Page 26 - College Planning & Management, October 2018

Business MANAGING HIGHER ED
The Value of Parking Audits
In today’s technology age, parking audits are more important than ever.
BY WILL RHODIN AND DAVID LIEB
PARKING OPERATIONAL AUDITS were once a critical daily task for campus parking operations. Patrons paid for daily parking permits and meter time with cash,
and daily audits were necessary to make sure that all of the money that was supposed to make it to the bank actually got there.
Today, with most parking fees collected via credit card and virtual parking privileges being purchased by license plate, many campus administrators are under the mistaken impression that audits are no longer necessary. After all, you can’t steal if there’s no cash to pilfer. Right?
Actually no, parking audits are still essential.
While theft has been significantly reduced in campus parking systems with the influx of new payment technology, it hasn’t been eliminated. Thieves are more sophisticated than ever and manage- ment needs to look deeper to deter and detect problems. There are a number of problems that can only be detected through an audit, including cash deposit discrepancies, exception ticket issues, im- proper coupon and validation use, liability issues such as PCI-DSS compliance, and accounts receivable control. With the complexity of today’s parking management systems, audits are more impor- tant than ever and those audits must be much more nuanced to find all the potential problems.
26 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / OCTOBER 2018
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