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THIS ISSUE: The case for purchasing cards - CIPS qualifications - Assessing agencies' buying
Card graft
Q I want to implement purchasing cards to reduce the amount of time my department spends dealing with queries on low-value purchases, but our finance director says they are not right for our company. How can I convince him?
A Will Parsons, head of training and consultancy at Purcon Consultants, writes: It is not unusual for finance staff to feel uneasy about purchasing cards, as their use involves a change in the way purchases are controlled and a slight loss of management information.
However, the finance department is usually the main beneficiary once cards are implemented. There will be substantial benefits in accounts payable, with the removal of perhaps 25 per cent of all incoming invoices.
Yes, there will be less information with purchasing card transactions, but it is only the lowest value 1 per cent of spend that will be affected. The top 99 per cent will still be handled by existing systems.
Do we really need such detailed information on the bottom 1 percent? The answer, of course, is that we don't need to analyse this trivial expenditure in great detail, but that we may want to. The problem with purchasing cards is not to do with facts but fears.
The best way of convincing the finance director is actually to pilot cards with a small number of users (around four to six...