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COAS P-Card Reminders

For all employees who maintain, manage and/or approve a Boise State University P-card under the College of Arts and Sciences, please review the following reminders as you prepare your P-card statement for submission to the Dean’s office:

Before Purchasing

Sales Tax

  • Please be advised that Boise State is exempt from retail Idaho sales tax within Idaho (with some exceptions). Be sure to let the merchant know this at the point of sale. It’s much harder to ask for a refund of sales tax (you will be asked to obtain a refund from the vendor) after the sale than during the sale. This applies to all food, restaurants, and purchases of merchandise for use at Boise State.

State Contract Vendors

  • Remember to use vendors under state contract as our first choice for university purchases (Example: Office Depot for office supplies).
  • Always use the University address as the shipping destination, not your personal residence or another non Boise State University campus address.

Meals and Refreshments

  • Meals and refreshment purchases are not considered an acceptable use of university funds for informal or birthday/holiday get-togethers, casual meetings, or regularly scheduled meetings for staff. If you are unsure if your event/meeting would be appropriate to have the University pay for the associated meals/refreshments, please contact me with the details of the event/meeting and I will review with others in our office. PLEASE DO THIS WELL BEFORE INCURRING ANY EXPENSES.

During Sign-Off

Business Purpose Statement

  • Always use the Business Purpose Statement field in Works for your description for each transaction. Please keep in mind that the Note field is optional. If you want to provide additional info, it’s fine if you use that field.
  • Please always include the what, who, and why for each business purpose statement.
  • Examples
    • Office supplies for department use
    • Book for Dr. Hadley’s TA for History 100 class
    • Airfare for Dr. Roth to attend the AICPA conference

Expense Codes

  • Please review all of your expense codes in Bank of America Works prior to submitting your statement. Most vendors in Works have a default expense code which may not be the correct one for the given transaction.

Sign Off

  • Be sure to sign off on all transactions PRIOR to printing your monthly statement.

Submission

  • Remember to submit an Event Expense Summary form for all campus events involving food, catering or refreshments and include it with your P-Card statement backup.
  • Please keep hand writing on the statements to a minimum.
  • Please use paper clips or a binder clip (not staples) to assemble your statement and backup.
  • Please print single sided for all statements and backup.
  • If you have a small receipt (for example, a credit card receipt), please tape it to a standard size blank sheet of paper. This helps to keep it from getting lost. You do not need to make a copy of the same piece of paper with the receipt on it. We only need the original receipt taped on the paper.
  • Please make sure all statements are signed by your respective department chairs. If you are a department chair, I will sign your statement.

Original p-card documentation will be kept at the Dean’s office for five (5) years.

For questions or concerns, please contact Robert Allen at 208-426-2029.