Reporting & Best Practices for the GSA SmartPay® 2 Purchase Card Program

1. Reporting & Best Practices for the GSA SmartPay® 2 Purchase Card Program Roberto Devarie Bradley ForrestelContract SpecialistsGeneral Services Administration June 2009

2. Value to the Customer • Gain a general understanding of the GSA SmartPay® 2 Purchase Card Program • Learn what reports are available to A/OPCs as part of the GSA SmartPay® 2 Program • Learn how A/OPCs can best utilize these reports

3. Agenda • Welcome • Program Overview • Introduction to Purchase Card Reporting • Common Reports • Best Practices • Q & A

4. Welcome • What are your objectives for this course? • What issues would you like to discuss? • What topics do you want to understand better as a result of your participation in today’s course?

5. Program Overview • GSA SmartPay® provides federal employees with a secure, convenient, and efficient payment and procurement tool in the form of over 3 million government purchase, travel, fleet, and integrated charge cards • GSA SmartPay®, established in 1998, is the federal government-wide charge card program that provides program service to over 350 federal agencies, organizations, and Native American tribal governments • The transition to the GSA SmartPay® 2 Master Contract was completed in November 2008 with three banks providing charge card products and services: Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, and U.S. Bank

6. Program Overview • Charge cards provide the following benefits: • Administrative savings and efficiency, estimated at $1.7 billion in administrative processing cost avoidance (e.g., reduced procurement time, streamlined payment procedures and paperwork) in FY08 for purchase cards alone • Refunds based on dollar volume and speed of payment • Electronic transaction data, enabling better reporting • Worldwide acceptance

7. Program Overview • In FY08 alone: • Total FY08 program spend was over $30 billion, a 12.7% increase over FY07 • Over 100 million purchase, travel, and fleet transactions were processed through approximately 3.2 million cards • Agencies earned over $187 million in refunds • The ten largest customers (across business lines) account for more than 90% of total program spend

8. Program Overview: Purchase FY08 - $19.8 billion in spend; 25.5 million transactions; 276 thousand cardholders

9. Introduction to Purchase Card Reporting • Contractor banks are required to issue a set of reports to A/OPCs on a basis chosen by the agency/ organization • 38 reports are available to A/OPCs: • 13 “essential” reports • 12 reports available “upon request” • 4 purchase-specific reports • 7 travel-specific reports • 2 fleet-specific reports • These reports cover topics such as transactions, payments, disputes, and delinquencies, among others • A full listing of agency reports can be found in section C.3.3.1 of the GSA SmartPay® 2 Master Contract

10. Introduction to Purchase Card Reporting

11. Introduction to Purchase Card Reporting

12. Introduction to Purchase Card Reporting

13. Introduction to Purchase Card Reporting • Reports issued by contractor banks to A/OPCs serve several purposes: • Allow A/OPCs to oversee their purchase card program’s overall financial condition • Monitor for potential fraud/waste/abuse • Provide invoice, payment, and refund data • Supply necessary data to fulfill OMB requirements

14. Introduction to Purchase Card Reporting • Reports are required to be provided to A/OPCs through each bank’s Electronic Access System (EAS) • Reports must be able to be rolled-up/broken down by agency/ organization levels and summary levels • Agencies/organizations can select the frequency of each reporting cycle (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) • Agencies/organizations may develop performance objectives to assess contractor compliance with reporting requirements, specifying performance standards, acceptable quality level, and method of assessment

15. Common Reports: Transactions • Detailed Electronic Transaction File • Lists each cardholder’s detailed transactions for the reporting period and contains all transaction data • Used in processing transactions through agency/ organization financial systems and for reporting purposes

16. Common Reports: Transactions • OMB Report • Lists number of cardholders, number of active accounts, etc. • Provides transaction data required by Chapter 5 – Performance Metrics and Data Requirements of OMB Circular A-123, Appendix B

17. Common Reports: Payments • Payment Performance and Refund Report • Lists the average payment time and any refunds paid to the agency/organization level • Used to analyze payment performance and refunds as well as for audit purposes

18. Common Reports: Payments • 1099 Report Information • Lists summary payments made to merchants on a quarterly and cumulative calendar year basis, and includes a description of the purchase, amount, merchant name, merchant corporate status, merchant address, and identify doing business as (DBA) if applicable • Used to assist in fulfilling the requirements of 26 U.S.C. § 6041 and § 6041(a)

19. Common Reports: Disputes • Transaction Dispute Report • Lists all outstanding and resolved transaction disputes and includes all information necessary to identify, track, balance, and obtain status on the dispute from the original charge through resolution • Used by the Transaction Dispute Office to manage disputes

20. Common Reports: Delinquencies • Delinquency Report • Lists account status for each 30/60/90/120+ day time frame • Used by the Designated Billing Office and the Chief Financial Officer to identify and manage delinquencies

21. Common Reports: Delinquencies • Write-Off Report • Lists the amount of the write-off and the date written off • Used to identify problem areas to better manage delinquencies in the future, to analyze and project programmatic data for the future, and to verify and balance delinquent data in contract reports

22. Common Reports: Fraud/Waste/Abuse • Exception Report • Identifies lost, stolen, invalid, or canceled cards, declined transactions and unusual spending activity, and details such as unusual transaction activity, as well as current and past due balances • Used by A/OPCs and Designated Billing Offices to monitor cardholder activity, track misuse, and/or identify training needs of a cardholder

23. Common Reports: Merchant Information • Summary Quarterly Merchant Ranking Report • Gives a quarterly and comparative summary by name and type of merchant, ranking the major merchants and their dollar charges, along with a percentage breakdown of totals and changes from the previous quarter and the same quarter a year ago • Used by the agency/organization for market and trend analysis

24. Best Practices: Reports • Develop ad hoc reports • Eliminate performing manual data analysis by developing reports that can be generated as needed • Automation of the process increases reliability of analysis while also saving you time • Monitor reports regularly • Become familiar with all of the available reports • Do not completely ignore a particular report – it may contain very relevant information

25. Best Practices: Reports • Use reports proactively, not reactively • These reports are very useful at documenting things that have happened in the past • Careful examination of these reports can also reveal trends as they develop • Utilizing reports proactively can help to prevent fraud/waste/abuse, or assist in identifying potential strategic sourcing opportunities

26. Best Practices: General • Engage management at the highest levels • Train A/OPCs and cardholders • Review credit limits and lower as appropriate • Create a newsletter to reinforce agency/organization charge card policies and procedures • Perform an annual review of all issued cards to determine if each cardholder meets the criteria for continued participation in the federal government purchase charge card program • Incorporate process to enable a different point of contact to receive and accept material

27. Questions? Roberto Devarie roberto.devarie@gsa.gov (571) 289-6110 Bradley Forrestel Bradley.forrestel@gsa.gov (703) 605-2799 You will find a wealth of contract and program information, training, publications, the GSA SmartPay® 2 Master Contract, and points of contact at our website: www.gsa.gov/gsasmartpay