Audit Program
In Berkeley's Card Program, audit responsibilities are shared by all Card Program participants. For the program to be successful, it is critical that Cardholders, departments and the Card Program work together to ensure that transactions are being performed according to both purchasing policy and Card Program procedures.
Departmental Responsibilities
Within individual UCB departments, Card Program participants at all levels have specific audit responsibilities:
- Authorized and Delegated Signers ensure appropriate procedures are established and followed and periodically review both transactions and the General Ledger to determine the appropriateness of purchases made with their funds
- Cardholders ensure that all purchases are authorized prior to the card being used and are made in accordance with purchasing policy
- Reconcilers ensure that documentation for each transaction fully describes what was purchased and matches vendor receipts and invoices
- Approvers ensure that transactions are documented properly and reconciled within BFS prior to their clear date
Berkeley Card Program Responsibilities
UCB's Card Program reviews available system documentation regularly for appropriateness and conducts both structured and random post-transaction reviews of documentation.
Transactions are audited for policy and procedural compliance using several methods:
Verification and Approval compliance
- Transactions are regularly reviewed to ensure they were properly set to 'Approved' status prior to the clear date in BFS
Merchant Category Code exceptions
- Transactions made against typically blocked MCCs are reviewed to ensure the business purpose given for the exception matches the purpose of the actual transaction
Higher-value transactions
- All transactions over a certain threshold will be audited in detail for policy compliance, especially the purchase of capitalized/inventorial goods / services from vendors
Paperwork audits
- A physical review of transaction paperwork for policy and procedure compliance
'Payment Alert' emails
- US Bank regularly emails the Card Program with information regarding transactions that may violate program policies
L3 vendor data vs. BFS data
- Many vendors send detailed information regarding what items/services are being purchased from them. This is compared to information in BFS to ensure accuracy and policy compliance during reconciliation
Audit and Advisory Services
Conducts periodic post-transaction audit of transaction documentation, and may take enforcement action, if necessary.
Tips to Ensure Your Transactions Pass Card Program audit:
- Ensure that your documentation "tells the story" of your transaction. Someone from outside your unit should be able to fully understand why the purchase was made based on your paperwork.
- Something went wrong with your transaction, or out of the ordinary? Please make a note to the file detailing what happened.
- If you have a question about your documentation or transaction, please email creditcard@berkeley.edu and the Card Program will be happy to help you figure out the best way to move forward.
- For more information on documentation requirements, please refer to our Documentation Requirements page.