Parenting your P-card program: support, discipline and proper guidance create a successful independent P-card program for your agency.(TECH SPOTIGHT)

You have probably never thought of your purchasing card program in these terms, but a good P-card program is akin to a good parent-child relationship. The rewards are tremendous for a successful program, but it requires a strong foundation, nurturing, discipline, patience and your own unwavering belief.

When the program begins, you may feel overwhelmed by all the unknowns. The decisions are numerous, the attention it requires is constant, and concerns run rampant around you. Your unconditional conviction that the improved process efficiencies, increased rebates and other benefits to your agency make every aspect worthwhile is not readily apparent to everyone looking in from the outside or viewing it in its infancy. But you know the potential, don't you?

Often, when beginning to implement a P-card program, there is so much fear. There is fear of misuse and fraud, fear of the program not taking off at all with efforts and funds being wasted, fear that if it does not succeed, you as the "parent" will be to blame.

So, what can you do to establish a strong foundation and continue to nurture and grow your program to create an independent, successful, valuable, and well-respected P-card program? It is no secret that lack of visibility, compliance and controls result in costly leakage, misuse and unrealized savings.

Figure 1 below includes best practices for improving your P-card program to achieve increased governance, rebates and savings.

FIGURE 1

Best Practice #1 - Stakeholders: Communicate up, down and across