Stemming from the University’s retirement of the Transaction Authorization Card (TAC Card), effective July 1, customers of the Penn Bookstore now have four options for making purchases.

Purchases using any of these options are tax free and receive the 10% departmental discount.

Purchase Orders: PO’s are designed for pre-planned purchases where the item, price, and quantity are known such as bulk purchases of books, course materials and regalia, as well as special orders. Shoppers will be able to leverage the BEN PO system and processes and payment processing will occur as with any other external vendor to the University.

Individual Issued Bookstore Charge Card: This is a new payment type that follows the same processes and policies as the individual ProCard except that it can only be used at the Penn Bookstore. The Bookstore Charge Card is designed to allow for smaller, spontaneous purchases.

Department Issued Bookstore Charge Card: This card is the same as the Individual Issued Bookstore Charge Card, however this card is issued to a custodian as delegated by each department. An individual in a department will apply for the card and serve as its custodian. This charge card is safeguarded by the custodian and can be used by any individual as determined by each department. 

ProCard: Customers can also continue to use the ProCard as it is currently allowed.

Individuals who are issued Bookstore Charge Cards as well as any Custodian of the Department Bookstore Charge Card will be required to take the University’s ProCard training module and will be subject to the University’s policies and procedures. Dollar thresholds will default to the ProCard values, however they can be adjusted as each department sees fit.

In developing solutions, the Penn Bookstore has worked with Penn Purchasing, and in turn the Schools and Centers, to ensure that the following objectives were in place:

• Continued sales tax-exempted purchasing.
• Flexibility on who can shop and pay for Bookstore merchandise.
• Supportive of spontaneous or unplanned purchases.
• Familiar administrative tasks to apply, issue and maintain purchasing mechanism. 
• Financial controls to ensure accountability and limit risk.
• Flexible and scalable implementation that is determined by each School/Center.

For questions please contact:

           Bookstore Charge Cards: PurchasingCardSupport@upenn.edu or (215) 898-3606

           Purchase Orders: procure@upenn.edu or (215) 898-7218

           Bookstore Operations: lewclaps@upenn.edu or (215) 898-7595