Visa cards for schools are administered by Doncaster Council's Schools Procurement Advisor and the Corporate Procurement Team.
The cards are provided by Barclaycard and the IT reconciliation system used is supplied by D.Cal.
The scheme is a means of procurement of goods and services. It does not invalidate the need to maintain robust systems of internal control as outlined in the Doncaster Schools Financial Regulations.
A Visa card is an alternative method to your current means of paying for goods and services. It is a particularly efficient method of payment for high volume, low value purchases. It looks, and is used, like any normal credit card and is widely accepted within the UK and abroad. (Any establishment displaying the VISA symbol will accept the card).
The card offers the opportunity to improve the focus and flexibility of purchasing procedures whilst reducing the volume of purchase orders, invoices and associated paperwork for small sundry purchases, thus improving the cost effectiveness of processing these transactions.
All of this will be achieved without compromising control of the School's money and, at the same time, the School will benefit from obtaining supplies and services in a more cost effective manner, as well as producing high quality management information. The following benefits can be expected:
School:
* Reduced admin time raising orders & paying invoices
* Internet purchasing possible
* creditors are paid more quickly
* Reduces need for petty cash (and associated reconciliation & reimbursement)
Cardholder:
* No need to carry cash
* Direct contact with suppliers
* Can see on D.Cal exactly what ordered and from whom
Suppliers:
* Paid within 3-4 working days
* Improves cash flow
* Reduces late payments
The card looks like any normal credit card. Embossed on the card are the following details: -
* "DMBC School"
* The approved cardholder's name
* Valid from date
* Expiry date
* Card number
Each card has a maximum single transaction limit (the maximum value of any single purchase) and a monthly credit limit. Both of these limits are inclusive of VAT and carriage charges.
The Corporate Procurement Team has introduced a new system called D.Cal to process all transactions made with Visa Cards.
D.Cal is an online card management system that enables users to log on and process transactions that have taken place on cards.
Once transactions have been approved and reconciled to the cardholder's monthly statement, the Corporate Procurement Team will upload them to One World and they will appear on the school's next monthly budget monitoring report.
