City University - Viability Study for P-Cards

CITY UNIVERSITY INVESTIGATION INTO THE VIABILITY OF PURCHASING CARDS 1. Purchasing cards are a tool to reduce process costs of transactional purchasing. 2. The majority of the University’s invoice payments are under £250, and most suppliers to the University receive less than £500 per annum. This type of expenditure can be categorised as ‘Tactical Acquisition’ (low value; low risk), a prime area for purchasing cards. 3. Calculations using certain assumptions about the processes involved in making purchases indicate process costs of over £22 for conventional orders, £17 for orders placed using the SAP system, and approximately £10 for purchasing card transactions. It should be noted that these are efficiency gains which are unlikely to translate into bottomline savings.