Answer: Department of Administrative Services and Office of the State Comptroller have come together to co-sponsor commercial card solutions for the State of Connecticut. Save time. Get your purchases quickly. Order from the Internet. Pay one bill. Write one check – instead of hundreds. The P-Card Program is designed and intended to more effectively meet your purchasing and travel needs.
Answer: The P-Card Program is a MasterCard issued by JP Morgan Chase. It works just like a personal credit card. However, each card has custom designed features, with built in controls, to meet the specific needs of the cardholder and the agency.
The process is fully automated, allowing all purchases to be tracked and easily managed. Each credit card issued can be monitored using Pathway, an Internet application, to view transactions 24 hours after a purchase has been made.
Answer: Each cardholder receives one monthly Pathway statement of his/her transactions from their agency coordinator. Each agency verifies and reconciles one monthly total for all agency transactions and processes one monthly payment to JPMorgan Chase Bank.
Answer: The P-Card, since it is a commercial card, facilitates more options than a regular credit card. Limits can be encoded directly into the magnetic strip, allowing each card to be individually customized to meet the cardholder and agency’s needs. Controls include:
• Monthly spending limit
• Single purchase transaction limit
• Limit to the number of transactions daily and monthly
• Restrictive or permissive commodity classification
Answer: The P-Card allows the cardholder to get the job done with greater efficiency by reducing processing time and by obtaining commodities and travel services faster.
Answer: The P-Card reduces the time and paperwork associated with:
• Purchase Orders up to $2500
• Invoices
• Checks
The P-Card reduces the time and paperwork associated with:
• Petty cash
• Check requests
• Low dollar purchase orders
Answer: Accepting the P-Card ensures the vendor payment within 48 hours; increasing cash flow, reducing wasteful paperwork, and reducing accounts receivable overhead costs.
Answer: P-Cards offer flexibility and security including:
• Streamlines and simplifies purchasing & accounts payable functions
• Eliminates waste & low value activities
• Reduces transaction costs
• Facilitates timely acquisition of materials
• Supports travel services
• Offers flexible controls
• Automates data transactions
• Improves vendor relations
Answer: YES! While the P-Card is a purchasing tool, it does not signal a change in policy regarding compliance with the State’s contract suppliers.
DAS Procurement Services is authorized to negotiate and issue contracts that will provide the State with “least total cost” arrangements for goods and services required from outside vendors. In negotiating those contracts, DAS Procurement Services will consider not only the vendor’s line item pricing for the products or services, but will also consider the vendor’s:
• Ability to provide the necessary quality, delivery and service
• Overall pricing structure
• Financial stability
• Warranty and Service Policies
Supplier contract pricing and performance are normally based on the State’s overall anticipated volume of purchases during the contract period. In order to assure state agencies of “least total cost” of goods or services, and to fulfill the obligation to consolidate all of its requirements with the authorized contract supplier(s), all offices are obligated to order required goods or services from those suppliers who are authorized contract suppliers.
*Circumventing the use of these contracts may result in some initial savings, but repeated circumvention reduces contract value, discourages vendors from bidding in the future and eventually results in higher prices. What appears to be a savings on an individual purchase basis can and often does result in higher costs over time.
Answer: The procedure to follow for when a card is lost or stolen is listed below. It outlines the process and responsibilities of each role: cardholder, coordinator and administrator.
Cardholders:
If your card is lost, stolen or misplaced - immediately make two phone calls:
1. JPMorgan Chase Bank: 1-800-316-6056
2. Contact Your Agency P-Card Coordinator:
• Bank representatives are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• A recording will welcome you to JPMorgan Chase Bank and ask you to press 1 for English (if you stay on the line, it will offer other languages).
• Another recording will then ask you to enter your account number or if you are reporting a card lost or stolen to press the pound (#) key.
• You will be connected to a bank representative and they will cancel your card. A new account number and plastic is automatically generated. It is mailed out to the P-Card Administrator*, Kerry DiMatteo.
Agency Coordinators:
Once your cardholder contacts you reporting that their card has been lost or stolen, you have two things to do:
1. Confirm that the cardholder reported their card lost or stolen to the bank.
2. Email the P-Card Administrator, Kerry DiMatteo at kerry.dimatteo@ct.gov to notify her that a card was reported lost/stolen to the bank and alert her that a replacement card will be sent to her attention.
*P-Card Administrator:
• Keeps an electronic file (email) of the lost/stolen account and has documentation that a replacement card will be sent to her attention.
• Waits for new plastic to arrive, then adds the new account number to the Coordinator's list of cardholders in Pathway.
• Another recording will then ask you to enter your account number or if you are reporting a card lost or stolen to press the pound (#) key.
Any additional questions on the process for addressing lost or stolen cards should be directed to the P-Card Administrator:
Ms. Kerry DiMatteo P-Card Administrator
State of Connecticut
DAS – Procurement Services
165 Capitol Avenue 5th floor south
Hartford, Connecticut 06106
Telephone Number 860 713-5072
Fax Number: 860 622-2920
Kerry.DiMatteo@ct.gov
Answer: Ms. Kerry DiMatteo P-Card Administrator
State of Connecticut
DAS – Procurement Services
165 Capitol Avenue 5th floor south
Hartford, Connecticut 06106
Telephone Number 860 713-5072
Fax Number: 860 622-2920
Kerry.DiMatteo@ct.gov
Answer: Ms. Elise Helmecki, Assistant Director
State of Connecticut
Office of the State Comptroller – Policy Services
55 Elm Street
Hartford, Connecticut 06106
Telephone Number 860 702-3434
Fax Number: 860 702-3688
Elise.Helmecki@po.state.ct.us
Answer: Contact your Agency Travel Coordinator to review your agency’s travel procedures. Travel reservations can be made through Sanditz Travel, the state contracted vendor. When making reservations the following information needs to be provided to the travel agent:
• Agency name and number
• Agency billing address
• Travel authorization number (TA#)
• Employee profile information
Answer: Sanditz Travel Corporate Office – Middletown, Connecticut
98 Washington Street
Middletown, Connecticut 06457
Telephone Number 860 346-5511
Fax Number: 860 346-2672
Website: http://www.sanditz.com
Answer: If you have a cardholder traveling outside of the United States, please notify the P-Card Administrator so she can alert the bank and a notification can be put on the cardholder account for the dates of travel. With this notification, the security department that monitors the cards will read all comments on file if anything comes into question. This should keep the account secure and fully functioning.
Answer: The only time the P-Card can be used to purchase gasoline is when the cardholder is refueling an out of state rented vehicle. However, the first choice in refueling would be to use a corporate gas card, for example: Exxon/Mobil, Shell, Citgo.
Answer: While the Sales Tax information available in Pathway can be useful, the data presented is only as good as that sent by the merchant.
Transaction detail is presented in three different levels. Level 1 is the most basic information - merchant name, transaction date, amount, etc. Level 2 allows the merchant to send sales tax information. Level 3 enables the merchant to pass line item detail (i.e. how many pencils you bought, unit price, etc.) or travel-related addendum information. All merchants that accept credit cards pass Level 1 data. A much smaller percentage passes Level 2 and 3 data.
Therefore, you will not always be able to determine electronically that sales tax has been charged. Sales tax information that IS passed is either automatically populated by the more sophisticated merchants or manually entered by those less so. Additionally, clerks may just be tabbing through fields during the purchase and inadvertently enter some information in the sales tax field that is inaccurate.
The most reliable source for this information is the original receipt or invoice presented by the merchant.
Taxes: if you are charged tax, make one attempt to recover the tax with the vendor and get it credited back to your account