CentreSuite Purchasing Card Policy

  1. Office & Department Directory
  2. Business Office
  3. CentreSuite Purchasing Card Policy

St. Lawrence University's purchasing cards are VISA cards issued by M&T Bank to University employees or departments for the purpose of purchasing business related goods and services that are $5,000 or less. Purchasing cards are not be to be used for travel expenses or capital purchases. If a card is issued to a department, a departmental employee is designated as the one responsible for monitoring the use of the card and approving transactions charged to it.

Billing Cycle

On approximately the 8th of each month, M&T will notify cardholders by email that their online bill is available for review. Cardholders must log on to M&T's CentreSuite, an online system to review and approve card transactions. Cardholders will have until the 20th of the month to review and provide the accounting for transactions posted to their account. After that, the transactions will be downloaded to Colleague and payment issued to M&T.

Online Approvals

Cardholders may log onto CentreSuite at any time, but must do so for each billing cycle to view the transactions posted to their card account. For each transaction, a default cost center will be listed based on the cardholder's department, but cardholders may change to a different cost center when appropriate. Object or expense codes will need to be entered. Transactions may be split among vary cost centers and object codes.

Additional information on card administration and accounting is available in the Purchasing Card Guide. Information on how to use the CentreSuite system is also available here.

Responsibilities of Cardholders and Departmental Coordinators

Purchasing cards should be stored in a safe place and the account number kept confidential. The card is not to be shared with another department. Lost or stolen cards should be reported immediately to M&T at 1-800-443-8671.

Vendors should be informed that purchases are exempt from sales tax when the purchase is made. Some merchants will only require the University's exempt organization number which is printed on the card. Some merchants however, may require a copy of the tax exemption certificate appropriate for the state in which the purchase is being made.

An original receipt must be obtained from the merchant for each transaction posted to a purchasing card. The Colleague account number to be charged should be written on the receipt and all receipts maintained for a minimum of 3 years. Personnel in the Business Office will periodically conduct purchasing card audits to ensure cards are being used and administered appropriately.

A purchasing card may be requested by completing a Cardholder Agreement Form and forwarded to the Business Office.

FIRST TIME USER LOG ON
1.  Go Centresuite.com - Enter your User ID and password, and then click LOG ON.
2.  At first log on, users are required to set their security questions and answers.  Select your security questions and answers.  Please be sure to write them down.  They are CASE SENSITIVE.
3.  Next, carefully read the End Use License Agreement and choose I agree.  If you would like to keep a copy for your records, click Print.
4.  You are then asked to change your password.  Enter your old password and choose a new password.  Then click Submit.
5.  Your password has been successfully changed.  Click OK to being using Centresuite.

VIEWING AND EDITING TRANSACTIONS
From the Expense Module, you can search for transactions based on a variety of criteria, allocate your transactions to the appropriate accounting codes, and split them if necessary.

1.  Please click on EXPENSES, select View Transactions.  The Search for Transactions screen will appear.  This screen only includes basic search criteria including date range.
2.  Search for transactions based on a date range.  A list of transactions in the date range you specified appears.
3.  View the detail of each transaction by cling the magnifying glass under the Detail column at the right side of your screen in the search results.

ALLOCATING TRANSACTIONS
Transactions can be allocated based on your company's unique accounting or general ledger codes.  Examples of allocation codes for St. Lawrence University are a 10 digit account number followed by a 5 digit object code.

1.  You can allocate transactions be entering the appropriate information into the description, cost center, and object code boxes next to each transaction.  This will already be pre-filled.  If a correction is needed,  Click the icon next to each box for a list of valid allocation codes.
2.  The pop up box appears.  Here are can search for valid allocation codes by valid code or code description.  Select the appropriate code by clicking the button next to it.  The click OK.  If the number isn't listed, please send an email to the Business Office for it to be added.
3.  You can also batch-allocate multiple transactions by placing a checkmark in the box to the left of the transactions.  Then choose the "Allocate" action form the Action dropdown.
4.  The batch allocation pop up window appears.
5.  Enter the appropriate allocation codes for the selected transactions.  Then click save.  The allocate code that you enter here will be applied to all of the selected transactions.

SPLITTING TRANSACTIONS
By splitting a transaction, you can allocate it to more than 1 allocation code (such as sharing the cost of a transaction between 2 departments.)

  1. On the transaction list, click on the green split icon next to the transaction.
  2. The split transaction screen appears.  Here you can select the percentage or split amount and enter the appropriate allocation codes.
  3. When are you finished splitting the transaction, click Save and Return.

If you need more than 2 splits, you can add additional splits by entering a number in the "Add splits" box.  Then click Go.  By clicking split equally, your transaction will be split equally across all split lines.  When you are finished splitting the transaction, click Save and Return.

STATEMENTS

  1. The Account Summary Tab allows you to review activity on your account since the last statement as well as a summary of your last statement.
  2. The Account Activity Tab allows you to view a list of transactions for a chosen statement cycle.
  3. The View Statements Tab allows you to view up to 6 months of statements.  Click on the pdf icon next to a statement date to view and print statements.

Please use the current forms on the  SLU Sharepoint page. This requires login with a SLU user name and password. No other form will be accepted.  The forms must be paper and wet signed. They can be snail mailed, interoffice mailed, faxed to 315-229-7417 or brought to the Business Office, Vilas 115/116B or to Student Financial Services in the Sullivan Center in person.

Please note, accounts payable and payroll are separate, they do not intertwine at any point.

Share Point link:  https://stlawu.sharepoint.com/sites/BusinessOffice/SitePages/Forms.aspx