P-Card Utilization

About the Program

Category: Financial Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2011

In 2008, the net utilization of the procurement card (P-Card) program in El Paso County was $802,000 – resulting in a $6,000 rebate issued by the credit card processing company. This rebate provided a compelling incentive to increase and expand the use of the program. In 2009 a major effort was launched to increase the usage of the P-card program throughout the County as a means of maximizing rebate incentives and to help streamline the payment process. Further, El Paso County had been fielding complaints from vendors over delayed payments for services rendered. As a means of addressing these issues, the County began by polling vendors to identify those that would be willing to accept credit card payments. Those vendors that agreed were set up with a different address book type so that departments issuing payments could easily identify them. From 2008 to 2010, El Paso County increased its usage of the P-card from $802,000 to $11.3 million – resulting in a rebate of $150,000. This substantial rebate increase has more than paid for the salary of the staff person administering the P-card program in addition to returning substantial, much-needed funding to the County’s budget, without any increase in procurement activity. Moreover, not long after the County began using its P-card program to streamline its payments to vendors, many of these vendors expressed extreme satisfaction over the ease and efficiencies of the program – especially with regard to bank account deposits that were now taking just a few days rather than weeks. The cost of this program is a mere $55,000 annually, which includes the salary of the staff person dedicated to administering it.