For the first time, public sector organisations in the UK have the choice of using MasterCard electronic payment solutions for their procurement activities within the new Government Procurement Service Framework Agreement for Payment Card solutions and associated services.
Under the new framework agreement established by the Government Procurement Service, an executive agency of the Office of Government Commerce, and running from 2010-2014, MasterCard solutions are now made available to all the national, regional and local public sector bodies in the UK through MasterCard's partner financial institutions AirPlus, Barclays, J.P. Morgan and the RBS Group.
All buying units across the UK public sector will also be able to use MasterCard payment solutions as tools to streamline and improve their purchase-to-pay processes. As payments leader, MasterCard has been providing state of-the-art procurement and other financial management solutions to government agencies around the world for many years. MasterCard is keen to serve the UK public sector with efficient electronic payment solutions under the new Government Procurement Service Framework.
The MasterCard Public Sector Programme
Streamline processes, simplify life
What goals are most important to the public sector?
• Achieving efficiency savings objectives?
• Gaining more control over spending?
• Eliminating inefficient processes?
• Standardising payment policies?
• Lowering costs?
• Improving user satisfaction?
For any and all of these goals, there is one simple solution:
The MasterCard Public Sector Programme.
Procurement Card
Helping to save time and money
Are all those invoices, requisitions and three-way match steps slowing down the procurement process? Procurement remains one of the most time intensive processes in business.
The MasterCard Procurement Card programme offers a powerful solution that helps organisations to streamline the entire process. Cut costs, eliminate paperwork, accelerate delivery and improve cash flow, all while increasing flexibility and control. Our proprietary analysis tools even allow you to look across an organisation to find under-utilised opportunities.
Travel Card
Consolidate travel & subsistence spend on a single payment card
The MasterCard Travel Card enables public sector organisations to consolidate all types of travel & subsistence (T&S) expenses onto a single payment card by distributing cards to employees and enabling them to make their own purchases.
The programme can be customised with set spending limits, merchant type restrictions and other criteria to help ensure travel policy compliance. It also reduces the need for cash advances and simplifies the expense reconciliation process.
Lodge Account:
Manage centrally employees travel spend
The MasterCard Central Travel Solution (CTS) is a lodged account that offers a comprehensive centralised travel payments solution for organisations currently paying for their travel through numerous cards and accounts.
The account is lodged with a chosen travel management company, bookings are made as usual but expenses are charged to the single lodged account rather than using employee cards or an advance from the agency. The account can be used for payments of airline or rail tickets — or any other expenses charged by a travel agency — and the bill can be paid monthly with just one transaction. Enhanced data for the card ensures transactions are legitimate and properly allocated.
Integrated Card:
A convenient, cost-effective contributor to meet the efficiency programme targets
The hallmark of the Integrated Card is flexibility. With the Integrated Card, public sector buyers can use the same card to procure goods and services (typically below £5,000), as they use to purchase travel and subsistence.
Each cardholder's profile can be set up and managed by a programme administrator, so that a card can only be used at specific merchants or specific merchant categories.
Better yet, users need to understand only one set of card usage guidelines instead of trying to keep up with two or three different policies at once. The ability to consolidate multiple card systems into a single accounting process eliminates inefficient processes and enhances quality of service delivery by making it simpler for employees to buy essential day-to-day items or carry out their activities in the most efficient way.
MasterCard Purchase Control:
Virtual card number empowers end users with full accountability through appropriate levels of control
Purchase Control lets organisations configure the purchasing process or work-flow to meet their needs — from the initial purchase request and approval to data capture and reconciliation.
Organisations often face competing strategic goals: while they need to optimise their Procurement Card programmes and provide users with efficient purchasing tools, they also need to control spending effectively and prevent account misuse by users.
For every transaction, Purchase Control will generate a unique reference (or virtual card) number. Authorisation controls are therefore placed at the transaction level and allow organisations to determine where, when and how the virtual card can be used. Key transaction data that was entered when the purchase request was made — such as cost centre and general ledger codes — gets attached to the virtual card number. Finance staff and/or back office systems can easily identify and reconcile payments to the monthly statement and approval audit trail.
With the main account number masked at all times, the line of credit is never compromised and can only be accessed through an approval workflow for every purchase above a pre-set limit.
MasterCard Information Solutions:
Visible benefits
With the MasterCard Public Sector Programme government agencies can track programme performance using leading reporting solutions and data retrieval capabilities.
MasterCard Smart Data™: spend visibility and audit trail
MasterCard Smart Data is a web based management information system that gives organisations complete access to expenditure data in line with the organisational structure. Programme administrators can see all data regardless of what account was used, while individual employees are limited to their own expenditure data.
MasterCard Smart Data offers multiple standard reports providing on-line availability of high quality management information to analyse expenditures and potentially negotiate better supplier prices. It also offers standard export and integration functionality into general ledger systems. MasterCard Smart Data stores consolidated electronic VAT invoices for transactions performed at enabled merchants. The produced reports have been accredited by HM Revenue and Customs in the UK and qualify as valid VAT evidence.
Data can also be directly integrated from MasterCard into your enterprise resource planning systems and expenses management packages. MasterCard Integration Solutions offers:
• A fully automated expense allocation and reconciliation process
• More control over the entire reporting process
• Anytime, anywhere access to electronic data
• The ability to isolate spending trends and use them to drive cost control
• Greater productivity and efficiency with fewer processing errors
MasterCard Integration Solutions is a robust service delivering card spend data to existing expense management systems.
Portfolio Optimisation:
The MasterCard Optimiser Tool for Travel & Subsistence and Purchasing is a web-based diagnostic tool that compares any card programme to benchmarks established through collection of data from hundreds of businesses across different product and service categories.
The tool delivers practical, comprehensive, and customised recommendations to improve performance and helpstreamline every facet of an organisation's value chain.
VAT Recovery
MasterCard has teamed with Meridian to provide public sector customers, both large and small, with a fast, easy and efficient way to recover their VAT. Registration can be done in seconds, with Meridian handling all the steps, from receipt of invoices through to refunding VAT directly into the public sector organisation's bank account.
For further information, please contact ukpublicsector@mastercard.com
Content on this page is provided and controlled by MasterCard.
