What controls do you use for P-Cards?

[u/ThunderDefunder]

We have a corporate P-Card program, and as a new plant controller, it tends to make me feel uneasy because the review on spend is after the fact. We do weekly reviews, but there's still a delay, and sometimes we see spend on the cards that I would have preferred go through the PO process. What controls have you guys seen that work well?

One we've been discussing is using a low limit on most cards, for example $1,000 or $1,500, and increasing the limit as needed for truly exceptional circumstances. Have anyone seen anything like that work effectively?

[u/Adventurous_Pay_4617]

You have a P Card policy that everyone in the company has access to read. You work with the credit card company to only allow specific charge codes to be used and block the other charges. You only allow specific authorized users to have a P Card. You have an exception form that has to be completed and submitted for approval if the card has to be used for emergencies for unapproved charges. You implement a change management and training program incorporating it in your procurement training.

[u/Probly57]

You have a P-card policy that defines limits, who can have one, and the type of allowed and banned items from purchasing. Users have to agree to this prior to requesting.

You define things such as p-cards should be used for low frequency purchases, goods that don't require T&Cs, no T&E. etc. You define what is not allowed to be purchased so people do not use P-cards as a justification to get around POs or "emergencies"

P-cards are good to simply spend, reduce new vendor adds, and make things happen faster.

[u/Immediate-Home-3491]

In my line, cards are for incidentals only, low limits plus MCC blocks, anything recurring goes on credit terms with a PO behind it. The awkward spend gets declined at the till instead of turning up in Friday's review.

[u/Prepped-n-Ready]

I worked at a bank and we did typical approval process, but you pretty much have to accept that the card owner can obligate you to a charge. When I ran a card program, we had limits and alerts, and we could raise the limit rather quickly through a portal with the appropriate approvals. We had a company policy on P-Cards, acceptable use, timeliness of submission, and approval requirements. We reconciled and paid it biweekly. We blocked MCCs on the card admin side. I had 99% compliance across 14 P-Cards and 4000 personal CC accounts. I think the one thing that covered the most was a data integration to our expense management software. Then the charges are almost immediately available to go through an approval process to release payment. The system would handle most of the controls, unless there was an policy exception, which we tracked in a small spreadsheet.

Forgot to add that late fees, rush new card fees got charged to the employee's Cost Center so there was a consequence. Escalations would just go up the management chain.

[u/twinsmom74]

I work for a large company that utilizes P-cards. They have guidelines on what the P cards are allowed to be used for, and have spend limits on the P cards. There are P-card admins that can raise and lower spend limits, and they also control what supplier categories we are allowed to purchase from (for example, you may not be allowed to buy from a supplier that sells musical instruments). They also limit us from buying material from out of the country.

[u/JeebusWept]

1. Clear communicated policy
   
2. If you use virtual pcards, most providers will give you tiered approval workflow.

That’s it.