La Carte Card Glossary of Terms
Definitions:
Cardholder - LSUHSC employee whose name appears on the card and who is approved by his/her Department Head or Business Manager to use La Carte to execute purchasing transactions on behalf of the university. This person is accountable for all charges made with the card.
Cardholder Agreement Form - This form states that the cardholder has read and understands the policies and procedures of LSUHSC relative to the procurement card use and agrees to comply with all of these established procedures. This form must be signed by the cardholder prior to issuance of the card.
Cardholder Enrollment Form - This form contains pertinent cardholder information necessary for statement and mailing purposes, contact information, daily/monthly spending limits, and budgetary controls. This form must be completed for all prospective cardholders.
Card Issuer - Bank of America's services were contracted for by the State of Louisiana, to issue La Carte' Visa Purchasing Cards to State Employees, to provide electronic transactions and billing to the Agencies for all purchases made on the cards, and to collect payment from the Agencies.
Cost Center - The ten-digit number in WORKS that signifies what department or project/grant a transaction is charged to. This number is also called "speedtype" in PeopleSoft. Every card has a default Cost Center and it will only need to be reallocated if a different funding source is used for a particular transaction.
Default Cost Center - The account code assigned to an individual cardholder's card. It consists of a string of numbers comprised of an employees Department, Fund, Program, Class and Project/Grant number. All charges made by the cardholder will default to this chart string until reallocated by appropriate personnel.
General Ledger (GL) - The six-digit number in WORKS that must be reallocated for every transaction. This six-digit number distinguishes what a purchase is, for example "office supplies" or "scientific supplies." All transactions are originally assigned GL number 547250 which must be changed by the cardholder.
Journal Entry - If a cardholder fails to reallocate the GL or Cost Center of a transaction in WORKS before the monthly sweep, reallocation must be done manually via a journal entry, or JE. A journal entry is an Excel form filled out with the Department, Fund, Program, Class, and Project/Grant number for each transaction. Each reallocation in a JE is a two line entry, the first containing the default info as it appeared in WORKS with the negative amount of the charge and the second containing the new allocation info with the amount charged.
Memo Statement of Account - A listing of all transactions charged to the cardholder's account through the end of the monthly billing cycle. The Bank sends the statement directly to the cardholder, on a monthly basis for reconciliation purposes. This is not a bill.
Merchant Category Code (MCC) - Codes assigned by the Bank to suppliers that indicate their type of business. Each La Carte card is encoded with the types of MCC's that a cardholder is authorized to purchase from. Attempts to purchase at either prohibited or restricted suppliers will be denied.
Monthly Spending Limit - A maximum dollar limit assigned to the cardholder for the total of all charges made during the monthly billing cycle.
Purchasing Card - Louisiana La Carte purchasing card is a Visa credit card issued by Bank of America for use by authorized state employees for the purpose of making small dollar purchases on behalf of their department. Issuance of this card in no way affects established purchasing rules and regulations.
Single Purchase Limit - Amount set by the State Program Administrator as the maximum dollar amount (total amount of sale) allowed for any single transaction made with the La Carte card. This amount is $5,000 per transaction.
Split Purchases - Artificially splitting a purchase to avoid the $5,000 single transaction limit. For example, A cardholder wants to make a purchase for items totaling $6,500. The cardholder asks the merchant to split the transaction into two separate transactions of $3,250 in order to avoid the $5,000 transaction limit. This is splitting and is strictly prohibited.
Supervisor/Reviewer - Individual(s) within an agency who is responsible for requesting purchasing cards for Departmental employees who make official purchases. The Supervisor is responsible for verifying that all charges against the cardholder's account are authorized and made in accordance with the program guidelines and that the transaction is supported by adequate documentation.
Sweep - Sweeping refers to the removal of all transaction for a cycle from WORKS and into PeopleSoft. The Sweep occurs seven business days after the close of a cycle. Once the Sweep happens, reallocations can no longer take place in WORKS and must be done with Journal Entries.
Transaction Log - A monthly listing of a cardholder's transactions that must be printed in WORKS and submitted to the LaCarte Administrator on a monthly basis. This log must be signed by both the cardholder and their supervisor as well as have a receipt for every transaction attached.
WORKS - a wed-based card management and reporting system provided by Bank of America.
Return to La Carte Card/ P-Card