. non-Vat capable suppliers) it must be sent directly to you. Failure to do this may result in the invoice being paid twice. It is imperative that these invoices are retained in order for submittal at the end of the month with the card holder transaction report/ statement and log. Failure to comply will result in the company not having the evidence to enable the reclaim of VAT on the transaction.

Recording the Receipt of Goods / Services

Delegated Purchasers are responsible for recording the receipt of goods and services that they have purchased or delegating it to an appropriate third party. Delegation of the receipting activity though does not absolve the Delegated Purchaser from responsibility for receipting.

Smart Data On Line

Onecard provides an electronic management information system via the internet called Smart Data. Although each purchasing card holder's Purchasing Card Log can be used to reconcile their monthly purchases against receipts, Smart Data allows card holders and managers alike to view transactions electronically. With this easy-to-use system, card holders can log on with a standard internet browser using an assigned username and password. Each card holder is only be able to view their own transactions, identified by their unique card number. Transactions can be viewed as often as daily for reconciliation against point-of-sale receipts, approving the automated accounting code assignment or making a change, adding any required notations for travel expense reporting, or initiating the dispute process. Reconciled transactions can in the same way be reviewed by the Budget Holder or the Purchasing Card Administrator.

The access to Smart Data will initially be to nominated contact points within the Client Company enabling the monitoring of purchasing card expenditure. This management information has a wide range of uses including being used to support supplier negotiations. Selected reports can also be made available to card holders if desired. "card holders can also obtain real time 24/7 access to transaction data via a new service called Cards On Line . This service will allow card holders to search for specific transactions and also give them access to their monthly card statement.

Cards On Line

With Cards On Line, the Purchasing Card Administrator has the ability to change address and card holder name details and also post company messages online to card holders regarding company initiatives.

Reconciling Transactions & Obtaining Budget-Holder Approval

It is the responsibility of the Delegated Purchaser / card holder to reconcile the purchasing card statement with actual purchases and therefore to validate (or otherwise) the purchasing card statement before approval is sought from the Budget Holder. The Purchasing Card Log can be reconciled at any time during the month using the Smart Data On Line (on-line statement) facility.

The process steps for transaction data validation and cost/charge code allocation are:

Delegated Purchaser / card holder records transactions on the Purchasing Card Log.
Delegated Purchaser / card holder reconciles transactions recorded on Purchasing Card Log ; with the Smart Data On Line (on-line statement) facility.
Delegated Purchaser / card holder allocates appropriate expense/account codes to the transactions (or amends the default expense/account code where linked to a Merchant Category Code/Group). Specified range of the Client Company's expense/ account codes are loaded into the system for menu access by Delegated Purchasers / card holders; ???
Additional project code, asset purchase details, line item description, taxation information, can be added to the transaction in fields allocated where required;
Delegated Purchasers / card holders can:
- split the transaction either by amount or percentage across expense/ account codes and/ or across cost/budget centers as necessary;
- print screens of confirmed transaction, attach supporting documentation and retain them for audit and/ or management scrutiny;
Delegated Purchaser / card holder completes validation and cost allocation process and forwards transactions electronically to the Budget Holder for authorisation.
Once authorised, the Budget Holder forwards the transaction data electronically to the Purchasing Card Administrator;
The Delegated Purchaser / card holder sends VAT receipts and the Purchasing Card Log to the Purchasing Card Administrator; separately identifying the VAT content of purchases from suppliers that are not Purchasing Card capable.
The Purchasing Card Administrator, updates the management accounts accordingly..

Billed But Goods / Services Not Received

If an item is charged to the card holder's account but the goods or services ordered have not been received, or are incorrect, the card holder should contact the supplier.

It is a MasterCard regulation that the transaction is not processed until the goods are dispatched. Inform your Purchasing Card Administrator if you believe this regulation has been breached.

A refund can be claimed from the merchant only after allowing 60 days from the transaction date for the delivery of the correct goods.

Missing Transactions

Any purchases made just prior to statement date will show up on the following month’s statement. If any transactions do not turn up as anticipated it is possible that the supplier has forgotten to enter the purchase into the MasterCard system.

Incorrect Amount Billed

When checking your monthly statement against your Purchasing Card Log you may identify a transaction that you are not happy with. In these circumstances contact the supplier to seek explanation/adjustment. In the event that the discrepancy remains unresolved see Discrepancies & Disputes below.

Discrepancies & Disputes

If having unsuccessfully tried to resolve a disputed transaction directly with a supplier the purchasing card holder should contact the Purchasing Card Administrator using the enclosed Purchasing Card Forms and provide copies of all relevant information.

The card issuing bank has the right in certain circumstances to claim back money from a merchant but only within a limited time span. It is important to inform The Royal Bank of Scotland preferably within four weeks of the statement date of any disputed transaction, which cannot be quickly resolved directly with the supplier. Please note: the Royal Bank of Scotland will do all we can to help you resolve any problem with refunds, but will only be able to begin investigations on your behalf once 45 days have passed since the date of the agreed refund.

Refunds Not Applied

If an expected refund does not appear on your statement, please contact the Help-line., who may require you to provide the original transaction and a copy of the refund voucher or other documentation, together with details of your discussions with the merchant.

Credited Values

Any credited values appearing on the purchasing card statement will be for settlement of previously disputed items. The card holder should make reference next to the entry detailing which item resolved by such credits. A copy of the original statement with the disputed item on should be identified as cleared and passed to the Purchasing Card Administrator with a copy of the completed Purchasing Card Log .

If there are any transactions on the log but do not appear on the most recent purchasing card statement these should appear on the next months statement. Delete the transaction from this months log and transfer to next month's log.

Rejection of Goods / Services

If the goods or services are rejected, ensure that the supplier is informed directly, and try to reach an agreement to return the goods and obtain a refund. There is no need to await receipt of the purchasing card statement before raising the problem with the supplier. If the supplier agrees they will arrange a credit to the appropriate purchasing card account. Please note that refunds from abroad may vary from the original transaction amount due to exchange rates. To aid reconciliation, it is suggested that the card holder retains a record of the credit at the time the goods are returned, rather than waiting for the statement to arrive.

The credit will appear on the monthly statement and , when granted by the supplier should therefore be entered on the Purchasing Card Log to aid reconciliation.

If you cannot come to mutual agreement with the supplier, contact your Purchasing Card Administrator.

Amending Name of Purchasing Card Holder

If you need to amend your name on the card (e.g. because of marriage etc.) contact your Purchasing Card Administrator who will obtain and complete an Amendments Form (Form 8) from the Royal Bank of Scotland. A replacement card will then be issued. When the replacement card arrives, the obsolete card should be cut in half across the magnetic strip and also through the part of the card containing the Chip and then returned to your Purchasing Card Administrator.

Non Receipt of Purchasing Cards

Your replacement card should be received approximately 14 days before the renewal date. Non receipt should be advised immediately to you Purchasing Card Administrator.

Security of the Purchasing Card,

The card provided to Delegated Purchasers and is to be used by Delegated Purchasers only and must not be lent to anyone else. It is in the name of the company and it is the responsibility of the Delegated Purchaser to ensure that it is retained in a secure location. In conjunction with the most advanced banking security available all card holders will be issued with a PIN. card holders may be asked to key in their PIN on special keypads, instead of signing a receipt, in certain merchant outlets. PIN’s will be sent directly to all new card holders.

Lost or Stolen Purchasing Cards

Each Purchasing Card is for the exclusive use of the appropriate Delegated Purchaser who must ensure that it is kept securely at all times. If a Purchasing Card is lost or stolen, the card holder must telephone the Royal Bank of Scotland (24/7) Lost & Stolen Help-line. on 0870 6000 459 and complete the relevant part of the Purchasing Card Forms and send it to the Purchasing Card Administrator.

If a card is subsequently found, it must not be used but should be destroyed by cutting it in half through the signature box and magnetic stripe and also, if the card has a CHIP through the part of the card containing the CHIP before discarding it. The Bank should be advised by telephone.

Card Lost in the UK

A replacement will normally be des patched within 7 days.

Card Lost Abroad

The MasterCard Assistance Centre will normally provide a temporary emergency replacement Card in 1-3 business days. Depending on location, the replacement Card may be delivered by courier, or collected by the card holder from a designated Emergency Service Centre. Some electronic machines may refuse to accept the temporary emergency Card. Should this be the case, the card holder should advise the supplier to accept the Card and process the transaction on a paper voucher. A permanent replacement will then be issued on the card holder's return to the UK.

Job/Department Change

Upon notice of a job change and/or departmental change, advise your Purchasing Card Administrator as soon as possible. A decision will then be made on the need for your continued use of the card.

Leaving the Client Company

Before leaving the Client Company you must cut your card in half through the magnetic strip and also through the part of the card containing the chip, and return it to your Purchasing Card Administrator.

Diversion Accounting

A unique feature of The Royal Bank of Scotland onecard is the ability to choose a combination of individual billing for certain transactions (such as travel) and diversion billing or company billing for other activity (for example ad hoc purchases). Using merchant category codes that are provided from the point-of-sale, designated transactions are billed either to the card holder or the company based on your programme design.

Automatic Card Renewal

About a month before a Card's expiry date a replacement will be issued automatically. Please ensure that the new Card is kept secure and signed by the nominated card holder as soon as possible. The existing Card should continue to be used until its expiry date, then destroyed. Please note that the new Card can only be used from its "valid from" date. If a new Card does not arrive before the expiry date of the previous Card please call the Help-line. A new PIN will not be issued with the renewal Card, as the existing PIN number will remain valid.

Canceling a Purchasing Card

If a Card is no longer required (for example, when a card holder leaves the organisation), simply destroy it and complete and return an Amendments Form (Form 8). Please remember, your organisation will still be liable for any outstanding authorised card use undertaken by the card holder even after the form has been received by The Royal Bank of Scotland. Your organisation must also inform the originators of any recurring authority agreements, e.g. direct debits, in writing, that the Card has been cancelled, retaining a copy for your records. Please destroy any expired or cancelled cards by cutting horizontally through the magnetic strip and also, if the card has a CHIP through the part of the card containing the CHIP before discarding it.

Failed Transactions ?

This section of the Guide examines possible reasons, and suggests solutions, for the most common types of failed transactions. As a rule, most problems can be solved by the card holder talking directly to the supplier concerned.

Declined Transactions

A transaction may be declined for a number of reasons, such as:

the amount of the transaction exceeds the card holder limit or the individual transaction limit.
the transaction is being undertaken with a retailer where your card holder isn't authorised by your organisation to make purchases.
the Purchasing Card used is not yet valid, or has expired (or been cancelled).
the Purchasing Card has been damaged (if this is the case please request a replacement).
the Purchasing Card has being used for a disallowed Merchant Category

Transactions Not Recognised.

Where the card holder does not recognise a transaction appearing on the statement, please call the Help-line. who will arrange for a Declaration by card holder Form to be sent out for the card holders completion. Once returned to ourselves it will enable us to proceed in recalling the voucher for examination. Please encourage card holders to retain their copy vouchers, as a charge will be levied should the transaction subsequently prove to be genuine.

Transactions Abroad

onecard transactions undertaken whilst abroad will be converted into Sterling at a rate determined by the Bank once the transaction is received by us and applied to your onecard Account. Rates can be subject to continuous fluctuation and are subject to a foreign exchange transaction charge of 2.65%. Please note: refunds received from abroad will not necessarily be for the same Sterling amount as originally debited due to differing exchange rates at the time the refund is credited to the account.

More Information About the Royal Bank of Scotland OneCard

More information on the Royal Bank of Scotland Onecard.

Questions ?

Read our Frequently Asked Questions page first and if you can't find the answer there email: xxxxxxxx@theclientcompany.com. Queries about the Purchase Order approval process should be made to the appropriate Finance Manager.

Purchasing Card / Procurement Card Case Study

For more background on Procurement Cards or Purchasing Cards, see the original BOC Procuremetn Card / Purchasing Card Case Study.