AUDITING
corporate card auditing STEPS
to trouble-free
Those little bits of plastic are supposed to make life easier for all concerned – and that should be true for the finance department too, says Alex Blyth
can be tracked and analysed over time, and often the card provider offers additional benefits, such as automatic insurance on purchases. But when it comes to auditing, corporate cards can suddenly become much more complicated. Sanjay Parekh, managing director
I
at Web Expenses, says: “Offering corporate cards can in some ways exacerbate expenses-management problems rather than solve them. People tend to be more liberal with corporate credit cards because it’s not their own money. Finance teams are left with credit card statements and little option but to sign off at the end of the month.” He says that without monitoring, there is no way of controlling what is being spent, or ensuring that spending complies with company expenses policies. He continues: “Having and
issuing corporate credit cards is, unfortunately, not enough and organisations are exposing themselves significantly. If they are not policing how they are used, it is difficult to prove legitimate spending, and even more difficult to distinguish between accidental and intentional fraud.”
26 • Buying Business Travel 2013
n many ways, corporate cards make life much easier for corporate travel buyers and bookers – executives’ spend is all in one place, and
For the travel buyer this can mean that come audit time the finance department arrives with a series of questions, a raft of complaints about how cards have been used, and an avalanche of work to dump on to the already over-worked travel buyer. It is not only that the finance department is keen to ensure compliance with
“Offering corporate cards can in some ways exacerbate expenses-management problems rather than solve them”
internal policies – it also needs to ensure it can account to HM Revenue and Customs for all spending. As Sarah Keane, commercial director at Corporate Pay, puts it: “Payment models over the years have all fallen victim to inefficiency, and among the biggest challenges currently facing the industry are the impact of credit card surcharges and the reconciliation and auditing of spending on those cards.” So what can travel buyers do to
avoid this happening? Here are seven steps for you to follow to ensure you work smoothly with finance, and to keep corporate cards the stress- reliever they really should be.
1
ENSURE SPEND IS LOGGED
IMMEDIATELY For Faisal Jafri, senior product
manager at Barclaycard, the key is to allow travellers to log spend immediately. “Issues arise when audits take place months after the event,” he explains. “An executive might have travelled first class to Liverpool in the middle of February, because the fare happened to be cheaper or because he or she was travelling with a client. It could very well comply with company policy, but by the time the auditors come to ask the question in November the individual has almost certainly forgotten that reason.” Jafri advises organisations
to use Barclaycard Compliance Manager, a tool that allows employees to log the expenditure at the time it took place. He says: “It allocates immediately a score to that transaction based on how closely it complies with company policy. This allows managers to see instantly if someone is spending off policy and to then either amend the purchase or log the reasons for it. Organisations, such as the US Department of Defence, are finding it makes the auditing of corporate cards significantly easier.”
In association with
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