Purchase cards (P-Cards) | Essex Intranet

Purchase cards (P-Cards) can be used for one-off purchases of less than £2,000 (two thousand) where the supplier is not on My Oracle and there are no corporate contracts that include what you need to buy.

The standard card limit is £3,000 (three thousand) per month and no more than £2,000 (two thousand) can be spent in any single transaction. Any employee can have a card.

You can login to Barclaycard Spend Management (BSM) to manage your card and transactions.

How to apply for a card

If you need to get a purchase card, complete the application form (DOC,42KB) and have the form approved by the budget holder of the cost code you will be spending from.

Before applying for a purchase card, you should read the Purchase Card Policy (PDF,252KB) which explains our financial regulations.

It might not be easy to get a physical signature for authorisation now that we all work from home more often, so we can now accept the application or amendment form in an email from the budget holder stating in the email body that they approve it. We can still receive forms with an original signature.

All forms need to be emailed to finance systems admin to be processed.

Due to new EU legislation to help prevent online fraud, cardholders will need to identify themselves via either SMS or Physical PIN sentry card reader for all online purchases.

When applying for a purchase card please consider using a business mobile number on the application form. If you don’t have one, we can accept a personal mobile number. Your number will only be used to authenticate online transactions.

You can have the card set up to spend from multiple cost codes, as long as all the required budget holders approve this.

Once you’ve submitted your application your card should arrive within 2 to 3 weeks.

You can also apply to have an additional user added to your card by using the delegation form (DOC,31KB).

Using your purchase card

Buying goods or services

You can use your purchase card for one off purchases of less than £2,000 (two thousand) where the supplier is not on My Oracle and there are no corporate contracts that cover your requirement.

Where you are buying technology goods or services, such as hardware, software applications, technology subscriptions, websites, telephony, services with technology component), you need to get approval.

Managing your transactions

You will use the BSM system to manage your transactions.

When you're using purchase cards on Amazon, all purchases must be made via the Amazon Business Prime Account and not through individual personal Amazon accounts.

All transactions must be completed on BSM on a monthly basis, before the cycle deadlines. We have guidance about the deadlines and how to process your receipts (PDF, 130KB).

All transactions must have receipts linked to them. VAT must also be correctly identified and evidenced through a VAT receipt so this can be reclaimed. You can read our guidance on VAT (DOC,426KB).

If subsistence is claimed, this must be within the limits set out by the Travel and Expenses Policy. You must state clearly why it was necessary and the times you were on duty.

Cancelling a purchase card

You may need to cancel a card for reason such as:

leaving the council
going on long term leave such as maternity or adoption leave
changing roles

To cancel the card, fill in a cancellation form (DOC,31KB). The form explains what other actions you will need to take to cancel your card.

Amending a purchase card

If you need to change any of your card details you should use the amendment form (DOC,41KB).

Help using your purchase card

We have the following guidance to help you:

You can also opt out of any marketing that Barclays may send by using this opt out letter template (DOC,39KB).

If there’s a problem

A sample of transactions are audited monthly. If you have a transaction that's breached policy, without mitigation or an exemption having been sought proactively, this will be recorded and you'll be emailed advice to inform you how to avoid breaching policy again in future.

Continued failure to comply with policy could lead to disciplinary action being taken. Any cases of suspected fraudulent use will be referred immediately to internal audit.

If your card is lost or stolen, or transactions appear that were not incurred by you, contact Barclaycard directly.

To report missing receipts, or failure to adhere to corporate contracts, email the P2P compliance team before the cycle deadline passes as the auditor may be able to exempt the transaction.

Contact us

You can contact us by using the Assyst portal.

Accessibility statement for Barclaycard Spend Management

Read the accessibility statement for Barclaycard Spend Management.