BluCard Defined: UC Berkeley’s procurement credit card program issues BluCards to individuals within departments that have prior approval from their Department Management. A BluCard should be used for paying registration fees, one-time orders with Suppliers or if the Supplier won’t accept a PO. BluCard should only be used when purchasing items in BearBUY isn’t feasible.
Confirm with the Supplier to confirm if they can or can not accept a PO before using the BluCard process.
Consult with your Buyer for any orders over $4,999. Buyers have the ability to make high dollar BluCard purchases if the supplier will not accept purchase orders. All other requirements related to a purchase will apply to these transactions.
Examples of acceptable goods and services:
- Low risk service labor that is not performed on UC property; i.e. transcribing, photocopying
- Common off the shelf goods not available in the Bear Buy Catalogs or Strategically Sourced Agreements
Examples of what is not acceptable:
BluCard orders regardless of dollar value need to be processed by a Buyer if they fall into one of the categories below or into any Special Considerations categories. The Buyer will need to flow down the UC Terms and Conditions to the Supplier.
- Services that contain UC protected information; health, personal, or credit card payment data
- On-site labor related services of any kind (on-site includes University owned, leased or rented properties)
- Requires a signed agreement, including online acceptance of terms of use
- Involves use of UC name and trademarks
- Construction & Design
- Goods or services from employee or near relatives of any University employee
- Laboratory and other animals - Office of Laboratory Animal Care
- Specialized equipment regardless of cost - Equipment Management
- Restricted items - Environment, Health and Safety site.
How to create a BluCard Tracking Order:
- Use the following Form in BearBUY: “Non Catalog Items Form”.
- If the desired supplier is not found in BearBUY, please 'BluCard Tracking', provide the suggested Supplier name, and contact information.
- Select Buyer Intervention if the order is over $4999 to route it to your department Buyer.
- The department should attach the following Required PO Documents to the Form as directed in BearBUY:
Required documents from the Department:
Required documents from the Supplier:
- Other Considerations:
- Orders created using BluCard tracking process, requiring separate payment via BluCard, will not dispatch to the vendor or to BFS. Only the Req creator can change the supplier on the requisition to BluCard Tracking.
- When the requisition is fully approved, the BluCard holder will place the order directly with the supplier.
- Items paid via BluCard will appear on a separate BluCard order and in the PO History with an order number similar to the format "CC1234567890.” The order number can be referenced in the transaction notes in BFS during reconciliation. BluCard transaction reconciliation in BFS remains the same.
- See Special Considerations for additional potential issues.
For more information, see Finance Bulletin: BFS-BUS-43 Material Management
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