County accounting system (MUNIS) purchasing topics Part III – Purchasing Cards

Published May 25, 2021

The focus of this audit work is on purchasing topics for the County accounting system (Tyler Munis). The procurement card (P-Card) work entails review of setup and usage of procurement cards. Procurement cards have seen increased usage since implementation in 2017. For the calendar year 2020, there was $1.3 million transacted with P-Cards over 2,595 transactions.

What was found:

During the audit, it was observed the backup documentation received to support procurement card charges could be improved. A random sample indicated approximately seven percent (7%) of transactions do not have adequate backup documentation.

A potential conflict exists between procurement card limits established and purchasing authority limits set for department heads and their managers.

There were a number of observations with procurement cards suggesting some policy and procedure improvements. Those included improvements addressing:

• potential duplicate payments;
• issuance of P-Cards;
• use of P-Cards;
• use of larger dollar P-Cards; and
• additional banking controls that can be established on P-Cards.

Analysis of 2020 P-Card transactions was performed using Benford’s Law to identify if the leading digits of the transactions follow the expected frequency distribution. No issues were noted.

What was recommended:

Recommendations included:

• establishing some quality assurance practices for supporting documentation;
• updating policies and procedures to assure adherence to the delegated purchasing authority;
• cardholders entering invoice/receipt numbers to help prevent duplicate payments;
• clarifying use and issuance of P-Cards; and
• suggested policy improvements.

Recommendation update:

In 2024, staff were anticipating updates and policy changes after selecting a new vendor. At the time of the 2025 Global report, staff had selected a new vendor and updated policies but were still updating approval forms and invoice entry instructions.