COINS has partnered with Visa Europe to improve management of corporate purchasing card transactions.
 

COINS has signed a collaboration agreement with Visa to develop a COINS application that will allow the use of Purchasing Cards (PCards) in a more useful and trusted way for companies within the construction industry when buying goods and services.

PCards are seen as a practical method for authorised employees to purchase lower cost purchases including over the counter items, quickly rather than via electronic invoicing or by raising a purchase order.

Those companies already using PCards, are looking to maximise visibility over PCard spend, fully integrate PCard in their overall cost reporting, further increase accuracy of PCard transaction allocation to cost codes and enhance PCard data for those transactions that do not carry additional information.

Thanks to teamwork and innovation from COINS and Visa, the release of COINS 10.25 will enable any Visa Purchasing Card transactions to appear automatically within COINS, showing full details of items purchased including quantities, rates and suppliers used. Special attention is paid to maximising VAT recovery for purchases from level 1 suppliers; those that provide no VAT breakdown or line item detail.

?These changes will help construction companies to save money? explains Colin Darch, Senior Business Consultant at COINS. ?They will gain a more accurate picture of company-wide spending by commodity and supplier which will influence procurement decision-making.  In addition, information on total spend will lead to improved rebates from a range of suppliers. When PCard transactions are added to regular purchases, the combined total may ensure qualification for previously-agreed rebates from suppliers?.

The PCard is most often used for lower cost, low risk frequent purchases from preferred suppliers or the occasional, lower cost, low-risk items that are needed urgently. That is its great strength ? getting items quickly, so projects can proceed without delay.  Companies can tailor precisely how PCards can be used by each employee and boundaries can be set for spending limits, categories of spend and for named suppliers.

?This is a unique opportunity for Visa to support the Construction sector by embedding PCard processing with P2P routine transaction processing? says David Harrison, VP Visa Europe. ?COINS? unique approach to this project will now enable construction companies to fully integrate Visa Purchasing transactions in their overall cost reporting. It was a truly collaborative approach where both parties brought their expertise to deliver tangible value to the sector?.

The COINS PCard Services provide companies with many unique advantages over web-based middleware alternatives. It is a low-cost, highly automated process ? with no requirement to bridge the gap with Excel spreadsheets. When a transaction takes place, data is validated immediately within COINS and information from the supplier?s point-of-sale system is imported directly to supplier and cost ledgers. Visa and PCCL, one of Visa?s technology partners, have developed file conversion functionality to support the integration of bank card data files into COINS PCard module. This functionality will help to quickly convert bank card data files into COINS XML input data files.

Admin time can be reduced in other ways too.  All PCard transactions are screened and vetted, so high-value, unusual and suspicious purchases are automatically flagged.  Some companies may also decide to simplify supplier management too ? by reducing the number of occasionally-used AP accounts and choosing to settle these by PCard instead.

Please contact Matthew Jones, New Business Director, at +44 1753 501000 for more information.