HOW DO CONVENIENCE CHECKS WORK?
Procedure 9-116
Issued By: Campus Purchasing Departments
Issued: 01/24/01
The Campus Business Administrator or BSC Manager is issued a checkbook, which is very similar to a personal checkbook. The checkbook holder's name, University of New Hampshire, BSC Name (optional) and business address are printed in the upper left hand corner of the check. For posting purposes, a truncated version of the cardholder's account number appears near the top of the check. The phrase "Not Valid Over XXX Dollars" appears just above the signature line. (The not-valid-over amount matches the individual's single transaction PCard limit.)
The Convenience Checkbook will be associated with a separate PCard so that Convenience Check transactions remain separate from the standard PCard transactions. Usage of this separate PCard account will be limited to Convenience Check transactions. If an individual is responsible for both PCard and Convenience Check transactions, they are required to obtain separate PCard accounts. (See Procedure 9-118, Obtaining a Convenience Checkbook.)
When an individual or merchant accepts a convenience check for reimbursement or payment, it will clear against a University System of New Hampshire account held by the bank. The individual or merchant receiving the Convenience Check is unaware that the check is related in anyway to a credit card account.
When the check is cleared through the bank, they will access the Convenience Checkbook holder's PCard account information and verify the account status. They then request an authorization of the transaction much like a merchant does for a standard credit card point-of-sale transaction. If the account is closed or blocked, the check will automatically be returned to the merchant as any standard check would. If any of the Convenience Checkbook holder's limits are exceeded, the bank will contact the campus card administrator to determine the appropriate action. The campus card administrator will need to communicate with the Campus Administrator or BSC Manager to determine the appropriate resolution to the issue. Any applicable bank charges will be assessed against the designated departmental account.
Once the check is authorized the following information will be posted to the bank's system as if a point-of-sale credit card transaction had been made:
Daily, Convenience Check transactions, consisting of the information described above, are electronically downloaded to USNH. The Convenience Checkbook holder will receive notification that the convenience check has cleared through USNH's standard PCard e-mail notification. Additionally, Convenience Check transactions will be included on the monthly PCard statements sent to the PCard Business Manager.
For each Convenience Check transaction, the bank charges a $.50 service fee. The $.50 service fee is the responsibility of the department issuing the Convenience Check. This charge will be inserted into the HUM/CUFS environment and also included on the monthly statements.
Convenience Check transactions and the $.50 service fee will be expensed to the default account associated with the PCard or can be expensed to appropriate account(s) other than default accounting information through HUM PCTRAN account splitting mechanism. (See Procedure 9-109, Corrections.)