Common Purchases and Restrictions
See a list of routine items you can buy with the Procurement Card and restricted purchases.
Office Hours
We provide office hours for individual questions every Wednesday from 9-10 a.m. Visit our office hours page. Scroll down to Procure to Pay & Travel and Expense and click the Zoom Link to the right.
For a broader view of different payment options the University offers and their different uses, please view the Alternatives page. Here you can get detailed information about other alternatives to Out-Of-Pocket expenses: the Travel & Expense Card, Oracle Procurement, and Amazon Business.
Common Purchases
- Abstracts
- Advertisements
- Audiovisual supplies materials
- Books, CDs, DVDs
- Bottled water delivery
- Break room appliance & supplies
- Cell phone purchase with the service plan billed through ITS
- The Procurement Card can also be used to purchase a UCSD business cell phone through an outside vendor; however, the service plan for the phone must be billed to UCSD.
- Certification fees
- Classroom supplies
- Cleaning supplies
- Cloud services
- Copy services
- Employee clothing/uniform
- Computer - desktop, laptop, peripheral (with the understanding this will remain UCSD property)
- Delivery fees
- Equipment < $4,999 without a signed agreement
- Film processing
- Food - Only with PRIOR approval from the Procurement Team for: Donor card holders, Human Subject Studies, Basic Needs Program, food purchased for resell, and food where ingredients are used as supplies.
- Gasoline for UC owned vehicles when it is not possible to refuel on campus
- Instructional supplies
- International purchases that do not have to be routed through U. S. Customs
- International purchase without duty papers
- Journals - print and online
- Laboratory supplies
- Magazines/Newspapers
- Marketing materials
- Memberships fees
- Newspaper delivery (including online)
- Office supplies
- Online or In Person training (When no additional travel expenses will be incurred (i.e., parking, mileage, meals, etc.)
- Periodicals
- Photographic prints, processing and supplies
- Plaques for recognizing employees or students (must have no monetary resale value)
- Printing services
- Promotional materials
- Professional or technical organization dues
- Publications
- Registration - conference or seminar without travel. When reconciling in Concur, confirm in the business purpose that no travel was or will be claimed by the attendee(s).
- Reprints
- Research supplies
- Shipping
- Software - off the shelf & digital, no signed license agreement
- Subscriptions for periodicals
- Teaching supplies
- Utilities - campus related, cannot be for individual use purposes
Restricted items
Certain items, regardless of their value,may not be purchased with a Procurement Card. The table below lists the most common items (and is not limited to) along with alternative ways to obtain them. Alternate payment methods do not reflect Procurement Card policy. Please refer to policies in place by each alternate payment method.
If your purchase requires a contract/service agreement, regardless the value, the Procurement Card cannot be used as the payment method. Services that require a third party to physcially come on to campus or a campus affiliated location/event, also regardless of the value, cannot go on the Procurement Card.
Purchasing restricted items without prior review or approval from the Procurement Card team will result in a policy violation notated on the cardholder's profile. If a trend of buying restricted items is reflected on the cardholder's profile, this can result in loss of Procurement Card privileges.
Restricted from Procurement Card | Alternate payment method |
---|---|
Alcohol purchase under any circumstance |
For an entertainment event, see To use UCSD Catering Services, see |
Conference Registration | Use your Procurement Card to prepay conference registration in the following situations:
Use the T&E Card for all other scenarios |
Consultant, independent contracting, professional and personal services |
Refer to Independent Contractors/ Consultants. Place your order on Oracle using the one of the services request forms. To access Oracle Procurement, go to the Business Tools on Blink. Refer to the Request Forms for assistance in determining which form is best suited for your purchase |
Contributions/Donations | See Gifts and Awards: Gifts for Non-Employees |
Controlled substances, regardless of cost | See Ordering Controlled Substances |
Equipment repairs on equipment not owned by the University |
Place your order on Oracle. To access Oracle Procurement, go to the Business Tools on Blink. |
Equipment:
|
See Ways to Acquire Inventorial Equipment and How to Handle a Fabrication for more information Place your order on Oracle. To access Oracle Procurement, go to the Business Tools on Blink. |
Export Restricted Items and Foreign purchases that require duty papers or are shipped FOB Origin |
Place your order on Oracle using one of the request forms. To access Oracle Procurement, go to the Business Tools on Blink. Orders must be reviewed by Export Control to ensure the proper technology control plan or export licenses. Refer to the Request Forms for assistance in determining which form is best suited for your purchase |
Facilities Management Services:
|
See How to Request Facilities Management Services |
Food |
Food cannot be purchased on the Procurement Card including but not limited to:
|
Gasoline or diesel fuel |
For mileage incurred and not incurred while on travel status, request reimbursement through Concur. Note: The Procurement Card cannot be used to buy gasoline in lieu of mileage. Gasoline for UC owned vehicles is allowed when it is not possible to refuel on campus. |
Gifts and awards |
Gifts and awards including but not limited to:
See Gifts and Awards for alternative payment options. Please see our FAQ page for a full list of all prohibited gifts and awards. |
Gift Cards | Should never be purchased on the Procurement Card. See Gifts and Awards. |
Goods or services from any officer or employee of the university or from a near relative of any officer or employee | See Employee-Vendor Relationships |
Goods or services in excess of $4,999 |
Place your order on Oracle. To access Oracle Procurement, go to the Business Tools on Blink. Note: Any attempt to avoid the High Value process by artificially dividing purchases into individual orders less than $4,999 is prohibited and subject to suspension of cardholder privileges |
Insurance | Purchases that require any type of insurance coverage cannot go on the Procurement Card. See General Liability Insurance |
Meeting or Entertainment expenses | See Entertainment |
Parking Expenses | Parking tickets, fees, or toll road costs are not allowed under any circumstances |
Personal purchases | Personal purchases are not allowed under any circumstances |
Postage | All purchases of postage stamps from the U.S. Postal Service must be obtained through UCSD Mail Services. |
Radioactive materials (regardless of cost) | Refer to Buying Radioactive Materials. Place your order on Oracle. To access Oracle Procurement, go to the Business Tools on Blink. |
Recharge available goods and services:
|
See Recharge to find departments on campus that provide goods and services through the recharge process. |
Relocation/ Moving Expenses |
Relocation and moving expenses for an employee/faculty/staff should never be paid for on the Procurement Card. See Move/Relocation Expenses: Overview |
Restricted Goods/Services:
|
Place your order on Oracle using one of the request forms. To access Oracle Procurement, go to the Business Tools on Blink. Refer to the Request Forms for assistance in determining which form is best suited for your purchase |
Rideshare/ Car Service |
UBER, Taxi, Shuttle Service, Limousine Service, Private Car Service etc. Allowable exception for LYFT Events & LYFT Concierge |
Task Rabbit |
Services provided by this application can never be paid for on the Procurement Card. |
Sponsorships | See Payment Requests |
Subcontracts, sub-awards, or agreements involving sponsored projects | See Subawards |
Supplier Contract (DO NOT SIGN A SUPPLIER CONTRACT), including maintenance or service agreements. | See Signing Contracts and Agreements. Place your order on Oracle using one of the request forms. Refer to the Request Forms for assistance in determining which form is best suited for your purchase See Listing of Commodities by Procurement Teams for Professional Buyer contact information. |
Vehicle rentals, leases, or purchases |
See Vehicle Services Place your order on Oracle one of the request forms. To access Oracle Procurement, go to the Business Tools on Blink. Refer to the Request Forms for assistance in determining which form is best suited for your purchase |
Venmo/CashApp |
The Procurement Card can never be used to set up a Venmo/CashApp account. Taking cash off of the Procurement Card via Venmo/CashApp would be considered a cash advance and cash advances are also never allowed on the Procurement Card. |
Allowable Exceptions
The Procurement Card team can provide certain exceptions with prior approval. To request an exception please submit a case within the UC San Diego Services & Support portal, with a descriptive business purpose and why the preferred method was not used or is not available.
-
- Flower Arrangement: Décor for University function
- Gasoline - UC vehicle
- Postage - Off campus usage
- Rentals - No contract required (Conference booths that do not include sponsorship, equipment, location space)
- Software - Requiring signed license agreement
- Items shipped to an off campus address
- With prior approval, Procurement card cardholder's can request to ship goods they have purchased on their P card, to an address other than campus. We have replaced the form we use and the new process will require to submit a request in Concur. Visit this KBA for how to submit a request to get approval to ship goods to an off campus address. Once you have received approval from the Procurement Card Team, the cardholder may ship items to an off campus address. The turn around time to get this request reviewed by the Central Office is 72 hours.
- When reconciling expenses, in the detailed business purpose for that expense, you must provide the alpha numeric Concur Request ID for every transaction in which goods are shipped to a home address.
- Please note that if you are ordering items on your own Procurement Card on behalf of someone else and the items need to be shipped to that person's address, the request only needs to be submitted by the Procurement Card cardholder and NOT the person receiving the items. As a Cardholder, you will only need to submit one request for yourself in Concur, to be able to ship items to ANY off campus address.
- For any exception made by the Procurement Card Team, you will need to reference your Concur Request ID or Services & Support ticket # in the business purpose of your expense when recocniling. You will reference the approval in Concur, every time you make a purchase that you received an exception for.
Find answers, request services, or get help from our team at the UC San Diego Services & Support portal.