Add and Set Up a New User

​Introduction

P-Cards are issued and administered by the Department of Administration, Division of Purchasing at 208.332.1608. To ensures that purchases made with a new card will appear in P-Card, administrators should add users to the application and make them active users before the card is used. Other questions regarding the card or specific purchases should be directed to the bank Customer Service number listed on the back of the P-Card.

Add a New User

1. On the P-Card main menu, select Admin, then select Add User.

2. The User Lookup menu will appear. Type the last name of the new user in the Last Name field or the first name in the First Name field. (You can type the first few letters of a user’s name if you are not sure exactly how it is spelled.)

  • To add an employee from another agency, type the last and/or first name and enter their agency number in the Agency field. Do not add an employee from your agency to another agency number.
  • To add a user to multiple agencies, log in to each agency, enter the Last Name and enter the agency number of the user.

3. Click Find. If the user cannot be found, contact your payroll administrator to make sure that the user has been added to state payroll records.

  • If your employee's last name is hypenated or has an apostrophe, try using just the first name in the lookup. P-Card does not recognize hyphens or apostrophes in the name fields.
  • Also use the employee's name as it appears on SCO payroll records (less hyphen or apostrophe), not their nickname or middle name and last name.

Figure 1 - User Lookup

User Lookup pop up window with list of names  

4. Click Select next to the user’s name to add and then click OK to confirm.

Set Up a New User

After selecting a new user from the User Lookup, a profile screen will be displayed to set up the user. The user profile screen is made up of four sections: the user information, user roles (or security), P-Card details, and PCA or Index assignments.

Figure 2- User profile

 User profile screen with various settings

Verify User Information and Activate a User

The name and e-mail of the user will be filled in from the Add User look up.

1. Verify the user information. If it is not correct, contact your payroll administrator to make sure that the user has been added to state payroll records.

  • You cannot change a user's name.
  • You cannot update the user's e-mail address. But users can update their own e-mail address on the Welcome screen - the screen after they log on to SCO.

2. Select Active P-Card User to give the user access and use the P-Card application as a verifier or approver.

Assign User Roles

Assign user roles to determine what the user can do in P-Card. Only an Active P-Card User can access and use P-Card.

Figure 3 - User roles

List of user roles 

1. Select the approver, verifier, or administrator roles for the user. The options are:

  • Verifier - verifies that the purchase is valid and correct. For many agencies, the card holder is the Verifier. However, you can designate another Verifer as a Proxy Verifier.
  • Verifier All - same functions as a Verifier but the Verifier All can verify transactions from all card holders.
  • Approver - approves the transmittal and the attached documentation. Approvers can approve transmittals for the level they are assigned and below. (You can also assign approval PCAs or Indexes, if needed.) The final approver is the last approver of the transmittal before it is submitted to STARS. The SCO can create up to three approval levels for your agency. To restrict users from approving their own transactions at any approval level, select Agency Settings on the main Administrator screen and click Restrict User (this affects all users).
  • Approver All – same functions as an Approver but the Approver All can approve all transmittals with transactions coded with any PCA or Index.
  • Admin – makes a user a P-Card application administrator. It is recommended to have at least two users added for this role so that one can serve as a backup.
  • Auditor – auditors can view transactions and transmittals but do not have any capability to verify, approve, add, or make changes to users. Auditors can run all reports.

2. Select the Approval Level when you select Approver or Approver All. (The agency will determine what approval levels are needed and ask the State Controller’s Office to create them.) By assigning different approvers to different approval levels, you can help maintain internal controls for your business process.

Add and Activate a User's P-Card

1. Check the Card Holder check box if the user is the actual holder of a P-Card. If they are a proxy verifier, but not a card holder, do not check Card Holder, and do not enter a P-Card number in this section.

Figure 4 - P-Card information

User profile screen credit card section with card number added 

2. Enter the last ten digits of the card number in the CC# field.

3. Select the card Type – WFMC for MasterCard or BOAV for VISA card.

4. Check the Act (Active) check box to make the card active in order to populate bank transactions into the application, and allow verifiers and approvers to process the transactions of that card. Do not uncheck the Act check box (making the card inactive) until all transactions have uploaded from the bank and are verified and approved.

  • If a card is lost or stolen, leave the lost/stolen card active until all the transactions are received from the bank – including any credits.
  • If a card exists for a proxy user but the proxy user was not set up properly, and the card is then marked Inactive, P-Card reports may not accurately report the actual card holder.
  • If you ask SCO to delete a card, you will lose the transaction history for the card and these will not be available in P-Card reports.

5. Enter a Description if desired. Do not use special characters or symbols, such as &,',“,<,and \.

6. Click Save next to the card information.

Add a User's Proxy Card

To add a proxy card number to the user, enter the last ten digits of the card number in the Proxy Cards field and click Add. Do not add the proxy card to the list of card holder Credit Card numbers.

The card number and card holder for whom the new user will be a proxy will be displayed. Adding the card number to the user makes the user a proxy verifier – this person can verify transactions on that card in place of the card holder.

When you add or update a user to be a proxy verifier, you assign a card to the user. If you want to assign existing P-Card users to a card, use the Maintain CC screen.

Add a Default PCA/Index and Assign a Approval PCA/Index

Choose a Default Index or PCA for the card holder. This will automatically fill in the PCA/Index code for the card in the Verifier’s transaction grid. Since PCA/Index codes can look up other fiscal codes, those other fiscal codes will also be automatically filled in when the PCA or Index is entered.

A Default Index or PCA is required only for a card holder, but you can also assign Approval Indexes, PCAs, or Locations to Approvers, which restricts their ability to approve transmittals with those assigned PCAs, Indexes, or Locations.

1. If setting up a card holder and card number, select Choose Default PCA or Choose Default Index to assign a default PCA or Index(the choice displayed depends on your agency structure).

2. Click Select next to the Index or PCA needed. The Default PCA/Index will be added.

Figure 5 - Default PCA/Index

List of Default Index codes with Select link highlighted 

3. If adding the user as an Approver, you can also select Assign Approval PCA or Assign Approval Index so that they can only approve transmittals with transactions that are coded with a specific PCA or Index.

4. Check the check box next to the PCAs or Indexes you want to assign to the approver. (If you do not see any PCAs or Indexes, verify the BFY is current on the Agency screen.)

Figure 6 – Select Approval PCA or Index

List of Approval Index codes with one code assigned 

5. Click the right arrow icon to assign the selected PCAs or Indexes. (To remove a PCA/Index, check the check box of an assigned PCA/Index and click the left arrow icon).

6. When you are finished, click Save (on the top menu).