Introduction

If you need to buy products and services for your service area, electronically or as a substitute for petty cash, you can use a purchase card.

A purchase card is a corporate credit card that enables you to spend money with various suppliers.

You can use a purchase card for goods and services if:

• you need to make regular, generally low value transactions for your service
• there is not already a process in place to buy the goods or services you need through our main purchasing system:

You must not use a purchase card for:

• I owe yous (IOUs)
• direct debits or standing orders
• salaries or wages
• travel and subsistence.

Purchase card roles

For each card, two members of the team will be required to undertake the following roles:

Cardholder

A purchase card is assigned to an individual cardholder who is responsible for:

• keeping the card and PIN safe
• purchasing goods and products using the card
• making cash withdrawals, where relevant
• recording all transactions made with the card
• reviewing all purchases via the Royal Bank of Scotland website.

Approver

Approvers are responsible for checking and approving all purchases made using the card. This is carried out via the Royal Bank of Scotland website.

Who is suitable for this role

The person undertaking this role should be of suitable seniority to the cardholder to challenge purchases made, if required. This could be a:

• line manager
• school business manager
• head teacher
• budget holder.

An approver is notified of their role once the cardholder is set up with their Royal Bank of Scotland user account.

At this point, the approver also receives their user account login details via email.