May 20, 2020
Credit Cards: Policies, Agreements, & Forms – part 2
In our first blog post on this series, we talked about the first step: deciding if a certain employee should have credit card access or continue being reimbursed for purchases.
Policies & Agreements
The second step would be to instill policies and agreements. View our Resources page to find the most current “Credit Card Policy & Agreement.” In this form, we go over the policies we recommend and have a sample agreement for your organization to modify to fit your needs.
Here are some highlights from that document:
- only company purchases will be made with this card
- internal controls procedures will be in effect to protect assets
- disciplinary actions can incur if misappropriation of funds is found
- cards will be terminated if misappropriation is found, for termination of job, or necessity no longer exists
It is best practices to have credit card owners make sure they are still using constituents money the best way. As a church or ministry, the main focus should always line up with being good stewards of God’s money.
Clean Up & Clean Out
While you are digging around in your current credit card information already, now is a great time to take an audit of your current list of credit card holders.
- Are there any old staff members on your list of cards?
- Are their any current staff that aren’t using their card?
For the old staff, make sure you finalize canceling the card. For the cards not being used, does this mean that they don’t need a card or are they not using the proper methods to get their resources? This process – how purchases are made and the approval process – should be outlined in your company policies and potentially in their job description. (Or both!)
Related: see our post on Check Signers
The “Credit Card Reconciliation Form” is the form that MM clients use for their accounting; but we also offer it here because it can still be beneficial for any accounting or reporting needs.
Anti-Fraud
We would be remiss if we didn’t take an opportunity to mention the anti-fraud measures you should take with credit card policies as well.
- Backup documentation – insist on having proper documentation in place BEFORE issuing any sort of reimbursement. This is not just for CC holders, it is also for any check request.
- Reimbursement policies – have outlined the timing of how reimbursements occur.
- Purchasing authority – this should be outlined with job titles.
- Signing off on purchases – there should be policies in place for the approval process. Top Tip: more than one person should be seeing these requests, but one primary person should see all purchasing information.
- Lastly, it’s so important we’ll mention it again: BACKUP DOCUMENTATION 🙂
Related: see our post on backup documentation
In conclusion, credit cards should be handled on a case-by-case basis, they should be attached with a written (& signed!) agreement, and there should be anti-fraud measures put in place before any purchase is made.
Podcast
Last but not least – as you might have guessed – here is part two of Glenn Miller on the CEW podcast. Part two deals more with budgeting – no matter the size of your organization.
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