Travel Card Program

About the Program

Category: County Administration and Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2023

The San Bernardino County Purchasing Department’s, Compliance Unit (County) currently utilizes a Procurement Card Program (CAL-Card) for Low Value purchases of up to $3,000 dollars. This program enables departments to pay vendors promptly by reducing the volume of small payments requiring individual processing through the financial system. Purchasing along with the Auditor-Controller/Treasurer/Tax Collector (ATC), and the SAP Team, recommended establishing a secondary card limited for travel to assist the County with tracking and reconciling travel related expenses. The New Travel Card program is an extension of the Procurement Card (CAL-Card) through US Bank. Several controls, including the use of Merchant Category Codes (MCC), have been deployed for CAL-Card. These controls ensure that a card is used for authorized purchases within specific dollar and transaction quantity limits. Certification of all purchases by each cardholder is required monthly with verification performed by the Approving Official and final review by ATC. The Purchasing Department also reviews department purchases for compliance with purchasing policy. With the implementation of SAP, CAL-Card, and temporary Visa charges for "County Paid" travel expenses are recorded in the SAP travel module. Purchases that are not captured in the travel module are processed in a lump sum to the bank and must be reconciled and redistributed to the proper expense account and cost object monthly. As a result of having travel activity recorded within SAP and purchasing activity updated at a later point in time, the reconciliation process for CAL-Card packages has become cumbersome and inefficient.