Are you snowed under with processing POs for pencils because you are wary of trusting your employees with a purchasing card? asks Sunet Trollip, Project Manager, Nedbank Corporate Card in this month’s SmartProcurement.
The benefits of using a purchasing card (P-Card), far outweigh the risk of your employees misusing it. Not only will you be able to track expenses easily and save time processing low-value, high-volume purchases, you can also put measures and policies in place to curb possible employee misuse. And employees won’t have to use their own money for frequent work-related purchases only to have to claim it back at a later stage.
If you are particularly concerned about employees cutting corners and not following policy, a P-Card is a great asset to fall back on. You can create limits in terms of valid suppliers and spend amount. You can retrieve and cancel cards quickly if you need to. You can also review expenditure easily, escalating and resolving any incidents quickly and effectively.
With a robust procurement card policy in place, the P-Card empowers your employees to take care of the smaller expenses and any last-minute purchases that need to be effected immediately. This will enable you to spend more of your time and resources on the strategic purchases that make a significant difference to the business.
Is that not worth putting a little more trust in your employees? With a P-Card you give a little trust and gain a whole lot more flexibility if you roll it out correctly.
Here are a few tips to rolling out your P-Card among employees:
- – Set limits and ensure employees are aware of them.
- – Create and communicate your P-Card policy clearly.
- – Review your P-Card statements and hold employees as well as line management accountable.
- – Analyse your data and use it to regularly review and update your P-Card policy.
- – Ensure employees know that if they abuse the card, it will be taken away from them and they will possibly face disciplinary action.
If you want to know if a P-Card programme would work for your business, simply email Pascalle Albrecht for more information about Nedbank’s P-Card.
