As we approach the New Year, taking a holistic look at your card program to see where improvements could be made may be a good idea. A New Year’s Resolution, if you will. To help with that, Card Integrity has compiled a roundup of some of our top articles this year and categorized them by topic below. We’ve done something similar in the past, too, if you’re interested in checking out some older blog posts as well (still very relevant, even if a couple years old). With that being said, let’s take a look at some of this year’s top articles in this 2024 roundup!
Fraud and Misuse
10 Controls To Prevent Personal Spending on Corporate Travel Cards
This blog post from this month, December, goes into internal controls that you can make use of to protect your organization against corporate card fraud. An always relevant topic—especially around the holidays! Hence, we strategically placed it at the top of the list for you.
Double Dipping and Duplicates: Back to Basics
This article from October focuses on “double dipping” (the fraudulent kind, not the bad-mannered with the queso dip kind) and duplicate payments across corporate cards and invoices.
Procurement Best Practices
Prohibited Categories and Debarred Suppliers: Enforcing Rules and Controls
This article from October dives into the world of merchant category codes (MCCs), procurement categories, and debarred suppliers. This article focuses heavily on the concept of Level III data, and how it compares to MCCs.
How Procurement Professionals Can Measure Supplier Diversity
This article from June can also fall under the sourcing category, but it goes in depth about resources available to track your supplier diversity spend, including visualized HUB/DBE spend trends.
Understanding Split Transaction Types
In July, it seems we had split transactions on the mind. To be fair, there’s a lot to consider! From the more common same day, same vendor splits to the more intricate multiple day, multiple vendor, and even multiple cardholder versions, it’s important to ensure that your internal controls are strong enough to catch these policy violations when they happen.
“Hire Staff, Cut Corners, or Fall Behind”: Why There Can Be a Fourth Option
It’s no big secret, many procurement departments in education, government, healthcare, or corporations are having trouble with staff shortages. If this sounds like your organization, you are absolutely not alone. In June we discussed how it doesn’t have to be as simple as “hire staff, cut corners, or fall behind”.
Sourcing Strategy
Risk Management in Strategic Sourcing
Going all the way back to February, we highlighted some ways to manage your risk when developing a more strategic sourcing strategy. This article focuses heavily on the first few steps of the “Seven Steps of Strategic Sourcing”, defined by A.T. Kearney a couple decades ago and now frequently cited in educational material about sourcing.
Tactical Sourcing vs. Strategic Sourcing
It’s important to note that though strategic sourcing has its benefits, there are some instances where more short-term, tactical sourcing actually makes more sense. Learn more about the distinctions between tactical and strategic sourcing in this article from January.
How Data Monitoring Can Improve Strategic Sourcing Strategy
We end our 2024 roundup of strategic sourcing articles with the first article published in 2024, all the way back at the beginning of January! This is a more general discussion about how data monitoring relates to strategic sourcing and how a solid data monitoring program can help you make more informed buying decisions when dealing with suppliers and vendors.
Recognizing Colleagues
Appreciating AP: Hardworking Heroes of Finance
The second week in October was AP Appreciation Week, and we wanted to make sure that those in Accounts Payable got at least one article of recognition for all the hard work they do.
Get Ready for National Procurement Month!
Finally, we’ll end with our article on National Procurement Month, which happens annually in March. It’s topical to start talking about again, as March will be here before we know it!
A 2024 Roundup of Resources
Check out some of our newer eGuides below:
Strategic Sourcing Best Practices
This eGuide, published back in February, is jam-packed with solutions to common challenges, like getting solid proof-of-concept, supplier relationship management, managing supply risks, and more.
Cardholder Training Best Practices
Cardholder training is such an important consideration for our clients: it’s an internal control in and of itself. The free eGuide, Cardholder Training Best Practices, includes 24 card policy training tips. Included are:
- Additional tips to increase engagement
- Insights into tracking training outcomes
- Gamification and quiz examples
- And much more!
Additional Resources
There are too many resources to list on this page! For example, 2024 was a big year for case studies and success stories. We simply don’t have room to list them all here: plus, they have their own dedicated page. To see our full compendium of resources, check out the links below.
