What is on your list of annual program management tasks? Have you documented them within your P-Card procedures? Making a conscious effort to complete the following 12 tasks annually will help keep your program in good shape. Of course, you might tackle some of these more often than yearly and in months other than January, especially if your fiscal year is not the calendar year. Nevertheless, the beginning of a calendar year marks a fitting time for a review.

Can You Add to the List?

If you have additional card program management tasks that you do annually, please share them within the Comments section below.

Number 13 Added!

The November 11, 2015, blog post adds one more task to the annual list: cardholder contact information. Learn more...

12 Annual Housekeeping Tasks

1. Revise P-Card Web pages and documents that reflect dated information, such as the schedule of transaction reconciliation deadlines for the year that cardholders must follow.
2. Ensure P-Card policies and procedures are current.
3. Execute mandated annual refresher training for cardholders and their managers.
4. Evaluate cardholder activity for the prior year to identify inactive or under-utilized cards.
5. Review the appropriateness of card limits and MCC restrictions. Too many temporary adjustments during the prior year to accommodate legitimate purchases indicate a mismatch between your controls and program goals.
6. Update your P-Card program risk assessment.
7. Publish key program metrics online, such as annualized process savings, and develop a 2014 summary specifically for management. Using graphs can be an effective way to share program status at a glance.
8. Consult with accounts payable regarding the potential need for a rebate accrual entry or adjustment.
9. Upload current accounting/budget codes to your P-Card program management system, if applicable. Some organizations pre-populate budget code drop-down menus. This allows cardholders to select (versus key in) the right codes, if different than any default codes, when reconciling transactions online.
10. Provide updated cardholder information for the organization’s business continuity/disaster recovery plan. If your organization does not require annual training on the plan, then consider sending an overview to cardholders and their managers as a reminder.
11. Assess your organization's relationship with the card issuer. Are there any unresolved issues? Are they meeting your needs? How can you improve the relationship? Confirm when your contract expires, so you are not caught off-guard. Plan accordingly.
12. Consider whether your organization could benefit from adding another card type, such as Declining Balance Cards (e.g., project/meeting cards) or Virtual Cards, to round out your payment strategy and address a pain point.  

Annual housekeeping plus the type of goal setting for card program expansion that I mentioned in my last post will get the new year off to a great start.

About the Author

Blog post author Lynn Larson, CPCP, is the founder of Recharged Education. With more than 15 years of Commercial Card experience, her mission is to make industry education readily accessible to all. Learn more…

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