Are you still using p-cards?

Is your district using purchase cards, also known as p-cards, for decentralized purchases? 

For some finance teams, p-cards are a great solution to allow for spending across the district, but for others, they have a limited use case and can become an administrative burden, along with leaving the district open to misuse.

Before switching to ClassWallet, Ascension Parish School Board in Donaldsonville, Louisiana gave all their teachers p-cards to purchase their classroom supplies. At the time, they thought this was their only option, but it came with a lot of headaches.

“The bookkeeper at the school had to keep track—make sure that they (the teachers) are spending the right amount of money and not over, and look at every single receipt to make sure that it was something that was authorized to be used according to our procedures on the use of these classrooms supply funds,” said Diane Allison, Business Services Director for the Ascension Parish School Board in Donaldsonville, Louisiana.

In essence, a system that was supposed to improve efficiency was doing the opposite. So, when the Ascension Parish Public Schools District learned about ClassWallet’s digital wallet technology, they learned there was a better way to manage these types of purchases and reimbursements.

“What it did for us was eliminate all the paper and the vast majority of the labor. I’m not even sure it needs to be audited anymore by an outside auditor because of the way that it works and all the controls that are in place,” said Allison. “Teachers are not going to buy the proverbial Diet Coke when they’re checking out or they’re not going to go use the money to get their nails done or buy a tote bag or something that’s not allowed which was happening in our district.”

The Ascension Parish School District, which is about a half-hour south of Baton Rouge, has 27 Schools, 22,000 students, and about 3,000 employees, 1,750 of those are teachers. Eliminating the risk of teachers using their P-cards to pay for personal expenses isn’t the only challenge switching over to the Class Wallet platform can eliminate. It is also a good way to protect your District from exposure to fraud.

For schools that want to prioritize visibility, audit-ready reporting, and compliance, across a large number of transactions and decentralized users, a digital wallet is the better option.

ClassWallet’s comprehensive digital wallet solution transforms disparate solutions – payments, AP automation, purchasing, and procurement into a streamlined, scalable workflow

Are you ready for a change?