Community Exchange

Hi Everyone,

I work for a mid-size private university, and our Finance team is reviewing how institutions are managing athlete meal advances and per diems. Currently, our coaches submit check requests, cash the checks, and then distribute cash to the athletes. At times, this results in an uncomfortable amount of cash being handled and distributed.

My sister, who works as a swim coach at a large public university, shared that their athletes are issued cards that the Business Office loads with funds for travel or other needs. Any unused funds are pulled back after the trip. I spoke with the individual who manages that process last week, and they indicated it was a program set up through their bank. We have checked with the banks we currently work with, but none of them offer a similar solution.

With that in mind, I wanted to poll the community to see how other institutions are handling athlete meal advances and per diems. Additionally, we use Ellucian Colleague, so I would be interested to know if anyone is aware of functionality within the system that supports tracking or managing this type of activity.

Thank you in advance for your time and insights!

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Brian Garland
Financial Analyst
Aurora University
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Brian - Many institutions use Red Card for student-athlete travel and per diem.

https://www.redcardathletics.com/

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Brett Powell
Executive Vice President for Finance & Administration & Chief Financial Officer
Tarleton State University
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We have used Red Card for the last couple of years and it has worked well. Prior to that we worked with two banks on a similar program, but the banks really are not set up for this market. 

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Robert Swanson
Controller
Bowling Green State University
rswanso@bgsu.edu
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Can I ask how you are recording this on your general ledger?  We talked with a vendor (it wasn't Red Card, but I don't remember who it was) about this many years ago and the process was going to be that we needed to fund the cards by issuing a voucher/check through our AP System and that when the unused funds came back, we would have to do journal entries for each individual one.  It sounded like it would be a bank reconciliation nightmare because we would have check disbursements on the ledger that did not match the actual amount debited from our bank account.  

Thanks!

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Elizabeth Kite
Assistant Controller
Dallas Baptist University
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-04-2026 09:00 AM
From: Robert Swanson
Subject: Student Athlete Meal Advances and Per Diems

We have used Red Card for the last couple of years and it has worked well. Prior to that we worked with two banks on a similar program, but the banks really are not set up for this market. 

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Robert Swanson
Controller
Bowling Green State University
rswanso@bgsu.edu
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Original Message:
Sent: 2/4/2026 9:20:00 AM
From: Elizabeth Kite
Subject: RE: Student Athlete Meal Advances and Per Diems

Can I ask how you are recording this on your general ledger?  We talked with a vendor (it wasn't Red Card, but I don't remember who it was) about this many years ago and the process was going to be that we needed to fund the cards by issuing a voucher/check through our AP System and that when the unused funds came back, we would have to do journal entries for each individual one.  It sounded like it would be a bank reconciliation nightmare because we would have check disbursements on the ledger that did not match the actual amount debited from our bank account.  

Thanks!

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Elizabeth Kite
Assistant Controller
Dallas Baptist University
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Thank you!  Our system doesn't operate with excel uploads very well, but I can see how this would work if it did!  I appreciate your time!

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Elizabeth Kite
Assistant Controller
Dallas Baptist University
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-04-2026 11:43 AM
From: Robert Swanson
Subject: Student Athlete Meal Advances and Per Diems

We have a current asset account – cash account for red card. We fund it based on a minimum level we believe is adequate to accommodate a two months of activity. That accounts for most fluctuations in demand.

 

A request comes in by Excel to load funds and we approve/load within AP by spreadsheet upload. AP doesn't sweep funds, I'm not having my staff get into that level of micromanagement. We do have an area that wants to operate down to the penny with cards and sweeps, so we have given them access to do so. When they sweep, they send us a properly formatted excel of those sweeps that will tie out to what was swept.

 

The spreadsheets have the GL string details. At month end the AP Manager reconciles the Red Card account to the GL after the activity posts using the formatted spreadsheets. He then passes the rec to the treasury accountant who goes through a number of review procedures before counter-signing the rec.

 

Overall it does not take us much time each month, most of the work is done by departments wanting to issue funds. Establishing new accounts and loading cards is centralized. We have found it more efficient and less time consuming than when we used PNC and before that BoA. I think PNC has changed their product since we last used them though (2023?).

 

 

Bob Swanson, CPA

Controller

Bowling Green State University

1851 N. Research Drive

Bowling Green, Ohio 43403

 

rswanso@bgsu.edu

w 419.372.8597

 

 

 

Original Message:
Sent: 2/4/2026 9:20:00 AM
From: Elizabeth Kite
Subject: RE: Student Athlete Meal Advances and Per Diems

Can I ask how you are recording this on your general ledger?  We talked with a vendor (it wasn't Red Card, but I don't remember who it was) about this many years ago and the process was going to be that we needed to fund the cards by issuing a voucher/check through our AP System and that when the unused funds came back, we would have to do journal entries for each individual one.  It sounded like it would be a bank reconciliation nightmare because we would have check disbursements on the ledger that did not match the actual amount debited from our bank account.  

Thanks!

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Elizabeth Kite
Assistant Controller
Dallas Baptist University
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-04-2026 09:00 AM
From: Robert Swanson
Subject: Student Athlete Meal Advances and Per Diems

We have used Red Card for the last couple of years and it has worked well. Prior to that we worked with two banks on a similar program, but the banks really are not set up for this market. 

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Robert Swanson
Controller
Bowling Green State University
rswanso@bgsu.edu

Brian - We currently operate as you mentioned - cutting checks and the coaches distribute cash to the athletes. We are in discussions with our bank to use Visa Commercial Pay to issue virtual cards directly to the athletes which sounds like what your sister does and what others are using with Red Card.

I'm curious for those using a virtual card/red card service - have you run into any issues with cards being declined and how do you handle it? When we mentioned this option to our Athletics department they had concerns with how we were going to handle if an athlete's card isn't working. I don't really want our finance staff to be "on-call" 24/7 fixing issues with virtual cards. We plan on piloting this with a few of our smaller teams this spring. During the pilot phase we'd probably also send the coaches with cash in the event issues arise.

Steve Babbles

Controller

Le Moyne College

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Stephen Babbles
Controller
Le Moyne College
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Original Message:
Sent: 2/4/2026 9:09:00 AM
From: Stephen Babbles
Subject: RE: Student Athlete Meal Advances and Per Diems

Brian - We currently operate as you mentioned - cutting checks and the coaches distribute cash to the athletes. We are in discussions with our bank to use Visa Commercial Pay to issue virtual cards directly to the athletes which sounds like what your sister does and what others are using with Red Card.

I'm curious for those using a virtual card/red card service - have you run into any issues with cards being declined and how do you handle it? When we mentioned this option to our Athletics department they had concerns with how we were going to handle if an athlete's card isn't working. I don't really want our finance staff to be "on-call" 24/7 fixing issues with virtual cards. We plan on piloting this with a few of our smaller teams this spring. During the pilot phase we'd probably also send the coaches with cash in the event issues arise.

Steve Babbles

Controller

Le Moyne College

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Stephen Babbles
Controller
Le Moyne College
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We have seen issues with cards not being activated correctly. I have not seen cards declined during a purchase. However, our admin user portal allows the monitoring of transactions and we have some flaggers, when needed. A majority of our coaches will always travel with their purchasing cards, in the doomsday scenarios, they can use these cards, if needed.

Your concern with the "on-call" status was similar by our central finance team as well. Therefore, we have an athletics business officer that is the main point-of-contact for this. There are few athletic staff members that have the admin role and can load/unload, order cards, etc. As the day-to-day administration role was pushed to the athletic staff, our central finance team oversaw the contract execution, invoice payments, and audits with unused funds.

I would agree to pilot this with a smaller sport. Our first instance was a FB bowl game, and that was a nightmare.

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Albert Loera
Assistant Director, Financial Reporting - Athletics
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-04-2026 09:09 AM
From: Stephen Babbles
Subject: Student Athlete Meal Advances and Per Diems

Brian - We currently operate as you mentioned - cutting checks and the coaches distribute cash to the athletes. We are in discussions with our bank to use Visa Commercial Pay to issue virtual cards directly to the athletes which sounds like what your sister does and what others are using with Red Card.

I'm curious for those using a virtual card/red card service - have you run into any issues with cards being declined and how do you handle it? When we mentioned this option to our Athletics department they had concerns with how we were going to handle if an athlete's card isn't working. I don't really want our finance staff to be "on-call" 24/7 fixing issues with virtual cards. We plan on piloting this with a few of our smaller teams this spring. During the pilot phase we'd probably also send the coaches with cash in the event issues arise.

Steve Babbles

Controller

Le Moyne College

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Stephen Babbles
Controller
Le Moyne College
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Hi Brian,

We do meals a couple ways.  Typically our coaches will do one large order and use their purchasing card.  Coaches have been granted a food exception for team meals.  I would say the majority of the time that's what they do.  However, we do have some teams that do check requests, cash the check and distribute the cash.  When they do that, it's usually not for the whole trip, only for specific days or meals.  For example, track and cross country will do this for meet days, as runners are participating at different times during the day, making it hard to eat at the same time. 

We did look into the loading of cards a couple of years ago, but after evaluating the amount of cash the coaches actually take out compared to potential issues that we might run into with them, we felt that at the time we researched it, it wasn't worth the effort to change our process.

Thanks,

Jennifer 

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Jennifer Laitala
Director of Accounts Receivable
Student Billing
Michigan Technological University
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We established an ePayment solution through PNC bank that has worked well. It allows athletes to select how they want to receive the funds. We have been using this for study abroad per diems and other instances as well. One drawback is that we cannot claw back funds but we make sure the athlete or student is on the trip or funds are needed. This is not as robust as the red card solution so we may look into that so I appreciate that feedback from folks. 

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Mike Darwin
Controller
Samford University
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We use US Bank's prepaid Visa program, and it works great.  They offer two different types of cards - one where you can pull the funds back and limit the MCC codes (used for Athletics and other student travel) and one where the money cannot be pulled back or limited (used for repeat stipend payments).  Both options have worked great for our purposes.  We order cards for each athlete, but also keep "blank" cards on hand.  The blank cards can be instantly issued if a student loses their card.  We can also move funds easily between cards.  For example, a student lost their card, so we removed funds from the student's card and added funds to the coach's card.  I'd be happy to answer any other questions you may have. 

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Khalli Hagan
Controller
Southeastern Louisiana University
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Hi Brian, 

We use a similar process to Red Card, however we are serviced by US Bank that issues a prepaid card to the athletes. There is an intake form of the names/amounts needed and they are loaded onto the cards, as needed by our staff. A minimum balance is left in our US Bank Prepaid account to allow for fluctuation and the loading of cards. Our admin user portal allows us to monitor the cards purchases, activity, and load/unload features. The other option for our smaller sports is the use of our normal purchasing card.

The cards do have a bit of maintenance as they are assigned to each individual person. SAs lose their cards, new cards are needed to be created (shipping takes about a week), temporary cards are a hassle. Unused balances and lost cards are difficult as we audit throughout the year. Our primary users are the Olympic sports, MBB/WBB and FB have only used them during postseason play.

When our purchasing team went to bid, there were a number of companies doing this type of service. Some do a digital card so the SA can use their phone, some allow for cash withdraw at an ATM, etc.

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Albert Loera
Assistant Director, Financial Reporting - Athletics
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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We use Choice Pay through Huntington Bank.  You basically enter each athlete's email, enter the amount you want to fund, them and the timing.  Then they receive an email from the bank asking for their funding choice (Venmo, Mastercard, e-deposit, etc) and the funds are sent within 1-5 business days.  We like this option so that no cash needs to be handled.

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Lisa Geiger
Controller
University of Mount Union
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We are pretty manual how we do this, Expense reports and/or advanced spend authorizations, but I did want to ask a related question. I see some mention per diem for the meals, but I think that's more an accountable plan concept typically used for employees meals reimbursement.  Does everyone default to per diem rates set by government for what is given to student athletes, or institutional per diem rates, or some other amount? I ask as we don't seem to have set rate and I'm seeing variety from athletics at what they ask for per student with no real sense of why. 

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Geoffrey Ball
Associate Vice President, Financial Management
The University of Tampa
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