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The sheer volume of purchases made by colleges and universities each year is amazing. It’s not unusual for academic institutions to process tens of thousands of transactions across thousands of vendors. Collectively, it adds up to more than $700 billion in spending.
Many of these purchases are small and often decentralized. Regardless, they still require procurement oversight, documentation, and payment processing. Traditionally, these transactions were handled through purchase orders and invoices, requiring multiple approval steps and manual processing. While that approach ensures accountability, it can also slow down routine purchases and create unnecessary administrative work.
A P-card program offers a more efficient alternative. Purchasing cards allow authorized employees to make approved purchases while still maintaining financial oversight and compliance controls. When implemented effectively, these programs can streamline procurement workflows while supporting broader efforts toward procure-to-pay automation.
A P-card program lets your staff make business-related purchases directly using a card issued by your institution. Think credit cards, but with stricter policies and spending controls.
Instead of submitting a purchase request, waiting for a purchase order, and processing an invoice afterward, authorized employees can complete purchases immediately with the card. However, you have control over spending. For example, you can pre-authorize certain vendors and exclude others, set limits on spending amounts, and even toggle cards on and off for specific projects or purchases.
At the same time, all of the data flows into your centralized system, making procure-to-pay automation possible for approved purchases, while flagging exceptions for manual review.
In many universities, P-card programs are designed for routine or small purchases, like office supplies, conference registrations, or approved travel expenses, to reduce administrative workload without sacrificing financial governance.
Several factors make purchasing cards particularly valuable in higher education:
Traditional procure-to-pay workflows involve multiple steps. A purchase request must be submitted, approved, converted to a purchase order, fulfilled by a supplier, invoiced, and then processed for payment.
That’s a lot of manual work for a small purchase. A P-card program simplifies this workflow. Instead of generating a purchase order and processing an invoice, the transaction occurs immediately through the purchasing card. The reconciliation process then captures the transaction details, attaches receipts, and records the expense in the financial system.
As institutions expand procure-to-pay automation strategies, purchasing cards often serve as a key component for handling low-value transactions efficiently.
When implemented effectively, purchasing-card programs provide several operational and financial advantages:
While purchasing cards offer efficiency benefits, effective governance remains essential. Universities typically implement several safeguards to ensure responsible card usage, and this control makes programs work successfully.
Setting clear policies defines which purchases are permitted and which require traditional procurement processes. You can automate approvals, and your P-card program will flag exceptions for review. Finance teams can monitor transaction reports to identify unusual spending patterns or violations.
Many institutions explore purchasing card solutions through cooperative procurement agreements that simplify supplier evaluation and contracting.
E&I Cooperative Services is the only member-owned, nonprofit sourcing cooperative focused exclusively on education. Serving more than 6,400-member educational institutions, E&I offers competitively solicited cooperative agreements to streamline your procurement and save you money. Academic institutions routinely save 10–15% on purchases by aggregating demand across other member institutions for greater volume discounts.
Through E&I cooperative contracts, colleges and universities can explore solutions that support modern financial operations, including tools that enable efficient purchasing card programs and strengthen procure-to-pay automation strategies. Corpay is now available through an E&I contract, offering purchasing cards, expense management, payment automation, invoice automation, and exclusive rebates for purchasing.
Exploring P-card options or looking to turn your purchases into a source of net new unrestricted revenue? View the Corpay contract through E&I Cooperative Services.