{"id":3279,"date":"2017-11-16T16:40:02","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T16:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peeriosity.com\/shared-services\/articles\/?p=3279"},"modified":"2022-09-06T19:50:56","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T19:50:56","slug":"lessons-learned-in-developing-and-implementing-a-purchasing-card-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peeriosity.com\/shared-services\/articles\/2017\/11\/lessons-learned-in-developing-and-implementing-a-purchasing-card-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons Learned in Developing and Implementing a Purchasing Card Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

An effective policy can be a critical success factor for any Purchasing Card (PCard) program<\/a>.\u00a0 While the investment in time and resources to create a new policy (or update an existing one) can be significant, this effort can result in streamlined program administration, better controls, higher overall levels of cardholder satisfaction, and increased card usage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Company Experience<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, a Fortune 500 company with over $12 billion in sales and 50,000 employees, was featured on a Peeriosity PeercastTM<\/sup> in which they shared their recent experiences in rolling out a new Purchasing Card policy.\u00a0 This company has a centralized global program with cards<\/a> in North America, Asia, and EMEA and they utilize Citibank<\/a> MasterCard and Visa.\u00a0 They have over $200M USD in annual spending on the PCard, with 4,000 cardholders.\u00a0 Their PCard program started in 1995 in the United States, and then expanded to Canada in 2010, EMEA in 2014, and Asia in 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the company began the development of its PCard policy, one of its first steps was to solicit input from its key stakeholders.\u00a0 This included the VP of Purchasing, Internal Audit, Compliance, the Corporate Controller, Divisional Controllers, and Country Controllers.\u00a0 Some of the key steps that they followed included:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Define what is a Purchasing Card<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Define a limit structure<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Set restrictions and block MCC categories<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Define responsibilities of all those involved, including the cardholder, approver, Purchasing Manager, and Controller<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Define the types of purchases that can be made with a PCard and how it complements the existing Procurement and AP processes<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Clearly define what is to be charged on a PCard vs. a Travel Card<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Identify allowable policy exceptions<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The company then went into greater detail for each of these key steps, which is included in the Peercast Results section for this session.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Some of the lessons learned from this successful initiative include the following:<\/span><\/p>\n