Accounts Payable News^®

Tom Wilson discusses the importance of prompt payment in the current economic climate.

Public sector organisations in the UK are under increasing pressure to provide better services to stakeholders in terms of quality, value, prompt payment, security, transparency and personalisation. In addition, there is a clear requirement for the UK public sector to look to improve efficiencies to support a high level of sustainable service delivery. In the current economic climate, organisations are expected to do this with fewer resources in real terms. The Operational Efficiency Programme (OEP) report, published alongside Budget Report 2009, forms a key part of the Government’s drive to achieve greater efficiency savings across public spending. The report suggests potential savings of £15 billion by 2013-14, compared to 2007-08 spending, of which £6 billion is to come from collaborative procurement.

by Sid Vasili

Organisations continue to look for efficiency savings through automation, and Procurement Cards (P-Cards) can be an obvious place to start. P-Cards provide a simple payment vehicle, enable control of spend, and deliver detailed transaction data.  Or that’s the expectation.  The reality has been somewhat different.

Functional Requirements for European Public Sector - Government Payment Card and Purchase-to-Pay Solutions - by Tom Wilson (Appropriate Fit Procurement)

Introduction
The  purpose of this document is to provide an overview for European Public Sector Buying Organisations to assist to establish evaluation criteria when considering the selection of Payment Card Providers, schemes and purchase-to-pay solutions. The EU Consolidated Directive and legislation for European nations requires a rigorous and robust approach to the competitive procurement of payment cards providers for Government Procurement Card Programmes.

Contactless Payment Cards

In response to a growing recognition of the need for a modern solution to a regular exchange of small amounts of cash, some of the major banking institutions have launched new contactless payment card solutions.  There are a variety of cards on offer including Mastercard Paypass and Barclaycard One Touch, but most combine the benefits of debit and credit cards with some also including other uses such as the Oyster travel card.  Could cash ever become a thing of the past?