Under the old card, if the person who had the purchase card for the office went on travel, no one could buy anything. FTS built an Internet-based system to reallocate transactions among accounts. You can change the accounting code for different functions supply, training, etc. Many agencies are trying to drive more purchases and payments onto the cards so they can keep better track of spending and use that information to craft better deals with vendors. Sonderman already has toted up Interior's travel spending at large rental car companies and plans to use it to persuade them to stop charging the department's travelers state taxes.
Most states have rules against taxing transactions billed directly to the federal government.
Interior centrally bills rental cars, but the car companies often ignore the tax exemption when travelers present their cards. Now Sonderman will write to each company citing Interior's annual spending and asking them to honor the tax exemption. The next frontier is to expand the use of purchase cards as a means of paying vendors and contractors, Sonderman says. Acquisition law permits contracting officers to use the cards to make payments on existing contracts. Currently, only 60 percent to 65 percent of Interior's vendor payments are made electronically.