Tip of the month-Using your p-Cards on purchases already made!

You know that p-Cards have the potential of reducing the number of PO’s you issue each year but they will not eliminate all PO’s. PO’s will continue to be an important internal control/budget control technique. PO’s traditionally generate a bill from the vendor which results in a check being processed by the school district. Sometimes vendors can wait as much as 45 days for their money. Consider three new approaches:

Remember to insert the term “credit card” in place of “p-Card”. Vendors rarely know what a p-Card is. -  Highlight the amount due (hot pink in color or some other eye-catching color) and let the vendor know that you are willing to pay this bill using your p-Card/credit card and if they are interested to call a specific person.

 Second, ask if you can pay using the p-Card if you qualify for a discount and free shipping. This is not an unreasonable question since p-Card payments to vendors happen within 48 hours of items being shipped or picked up. This improves the cash flow of the vendor and simplifies their processing time since MC payments go directly to the bank account specified by the vendor.

 Third, you have a bill in front of you that could have been paid for using a p-Card. Telephone the vendor and tell them you would like to make payment now using a credit card. In most instances the vendor already is set up for credit card payments and in fact has factored their transaction costs into their pricing of their products/services. Even if the response is no, what have you lost?

Try it-the results might surprise you!

As a bonus, remember that every bill you can convert from payment by check to payment by the p-Card generates a rebate, if you are using the ______ASBO p-Card program.

Updated 2016