> People who aren't trusted to spend more than $500 also likely do not have a large budget, so your $500 a month would kill their yearly budget, and you would l

> People who aren't trusted to spend more than $500 also likely do not have a large budget, so your $500 a month would kill their yearly budget, and you would lose the sale anyway, or at best become a target for cost reductions in the future. This depends on the organization. At my university, my boss can spend $1,000 at a time on his company credit card on an whim. If I make a convincing case for something that's $900, he tosses me his card and it's here in two days with Amazon Prime. He controls a budget closer to $10,000 but large purchases require the approval of his own supervisor and the invocation of the University purchasing/accounts payable system. If I ask for something that's $1,100 then he needs to schedule a meeting with his bosses to start a long and arduous process involving a sales guy, quote, purchase order, etc. My last purchase was held up for a week because the designated sales guy was on medical leave. It was also $200 more expensive from the preferred vendor, which did not offer free shipping over the phone (despite having it on its own website). Delivery is going to happen approx. 10 weeks after I asked my boss for it. Contrast with two days. The University purchasing department may not care about price, but most of my boss's budget already needs to go somewhere and $200 is not insubstantial in terms of the extras/upgrades I can propose. This is what I think the article is referring to. Sneak in just underneath the (completely arbitrary) limits that make the difference between an impulse buy and something involving fax machines.