Frequently Asked Questions

Individual Purchasing Card transactions can be found under Expense, View Transactions.

This screen is extremely helpful you can display all transactions by year and then sort on those columns by Description, Amount or Date.

Documentation located here: Help I cannot find my Pcard Transactions

Any purchasing card charges that are considered personal expenses, and therefore, not reimbursable by Penn State, will first be offset against any reimbursement due the employee.

If no reimbursement is due to the employee, the non-reimbursable amount resulting from PCARD transactions will be deducted from the employee's pay.

PCARD charges are displayed in the Available Expenses section of Expense. All PCARD charges that have not been assigned to an expense report will be displayed.

To assign a PCARD charge to a report create a new report or open an existing report and use the Import menu to display and then import the PCARD charges into the report.

A historical list of all PCARD charges in SAP Concur for the Cardholder is available. Click on the View Transaction link in the Expense page to open the historical list of all PCARD charges. The Company Card Charges list can be filtered to display all the charges by calendar year or for specific time periods within a year. The list will include the report name for all charges assigned to expense reports.

• If the meal is part of a hotel receipt and the traveler is claiming per diem, the meal needs to be marked non-reimbursed. In the itemization, select the expense type PCARD Meal Expense for the meal(s) and check the Deduct From Reimbursement box.
• There may be times that a Group Meal is the only charge on the lodging receipt (no room charges) if the traveler had a lunch or dinner meeting in a hotel dining facility. In this case the Hotel/Motel (itemization required) expense type should be changed to Group Meals/Mtg (attendees required). Complete all required fields. If the traveler is claiming per diem for the day, the appropriate meal provided box should be checked in per diem allowances in the Expenses and Adjustments screen.

Individual meal expenses are reimbursed using Per Diem (Travel Allowances). The following outlines how to account for PCARD meal expenses and out-of-pocket meal expenses as they correspond to Per Diem meal allowances. Each type of meal transaction should be processed as follows:

After creating the Report Header or by clicking Details->New Itinerary, create and itinerary which will alllow Concur to create the daily per diem expense entries:

1. Create itinerary rows in the New Stop section of the Traver Allowences screen.
2. Each itinerary row contains the departure location, date and time and the arrival location, date and time of your destination.
3. Create an itinerary row for each change in overnight stay location.
4. Click Save to save each row when complete.
5. Complete all itinerary rows using the New Stop fields.
6. If an itinerary is for 1-day travel there must still be two itinerary rows:
   • one for departure from home location and arrival at destination;
   • one for the return trip to home location.
7. Click Next when all itinerary rows have been saved;
8. Click Next in the Available Itineraries screen.
9. The Expenses and Adjustments screen will display the per diem amount for each day in the itinerary.
10. For CONUS travel the amount will include meal and incidental reimbursement.
11. For OCONUS travel the amount will include lodging, meal and incidental reimbursement.

In compliance with the University Travel Policy, for the first and last travel days, Concur will prorate those day's meal per diem to 75% of the overnight location's allowance. Travelers will get this amount regardless of travel time of day or duration of the day's travel.

If any meals were provided during travel by a conference, a business group meal, or another source, select the checkbox corresponding to the Provided Meal to remove that meal allowance from the daily per diem. Meals presumed to be eaten at home are not considered Provided Meals. In the event all meals for a day are provided, no meal per diem can be claimed for that day. However, the incidental per diem amount ($5 for CONUS travel, variable for OCONUS travel) may still be claimed at the traveler's discretion.

Individual meals purchased with a PCARD are not provided meals, do not select the meal provided checkbox. Per diem meals corresponding to individual PCARD meals must be included to net against the amount deducted for the PCARD meal.

When all provided meals have been identified, click Create Expenses. Each day of meal per diem expense will be entered in the Expense List as a Fixed Meal. (The OCONUS lodging portion will be entered separately as Fixed Lodging).

Add PCARD Meal Expense transactions:

1. If the Available Expenses screen is not available on the right, click the Import button above the Expense List on the left to open the Available Expenses.
2. Select the applicable PCARD meal expense(s) from the Available Expenses screen by clicking the checkbox to the left of the transaction(s).
3. Click the Import button in the Available Expenses screen to assign the PCARD meal transaction(s) to the report.

The default expense type, PCARD Meal Expense, will be assigned to all meals purchased with a PCARD.

• If a PCARD Meal Expense is a group meal:
  • edit the expense entry;
  • change the expense type to "Group Meals/Mtg (attendees required)"; and
  • complete all required information and save.
• If a PCARD Meal Expense is an individual meal:
  • edit the expense entry;
  • select the Deduct From Reimbursement checkbox located below the Comments box; and
  • save changes.

Repeat the steps for all individual PCARD meals. The amount of each individual PCARD meal will be subtracted from the total CASH reimbursement amount.

A payroll deduction will occur if the total of the PCARD meal expenses plus any non-reimbursable PCARD expenses exceeds the total CASH reimbursement (the amount a traveler is entitled to for per diem allowances plus cash expenses).

Out-of-pocket Meals: do not create any expense entries for individual meals purchased with cash or personal credit cards.

All individual meal expenses are reimbursed based on standard per diem rates assigned to each location. The traveler is eligible for the meal per diem in effect for the location where he or she spends that night. For the final travel day, the per diem in effect will be that of the prior night's stay.

Reimbursement of actuals must be approved PRIOR to travel.

If the actual reimbursement method is approved, ALL expenses for that type of expenditure (lodging, meals or both) for the entire trip must be claimed on an actual basis and supported by receipts. The per diem for lodging and/or meals claimed as actual must be marked as provided in per diem allowances in the Expenses and Adjustments screen.

Lodging: The default expense type will be Hotel/Motel (itemization required):

1. Edit the transaction and change the expense type to OCONUS Actual Lodging.
2. Itemization is still required.
3. Do NOT select the Deduct from Reimbursement box.

Meals:The default expense type will be PCARD Meal Expense.

1. If the expense is an individual meal:< >Edit the transaction and change the expense type to OCONUS Actual Meals.Do NOT select the Deduct from Reimbursement box.If the expense is a group meal:
   • Edit the transaction and change expense type to Group Meal (attendees required).
   • Complete all required fields.

OCONUS lodging expenses are reimbursed using Per Diem (Travel Allowances). OCONUS lodging charged on a PCARD will be marked deduct from reimbursement and will be subtracted from the cash reimbursement which includes the per diem for lodging. If the OCONUS PCARD lodging amount exceeds the cash reimbursement in the report it will result in a deduction from the traveler's paycheck.

To assign a PCARD lodging transaction to the expense report:

1. Click the Import button in the Expense list of the report.
2. The Available Expenses list will open on the right side of the screen.
3. Select the checkbox to the left of the appropriate transaction(s) and click Import which will move the selected transaction(s) to the Expense list.
4. Transaction will import with the Expense Type of Hotel/Motel (Itemization required).
5. Click on the Expense to open it for editing on the right side of the screen.
6. Change expense type to Hotel/Motel (no itemization) and check the checkbox for Deduct from Reimbursement.
7. Click Save.

Calculate Actual Expenses

1. Per Diem Allowance: total all Fixed Meal entries for all days of travel in the Expense List.
2. Actual Expense: total all individual PCARD Meal Expense entries and add any out-of-pocket meal expenses for all days of travel .
3. Amount of Reduction: subtract the Actual Expense amount from the Per Diem Allowance amount.

Add Reimbursement Reduction Entry

1. Click New Expense in the Expense List;
2. On right side of screen select Reimbursement Reduction expense type located in the "Other" category in the Expense Type field.
3. Enter the Amount of Reduction (from the above calculation) as a negative number and enter a comment explaining the reason for the reduction. Reductions should not be done day-by-day.
4. Type the reason for the reduction into the comments field of the Reimbursement Reduction.
5. Click Save.

The amount will show up as a negative and a review of Report Totals page will indicate the total reimbursement due to the traveler has been reduced by the Reimbursement Reduction entry.

Any unassigned charges which have not been substantiated after an appropriate period of time (greater than 60 days after the trip has occurred) will be considered non-reimbursable transactions.
The Financial Officer will have the authority to submit an expense report on behalf of the Cardholder to settle these non-reimbursable transactions, which would result in a deduction from the Cardholder's paycheck for the amount of the transaction. The Financial Officer may also proceed to take action based on misuse of the purchasing card. (Reference: PC2009, Page 9)

If a receipt is lost or, for some reason, you do not receive a receipt or invoice, you should contact the vendor to get a duplicate.

In the rare situation where the vendor will not provide a duplicate receipt, you should complete a Substantiation Form for Lost or Unobtainable Receipts, This form does require approval by the budget administrator or budget executive and the Financial Officer before the transaction can be settled in SAP Concur.

Lost receipt form

Receipts are required for all transactions charged to the purchasing card, with the exception of individual meals.

Group Meals/Meetings must be supported by itemized receipts.

Receipts will be attached to the expense report.

Both of these expense types are used to remove expenses from a reimbursement:

• If the transaction is on a purchasing card, the Non-Reimbursed PCARD Expense expense type should be used for any non-business expense that may be included on the receipt.
• If the expenses were paid by cash or personal credit card and personal expenses are listed on a receipt that also includes business transactions and the traveler is including those personal transactions in the report use Non-Reimbursed Other Expense for the personal amount only. The personal expenses do not have to be included.

The Cardholder must settle all travel expenditures (including those on the purchasing card) in SAP Concur no later than 60 days after the end of the trip (30 days if the travel is charged to a restricted fund and is completed in the last month of the sponsored agreement).

PCARD charges which have not been settled after an appropriate period of time (greater than 60 days after the trip has occurred) will be considered non-reimbursable transactions.

The Financial Officer will have the authority to submit an expense report on behalf of the Cardholder to settle these non-reimbursable transactions which would result in a deduction from the Cardholder's paycheck for the amount of the transactions. The Financial Officer may also proceed to take action based on misuse of the purchasing card.

GURU's link to the PSU Purchasing Card provides a reference list of relevant links and information available to cardholders and Financial Officers.

There are three scenarios in which the Deduct from Reimbursement check box should be selected:

1. The expense is a personal, non-business expense, and should not be paid by the University;
2. Any non-group CONUS meal -- by policy CONUS meals are reimbursed using per diem;
3. Any OCONUS non-group meal or OCONUS lodging expense that is not being claimed as an actual.

When a traveler uses a PCARD for an expense that is reimbursed as per diem, the Deduct from Reimbursement box MUST be checked so the University is not paying for the same expense twice.

NOTE: When the Deduct from Reimbursement box is checked on a PCARD transaction, the amount will be offset against any reimbursement due to the traveler. If no reimbursement is due to the employee, the non-reimbursable amount will be deducted from the employee's pay.