A. The GPC is a branded VISA Purchasing Card provided to the UK public sector through a framework agreement between OGC buying.solutions, VISA and six VISA-Issuing Banks. The new GPC framework agreement also provides for the provision of VISA Travel Cards, VISA Corporate Cards, VISA Commercial Cards, VISA Business Cards and virtual VISA Cards.
The GPC agreement enables all UK Public Sector organisations, including Central Government, Local Government, NHS, Education, Emergency Services, Charities, NDPB's and all other UK Public Sector organisations to benefit from a pre-negotiated contract that has been fully tendered through the OJEC process, with a core service of no card fees, no transaction fees and a competitive environment whereby all the contracted VISA-issuing banks actively compete for each potential user organisation's business.
The GPC is extremely well supported by OGC buying.solutions through a dedicated helpdesk, GPC managers, User Groups, 1-2-1s and a wide range of other supporting activities for GPC users. Becoming a GPC user organisation opens the door to unrivalled support through the dedicated resources of OGC buying.solutions, other Public Sector organisations such as NHS PASA, VISA and the six VISA-issuing banks.
A. There are a number of control features that you can utilise with GPC / VISA Purchasing. These controls can be set to the specific requirements of the cardholder.
Items Purchased - Every supplier that can accept GPC / VISA is allocated a Merchant Category Code, or MCC for short. The MCC's are set up in groups, called, Merchant Category Groups. GPC and VISA Purchasing allow you to block Merchant Category Groups enabling you to restrict the types of goods and services that the cardholder can purchase. Best Practice for both GPC and VISA Purchasing states that you should minimise the number of blockings used see GPC Best Practice Guide as the management information allows for high visibility and transparency of transactions, allowing management by exception.
Transaction Values - GPC and VISA Purchasing also allow you to pre-set the amount of money the card holder can spend with each transaction, and the total amount they can spend in any billing cycle (usually monthly). For example, if you only want the cardholder to spend a maximum of £500 (including VAT) on any one transaction, if the cardholder attempted to purchase an item for £600, then this transaction would be blocked by the system.
Monthly Limits - GPC and VISA Purchasing allow you to control the total monthly spend of each individual.
Buyers - GPC and VISA Purchasing Cards are issued to the individuals that you wish to empower to purchase goods and services. This empowerment comes with accountability for their activities, supported by management information that provides details of every transaction. A clear audit trail exists for every user and all their transactions.
Suppliers - Many organisations maintain an Approved/Select List of Suppliers and Contractors. From these lists you can select those companies where you want to use your GPC or VISA Purchasing Cards and make sure that they are recruited as VISA merchants at the level (Card Capable, VAT Summary, VAT Line Item Detail) that you require. By instructing your card holders that they must use their GPC / VISA Purchasing Cards with these selected suppliers, you can reduce rogue spend and contract leakage within your organisation. Compliance can be monitored through the management information provided by your issuing bank.
Management Information and Audit - The type of Management Information you receive will depend on the Bank you have selected to provide you with your GPC or VISA Purchasing Cards. These files will contain information that will allow you to scrutinise all transactions made to establish who has used their cards, what they bought, who they have bought from and how much they have spent. This information will provide you with a clear audit trail to monitor card expenditure and help to ensure compliance with your policies. Suppliers which can offer VAT invoice data will be able to provide you with VAT evidence reports, removing the need for invoices. You can also expand on this information by purchasing software tools for this purpose. Please Contact Us if you wish to have further information on this subject.
A. Functionally there is no difference. Both are accepted at any VISA accepting supplier globally.
A. A great strength of the GPC programme is that the pre-negotiated GPC contract requires the core service to be provided at no cost. This provides for a comprehensive range of services and benefits to be available to public sector users.
A. A great strength of the GPC programme is that the pre-negotiated GPC contract requires the core service to be provided at no cost. This provides for a comprehensive range of services and benefits to be available to public sector users.
A. Another major strength of adopting GPC is that the Office of Government Commerce has previously issued an OJEC tender to provide the wider public sector with GPC and they have selected VISA and six of its issuing banks to provide GPC as part of a five year contract.
As stated by OGCBuying.solutions "The GPC is pre-tendered, so you don't have to!"
A. You can use your GPC or VISA Purchasing Cards with any of the 740,000 VISA Merchants in the UK, of which 11,000 also have VAT Summary or Line Item Detail capability.
You can also use your GPC / VISA Purchasing Cards at any of the 6.6. million VISA accepting suppliers in the EU region and many millions more worldwide.
A. MSC stands for Merchant Service Charge. This is a charge applied by the bank that has acquired the supplier as a VISA merchant.
In return, the supplier receives payment within between 2 and 4 working days of the transaction being authorised. In addition to this significant cashflow advantage, suppliers can also reduce credit control costs thereby reducing the need to chase for payment or re-issue invoices. The process also substantially improves the relationship between buyers and sellers.
The supplier pays the MSC to its acquiring bank as a percentage of the transaction value. The MSC varies from bank to bank, a competitive environment, and depends on the total amount of business and average transaction values of the supplier.
If you would like to find out the full benefits you can achieve by accepting GPC / VISA Purchasing, then go to our Benchmarking Tool for Suppliers
A. This means that the card transaction is being validated according to the controls pre-set on the card.
A. No! Neither GPC nor VISA Purchasing require any credit checks to be taken on the named cardholder. Both are viewed as corporate tools rather than as personal cards.
A. You can find out the potential benefits you could achieve by accepting GPC / VISA Purchasing by going to our Benchmarking Tool for Suppliers You can also contact your own bank or one of the acquiring banks for more information.
A. This means that the card processing is electronically linked into the supplier's sales system to allow the invoice data to flow seamlessly into the card transaction.
A. All VISA accepting suppliers are defined as being a minimum of credit card capable, also referred to as Level 1. This will involve the use of a terminal that will deliver card transaction data (name of cardholder, date of transaction, supplier name and amount spent as a minimum)..
Summary VAT (also sometimes referred to as Level 2) requires a terminal that gives a consolidated description of the items purchased and will also show the VAT amount separately. A GPC / VISA Purchasing Card transaction through this type of terminal is acceptable as VAT evidence up to a value of £5000 including VAT.
Line Item Detail (also sometimes referred to as Level 3) typically requires software to deliver enhanced data with the transaction data, including evidence for VAT and providing line by line description of each item purchased along with separate VAT amounts.
A. Yes.
A. You can find out the potential benefits you could achieve by using our Benchmarking Tools.
A. Yes, The GPC / VISA-issuing and acquiring banks listed on the Contacts Page can provide you with such information. The supplier database on this site is also a source of information on the suppliers that accept VISA payments.
A. There are a number of ways this can be achieved.
Some of the banks that provide the GPC can also provide software products (either provided directly by the bank themselves, or by third party providers) that will allow you to use the card transactional data to create an electronic file, to which you can add/amend data and then use the file, in a suitable format, to upload into your job costing and/or accounts systems.
In general terms, these products automate many of the processes of cost allocation and greatly assist you to complete this essential task while at the same time, eliminate or reduce the manual input normally required.
Prices and providers for these products will vary, depending on the sophistication of your requirements.
This topic is extensive to fully explain, and answers may vary depending on the type of Accounts or Costing system you use.
We would suggest you seek further information from either your card providing bank, or e-mail your enquiry to us.
A. Yes. The GPC is already an integral part of the UK Government's e-procurement agenda. If you consider how you purchase or sell over the Internet for consumers, card payment is a default setting as it is the most effective and efficient method of concluding an online transaction. The same applies in business transactions. Whether you are buying or selling goods and services over the Internet, GPC and VISA Purchasing provide the potential for a complete electronic end-to-end process.
You can gain more information from the last two KPMG GPC Annual Reports in particular that reinforce the fact that the GPC is seen as the most efficient and cost-effective tool for e-procurement.
A common mistake in the past has been to see GPC and VISA Purchasing as something separate to e-procurement. In reality, and there are many examples, GPC and VISA Purchasing are already an integral component for e-procurement systems.
As far back as 1998, a Federal Government report in the USA referred to their equivalent of GPC as providing the immediate opportunity for large scale migration to e-commerce for up to 85% of all Federal Government purchases. The KPMG GPC Annual Reports for 2001 and 2002 provide many similar anecdotes in the UK.
A. There are currently more than 700 public sector organisations in the UK using either GPC or VISA Purchasing. These include Central Government, Local Government, NHS, Education, Emergency Services, Charities, NDPB's and all other UK Public Sector organisations.
We have endeavoured to provide as many answers to the most popular FAQ's that we have been asked. However, please send us the details of any other question for consideration that you may have that has not been covered in the above list.
