How to Fill Out the Army GPC Purchase Request and Approval Form

The Army GPC Purchase Request and Approval form is the document a requiring activity uses to ask a Government Purchase Card cardholder to buy supplies or services below the micro-purchase threshold, and it must be filled in with exact item descriptions, a valid Line of Accounting, documented source checks, and the billing official’s signature before the card is ever swiped.¹ Get those elements right and the transaction moves; miss one and the package bounces back, or worse, posts as an unauthorized commitment.

What the PR&A Is and When to Use It

The PR&A is the Army’s standard template for requesting supplies or services on the GPC. Requiring activities submit it — or a substantially similar document approved by the local command — to the cardholder when they need something bought.¹ Some units still capture supply details on DD Form 1348-6, the “Single Line Item Requisition System Document, DoD (Manual-Long Form),” or record them digitally in the General Fund Enterprise Business System.² Whichever underlying form captures the item data, the PR&A is the approval wrapper the billing official signs.

If the request is running through GFEBS, the purchase request must reach Level 4 approval in the system before the cardholder swipes.³

What to Fill In on the Form

Accuracy on the face of the PR&A is what keeps the transaction clean later. Fill in:

Exact item descriptions that match the vendor’s catalog language. Vague descriptions slow the process because the billing official and cardholder both need to know precisely what they are approving and buying.
Precise quantities and current unit prices.
The correct commodity code, so the purchase falls into an authorized spending category.
The Line of Accounting the purchase will be charged to.
Delivery point and any required receipt information.

Before the cardholder executes the buy, the Accountable Property Officer must also review the request when the items qualify as accountable property. Getting the APO’s eyes on the form up front prevents property-book headaches later.

Justifications That Must Accompany the Form

The PR&A does not stand alone. A compliant package carries the documentation showing the requester did the required homework before going to a commercial vendor.

Mandatory Source Checks

Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 8 requires cardholders to check government sources in a specific priority order. For supplies, the order runs from the agency’s own inventory, to excess from other agencies, to Federal Prison Industries (UNICOR), to AbilityOne products, and then to wholesale supply sources such as GSA or DLA. For services, AbilityOne and Federal Supply Schedules come first.⁴ Army GPC guidance reinforces this priority and requires purchases in accordance with it.⁵

Document that search as part of the justification package. Audits routinely catch cardholders who went straight to Amazon or a local vendor without recording that AbilityOne and UNICOR were checked first.

Market Research and Price Reasonableness

FAR Part 10 requires market research appropriate to the circumstances.⁶ For a micro-purchase, that generally means verifying the price is reasonable by comparing vendor pricing, checking GSA Advantage, or reviewing recent purchase history for similar items. Local standard operating procedures may require multiple quotes, particularly as the dollar amount approaches the threshold.

Sole-Source Justifications

When only one vendor can supply the item, attach a sole-source justification memo that explains the unique circumstances making a single-source purchase necessary. It must be approved before the cardholder buys. Repeated sole-source memos for the same vendor draw questions from the A/OPC.

Funding Verification and the Line of Accounting

Every PR&A needs a valid Line of Accounting to prove funds are available. The billing official must verify that sufficient funds are obligated in the financial system before authorizing the cardholder to proceed.⁷ Skip this step and the purchase becomes an unauthorized commitment, which triggers its own administrative process.

Dollar Limits the Form Can Cover

The standard micro-purchase threshold for supplies and services is $15,000. A cardholder can buy up to that amount on the open market without formal competitive bidding, though market research and mandatory source checks still apply. For contingency operations or emergency response, the threshold rises to $25,000 inside the United States and $40,000 outside it.⁸

The simplified acquisition threshold is $350,000. GPC purchases between $15,000 and $350,000 are possible in limited circumstances but require contracting office involvement and additional competition procedures.⁹

Splitting a single requirement into multiple smaller purchases to stay under the micro-purchase threshold is prohibited. If the total need exceeds $15,000, the requirement goes to the contracting office. There is no workaround.¹⁰

Purchases the PR&A Cannot Authorize

Some categories are off-limits regardless of dollar amount, and putting them on a PR&A wastes everyone’s time. Major prohibited categories include:¹¹

Cash equivalents including cash advances, money orders, travelers’ checks, gift certificates, and gift cards.
Personal expenses of any kind.
Pharmaceuticals, which must go through the DLA supply system.
Aircraft fuel and oil, which use the AIR Card.
GSA leased vehicle repairs, which use the fleet card.
Salaries, wages, fines, bail, and bond payments.
Betting and casino gaming chips.
Foreign currency purchases.
Covered telecommunications equipment, including products from companies listed under FAR 4.2202.
TikTok and ByteDance products, prohibited under FAR 13.201(k).
PFOS/PFOA-containing items, including nonstick cookware for dining facilities and stain-resistant treated furniture or carpets.

If a request looks questionable, the cardholder must consult the A/OPC before swiping. Per-transaction exceptions are sometimes granted, but they require program-coordinator approval and thorough documentation.

Routing and Signatures

The PR&A follows an approval chain built so the person making the purchase is never the person who authorized the funds. The requester submits the package to the billing official, who reviews it for accuracy and confirms the Line of Accounting has sufficient funds. Once the billing official signs — digitally or on paper — the request moves to the cardholder, who screens it to verify billing-official approval before executing the transaction.³

Most units run these approvals through U.S. Bank Access Online, the Army’s electronic access system for the GPC program. Cardholders and billing officials track orders and transactions as purchases post and upload supporting documentation into the system to build a timestamped audit trail.¹² The PR&A itself must be uploaded into the bank’s electronic system once the transaction posts.

Sales Tax on the Purchase

GPC accounts are centrally billed, so purchases are exempt from state and local sales tax in most states. The cardholder tells the merchant the purchase is for official U.S. Government purposes and not subject to state sales tax; state-specific exemption letters are available from the GSA SmartPay website when vendors ask for documentation.¹³ A handful of state and federal taxes still apply — Hawaii General Excise Tax, Arizona Transaction Privilege Tax, New Mexico Gross Receipts Tax on labor, federal communications excise tax, highway vehicle users’ tax, fuel purchases, and commissary surcharges among them. If a receipt shows tax that shouldn’t be there, go back to the vendor for a credit.

After the Purchase

After delivery, a government employee who is not the cardholder or billing official performs an independent receipt and acceptance, confirming that quantity and condition match the request and the packing slip. A copy of the receipt goes to the Accountable Property Officer within five business days when applicable.¹⁴

The cardholder then reconciles in U.S. Bank Access Online. The deadline is tight: cardholders must approve their statement within three business days of the billing cycle end date if the statement is correct. If reconciliation does not happen within 15 days after the cycle closes, the cardholder is locked out of the system and the billing official takes over reconciliation.¹⁵ Lockouts are visible to the A/OPC and often trigger increased surveillance.

Retain the PR&A, receipts, sole-source justifications, and signed statements for six years in accordance with FAR 4.805. The clock starts after final payment, not after the purchase date.¹⁶

Why Getting the Form Right Matters

GPC violations carry consequences that scale from verbal counseling to demotion, removal, or criminal prosecution.¹⁷ Cardholders who make unauthorized purchases, or who let someone else use their card, can be held personally liable for the full dollar amount. Billing officials face pecuniary liability under 10 U.S.C. 2773a for any illegal, improper, or incorrect payment they certify. When fraud is suspected, the command refers the matter for investigation, and the individual gets a chance to rebut presumed liability. Whether that rebuttal succeeds turns on the paperwork the PR&A generated — which is why filling it in carefully the first time is the entire game.

1
Acquisition.GOV. AFARS 6-7 Purchase Request and Approval Sample Template
2
Washington Headquarters Services. DD Form 1348-6 – DOD Single Line Item Requisition System Document
3
Acquisition.GOV. AFARS Appendix EE Table of Contents
4
Acquisition.GOV. FAR Part 8 – Required Sources of Supplies and Services
5
Acquisition.GOV. AFARS Chapter 9 – Required Sources of Supplies and Services
6
Acquisition.GOV. FAR Part 10 – Market Research
7
Acquisition.GOV. AFARS 2-8 GPC Support Function Duties
8
Acquisition.GOV. Subpart 13.2 – Actions At or Below the Micro-Purchase Threshold
9
Federal Register. Inflation Adjustment of Acquisition-Related Thresholds
10
Defense Pricing and Contracting (DPC). Purchase Cards – Frequently Asked Questions
11
Acquisition.GOV. AFARS Chapter 14 – Prohibited and Restricted Purchases
12
Acquisition.GOV. AFARS 3-4 U.S. Bank Access Online (AXOL)
13
Acquisition.GOV. AFARS 6-5 Tax-Exempt Status
14
Acquisition.GOV. AFARS 6-2 GPC Purchasing Process
15
Acquisition.GOV. AFARS 6-9 Payments of Monthly Invoices
16
Acquisition.GOV. AFARS 6-13 File Retention
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Acquisition.GOV. AFARS 5-5 Liability of Cardholders and Billing Officials