September 2023

Published monthly, the Fiscal Administrators' News is where you can find the latest information regarding the Office of Procurement Services.

Table of Contents

Grants & Contracts

Effort Certification Reminders

The pre-review period for both, MCV Campus and Monroe Park Campus is now open! Effort Coordinators, please log into ECC and pre-review your effort and project statements before the period closes on September 30, 2023.

We are excited to host weekly office hours in September to answer any questions you may have regarding pre-review or effort reporting. For more information, please check out our training site.


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Procurement Services

New Travel Management System

Procurement Services recently announced the award of a new Travel Management contract for VCU. Collegiate Travel Planners or CTP, was founded in 1991 and is the #1 higher education travel service provider in the United States, currently serving over 130 universities and colleges. CTP will provide both full service/agent assisted travel and an on-line booking tool (Lightning) at competitive rates.

CTP will begin providing both agent assisted and on-line services beginning September 18, 2023. Virtual training will be available for anyone to attend on September 19th and 20th. Travelers and planners only need to attend one training session and registration is required. Recordings of the training will be available for anyone unable to attend the training. Please register by using the link of your preferred session.

September 19th 10am – 11am EST Register Session 1
September 20th 3pm – 4pm EST Register Session 2

Contact the Travel Services team by submitting a ticket in Cherwell.


Surcharges

As of April 2023, US based Vendors are only allowed to impose up to a maximum 3% Surcharge (down from 4%) on any Visa credit card transaction. Surcharges are allowed to be paid on the P-card. Please be sure the surcharge is listed as a separate line item on the receipt or invoice and that it does not exceed the maximum 3% for US Vendors (International Vendors do not have a maximum surcharge limit).


Multiple P-cards

Corpcard recently sent out a Google Forms survey to P-card holders who have multiple P-cards in their possession. Please be sure all have responded. Prior to the launch of the allocation process in Bank of America Works, some users required multiple P-cards depending on the source of funding. In general, multiple P-cards per person are no longer necessary and transactions should instead be allocated to the correct funding source/index. Multiple P-cards creates an unnecessary risk to the University. If you are a P-card holder or if you approve transactions for someone who has multiple P-cards, please contact Corpcard to see how you can reduce the number of cards you possess.


HEETF-Requests

Procurement Services welcomes and encourages departments to engage our team as early in the process as possible, particularly if purchasing long lead time items or large/expensive equipment. Procurement will work in tandem with subject-matter experts and professionals in the department, identify the appropriate procurement method, and manage contract term negotiation.

Please send inquiries via Cherwell by indicating the purchase as a HEETF-funded procurement and including SCHEV approval status.


Remittance Address & One Time Payment changes in RealSource

There have been a few changes made to assist with ensuring checks are being sent to the appropriate address. Departments can now request to have a remittance address updated using the Existing Vendor request form in RealSource you will need to attach a copy of the Vendor invoice to have the address added.

Also, there is a question added to the One Time Payment request form that will require users to certify that the address being selected is correct for the payment request. If the individual or Vendor’s address is not available; an Existing Vendor request form will need to be submitted to have the address added.


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Edit | Last updated: 09/14/2023