Analysis of Purchase Card Reconciliation Times

Effective 1 October 1997, the Government Commercial Purchase Card was mandated for micro-purchases of commercial items (procurement valued at or below $2,500). As of August 1999, 97% of Navy activities use purchase cards for micro- purchases. During fiscal year 1998, these activities used the purchase card in over 1,996,000 transactions valued at $ 1.055 billion dollars. Overall, purchase card implementation has been an overwhelming success, drastically reducing administrative costs and providing a streamlined procurement process. Even though efforts have been made to refine the reconciliation process to help government activities avoid unnecessary interest payments, there are still many potential improvements. The government purchase card is similar to standard issue credit cards, so interest accrues on delinquent invoices. During the fourth quarter of fiscal year 1999, the U.S. Navy paid $323,000 in interest payments due to delinquent invoices. Of this total, the activities under CINCLANTFLT were responsible for $58,000 and those under CINCPACFLT were responsible for $43,000. A combination of data analysis and systems analysis techniques are used to define the reconciliation process, to suggest process improvements, and to recommend tools to better manage the reconciliation process.Naval Postgraduate School Monterey CA is the author of 'Analysis of Purchase Card Reconciliation Times', published 1999 under ISBN 9781423540465 and ISBN 1423540468.