Digital Payments

• User: The faculty or staff member who submits spending approvals and payment requests through the Digital Payment application.
• Financial Approvers: The faculty/ staff responsible for approving spending via Digital Payments as appropriate uses of the application and within budget.
• Payment Approvers: The faculty/staff responsible for reviewing and approving payments to payees as non-fraudulent or erroneous.
• Payee: The person who will receive the approved payment.
• Payables Systems: The OCFO team responsible for user and payee support.

• Payees should not be employees. Employees should have their university-approved expenses reimbursed via expense report. Any additional payment to an employee that is not an expense reimbursement needs to be made through Payroll.
• Payments should not be in exchange for the provision of goods or services. If a person is providing the university with goods or services, that is a procurement expense, and users should follow the procurement process, including having the payee register as a supplier, having their designated procurement professional create a requisition, and executing a contract if required by the Contracts Policy.
• Payments should not be stipend payments to students. Service stipends need to be processed through payroll. Non-service stipends need to be entered as financial aid in the Banner student record system, and should be processed through Banner or GMS.
• Users should submit a detailed description in the Spend Memo. This should include what they are making these payments for, and the justification of why these payments are a business expense to the university.

All requests are initiated from the “Request Digital Payment” task in GMS. Users must first choose a Request Type of Spending Approval, Payment Request, or Both. Users can submit Spending Approvals and Payment Requests separately, or at the same time (using Request Type = Both), but every Payment Request must have an associated Spending Approval. 

Spending Approvals: Users must select/enter the following information, and then click OK. Attachments are allowed (and approvers may require them) but not required by the app. (Note: Requests for research participant payments should attach or otherwise link to their IRB approval to make payments in the method indicated – Digital Payments via PNC or TangoCard.)

• Payee Type – A list of common types of payees/use cases is included, but users may select “Other” and then describe the “Other” type of payee in the text box.
• Payment Type – Users must select either:
  • Digital Payment via PNC: Payments delivered this way are effectively cash, and the payee will be able to elect to be paid via direct deposit, push-to-debit, Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle. If payment isn’t claimed, a paper check will be mailed. Users should make sure to send Georgetown’s passcode, G30rgeT0wn1, to payees.
  • TangoCard: The user must have established a TangoCard account ahead of submitting the request. Payments delivered this way are non-cash. The payee will be able to choose from hundreds of gift card options.
• Spend Start and End Dates – These estimates are to assist approvers in understanding the scope when the spending is occurring that requires the digital payments.
• Spend Memo – Describe what the payments will be for, and the justification of why these payments are a business expense to the university.
• Spend Details – Use the (+) icon to add a line, and then provide the Amount, Expense Item, and Worktags. Multiple expense items or multiple sets of worktags can be accommodated by adding multiple lines. A separate line per payment is not required. Lists of values are not available; all worktags must be searched for/entered.

Payment Requests: Users must select a Spending Approval that has funds left to be spent (unless submitting a Request Type of “Both.”) Users must also provide a Payment Memo that describes, in general terms, to whom the payments are being directed and for what. Users must then also provide payee information after clicking on the “Payment Details” tab, specifically:

• Amount to be delivered to the payee (must be less than $1,000.00)
• First Name and Last Name
• Email Address: This is how the payee will effectively receive the payment.
• Mailing Address: This must be an address within the United States. Address is required by our payment partners due to Know Your Customer regulations.

Payee information may be entered manually or uploaded via .CSV file (the template for which is provided within the application). Detailed instructions are included within the app on how to create a successful file of payees/payments for upload. Mobile phone number and a second address line (e.g., for apartment info) may be provided for payees, but are not required.

Note: Users paying their Payees via TangoCard, where the payment should be initiated upon the payess’ completion of a Qualtrics survey, may automate those payments using these instructions, and do not need to submit a Payment Request.

Spending Approvals: Once submitted, spending approvals create a Spend Authorization in GMS, which routes to Financial Approvers according to the existing rules for Spend Authorizations for the unit in question, which typically mirror Expense Report approvals. The following approval chain is not precise for any unit, but is representative of common approval steps for most units:

1. Primary Manager, which may be omitted for faculty in some units
2. Cost Center Manager of the cost center(s) charged
3. (If the expense charges a grant): Grant Manager
4. (If the total expense exceeds certain thresholds):
   1. Senior Business Manager associated with the cost center(s) charged
   2. Campus CFO associated with the cost center(s) charged

Financial approvers review the Spending Approval via the Spend Authorization to assure appropriate uses of the application (including that the spend has a legitimate business purpose) and that the spend is within budget, and that the correct worktags have been charged. 

Spend Authorizations may be sent back to the User who submitted the spending approval for revisions/adjustments, or they may be denied. For Request Types of “Both” (where the Spending Approval is accompanied by a Payment Requests):

• The Payment Request will not be submitted for approval until the Spending Approval/Spend Authorization has been fully approved.
• If the Spend Authorization is sent back and the amount of the Spend Authorization is adjusted downwards so there are insufficient funds approved to cover the associated Payment Requests, the associated Payment Request will be automatically canceled.

Payment Requests: Once the Payment Request is submitted (or in the case of Request Types of “Both,” the Spend Authorization is fully approved), it will route to two Payment Approvers:

1. Cost Center Manager of the User’s home department
2. Senior Business Manager of the user’s home department

Payment Approvers are not approving the finances of the payment. They are asked to review to assure, to the best of their ability, that payments are non-fraudulent and non-erroneous.

Payment requests for Research Participants will not require approval if either a.) the payments are made via TangoCard (regardless of amount), or b.) the total payment request is under $500.

Note: TangoCard payments will be released no earlier than four days from the date of the approval of the Payment Request. This is to ensure enough time for funds to be transferred to TangoCard, so that when the Payment Request is approved, the payments are processed successfully.

Once the Payment Request has been fully approved, payees should receive a Georgetown-branded email from the payment provider the User chose (either PNC Bank or TangoCard).

PNC Digital Payments

The email will come from notification@thepaychoice.com. The sender name will be “ePayments Notification” and will have the subject line: “Georgetown University is trying to send you a payment!” The payee will click on the invitation in the email, which will take them to a personalized link within https://mypay.thepaychoice.com ​​and then will be required to authenticate using:

• The Zip Code associated with the Payee submitted by the User
• Georgetown’s passcode for authentication, which is: G30rgeT0wn1

Then, once within PNC’s secure online portal, the payee will select their preferred payment method (Direct Deposit, Push-to-Debit, Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle) and provide the required information for that payment method (respectively, Routing and Bank Account Number, Debit Card Number, Venmo Handle/US Mobile Phone Number, Email Address, or Zelle Handle/US Mobile Phone Number). 

Once the payee has provided the information, payment will be processed. Payment time depends on the payment method selected, and varies from 5 minutes to 2 business days.

TangoCard

The email will come from noreply@tangocard.com. The sender name will be “Georgetown University” and will have the subject line: “Your Georgetown University payment is here!” The payee will click the redemption link in the email and be redirected to TangoCard’s online portal. From there they will select their preferred gift card. Payees can redeem the whole Digital Payment amount they received through a single gift card or multiple cards. 

Once the payee has selected their redemption option(s) they will proceed through checkout in the TangoCard portal. The gift card selections made are non-returnable for alternative offers. 

Payees will instantly receive another email to the same email address with redemption instructions specific to the gift card brand chosen. Upon following the instructions listed the gift card will be activated for immediate use.

How do I obtain support or additional information about Digital Payments?

Support is available by writing digitalpayments@georgetown.edu. Reports to review submitted Digital Payment requests are ‘Find Digital Payment Authorization’ and ‘Find Digital Payments’ within GMS. Additional information relevant to Digital Payments, include the Digital Payments Quick-Start Guide and Examples of non-procurement (miscellaneous) expenses.

Are these payments taxable?

Whether the payment is taxable or not depends on the character of the payment. Reimbursements for expenses incurred on behalf of the university (whether by students or visitors) are not taxable. Payment for research participants or other use cases may be taxable; the university encourages payees to consult with a tax professional. The university may follow up to obtain Taxpayer Identification Numbers in situations where it has a tax reporting obligation.

May I use this process for honoraria payments?

This mechanism may not be used for honoraria payments for Georgetown University employees.  As long as the person being paid is not a Georgetown employee and the honoraria amount is under $1,000, this process may be used.

May multiple payments be made to the same person for under $1,000, but in an amount totaling more than $1,000?

If the originating source of/reason for the multiple payment(s) are different, then yes. Almost universally, this will mean separate Spending Approvals. More guidance is available by writing digitalpayments@georgetown.edu.

Who may submit Digital Payment requests?

All employees (including Contingent Workers, but not including Student Workers) for US-based university operations may use the app.