Hacker News Reader

Comment by factorialboy | Hacker News Reader

Magazines and news media will suffer most. SaaS / B2B contracts larger than a certain amount won't be on employee credit cards.

View on HN

Using cards is the preferred procurement method for expenses under the $10k threshold. I suspect that covers a lot more than magazines and news.

Not employee cards

The article directly states that this applies to the GSA smartpay cards. Those are limited to approved purchases under the micro procurement threshold under GSA directives.

Exactly my point. Micro-Purchases.

The micro threshold is $10k, as I said earlier.

Yes, I get that. You may be underestimating the size of typical PubSec deals.

I'm not talking about the multibillion dollar agency deals, I'm talking about day to day procurement like equipment, printing costs, office supplies, etc. You know, the routine purchases that keep the government running.

Orrrrrrr you misunderstood and have been doubling down repeatedly when the real numbers are literally on the same screen as your comment.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43121043

>>>>>>>>>

Guess what? You can see all this information, because of government transparency (not DOGE):

https://smartpay.gsa.gov/about/statistics/

>> GSA SmartPay statistics for fiscal year 2024:

    $39.7 billion in total program spend.
    $506 million in refunds earned by agencies/organizations.
    $441 was spent on average for each transaction.

How do you figure? Is this conjecture based on the propaganda out of DOGE? The media spend they're purporting are also over that certain amount.

No. Employee cards are not used for significant purchases. They are for employee expenses.

Not exactly. They can be and are often used for larger provisional purchases. For example, when we wanted to get Slack or any SaaS, it was put on a charge card so we could start using it quickly, but that would start the clock ticking on an official procurement, which entailed legal and security reviews, etc.

Exactly my point. Serious pubsec procurement is not done on employee cards.

That is incorrect. They are for business expenses, like buying gas to fill your company car while traveling.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com