Policies and Procedures
Policies and procedures (P&P) are the foundation of any card program. Even if your Purchasing Card P&P manual is current (and hopefully electronic), it could be lacking in other ways, resulting in repeated questions and compliance issues. Have you evaluated the manual’s topics and related content recently? Reviewing and updating P&P often fall to the bottom of someone’s to-do list. To help you gauge whether you are covering the right material, following are 12 broad topics to include. For more details about these topics, consider purchasing the guide noted on this page.
Primary Topics
P-Card Overview
Roles and Responsibilities
How to Obtain a P-Card
Card Security and Limits
Card Usage
Transaction Declines
Transaction Reconcilement and Review
Ongoing Training Requirements
Card Expiration and Renewal
About Program Auditing
Card Cancellation
Reference Materials (e.g., glossary, user guide for the P-Card technology, relevant forms, etc.)
Format
Even if your management will not budge on what your policies and procedures (P&P) say, how you write them can boost or hinder cardholder compliance. Large, text-heavy paragraphs can be unappealing. To give them new life, separate general information from procedures and make procedures more prominent using an appropriate format. Design matters. Three common procedure writing formats are:
Step by step
Script
Decision matrix
For more information about P&P formats, consider purchasing the guide (noted on this page) for just $29.99.
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Related Resources
Transaction disputes/problematic transactions—what to include in the P&P
Real-life example of controversial P-Card spend due to lack of a policy
Content to include in a program manager/administrator manual
Guide Available for Purchase—Only $29.99
How to Revitalize Your Purchasing Card Policies and Procedures has more than 20 pages of content—a real value! For providers who want to distribute the guide to multiple clients, there is a license option with no limit on the number of copies to share.
Additional P&P Help
Does your organization need assistance evaluating its Purchasing Card policies and procedures? Contact Recharged Education.