May 13, 2020

Credit Cards: Policies, Agreements, and Forms

Category: Administration, Fraud Prevention | Tags: agreements, credit card, forms, policies

Posted by Meagan

The first step in the credit card process is deciding upon reimbursing your staff or providing an organization credit card. This isn’t always an easy decision and should be handled with care. As we will learn, this can also be a fluid decision.

Usually, the main contributing factor has to do with how many purchases a person is making for your company. If someone is having to spend their own cash several times per month, that person may be a good candidate to receive a company credit card.

Also worth noting, asking your staff to supply their own cash up front may not be a great work environment for everyone. If, however, the occurrences are very infrequent, it is probably acceptable to leave as reimbursing that staff member.

Related: Should I Give Small Business Credit Cards to My Employees?

Credit vs. Debit

Before we get any further, let’s discuss credit cards versus debit cards for just a moment. Miller Management’s recommendation is to not allow the use of debit cards to access church funds; for three simple reasons:

• Debit cards can be abused easily
• There is typically little protection from the bank in the event of theft
• It is difficult to accurately track cash balances when using them in a ministry setting

Policy

To make things more transparent, your organization will want to include a section on credit cards and reimbursements in your company policies or handbook. Another idea would be to include a statement in the job description; if a company card might be provided for them or not. This ensures the precedent is set up, even before an offer is made.

The next step in this process is to outline what is expected of a credit card holder and what purchases they are authorized to make. This is outlined in the next installment of this blog series.

While you wait: see our post on writing ministry descriptions

Podcast

On a related note, Glenn Miller, CEO of Miller Management, was recently interviewed on a podcast speaking to the effects of “where stewardship and faith intersect.” Listen to all the interviews of Glenn (also on episodes 4 & 5) on Christian Educator Weekly’s Stitcher account.