Efficiency and spend control: the benefit of corporate cards

Expense management has become increasingly agile over recent years. The introduction of automation has changed the landscape for the better, and financial visibility is empowering organisations to make better-informed decisions for sustainable growth.

But, many businesses still don't leverage corporate cards, instead relying on a mix of personal cards, third-party expense management software, and cash. And if you're one of these people, you're missing out on a new level of efficiency and control over business finances.

Bringing efficiency with expense management software and corporate cards

Without efficient expense management software in place, you risk wasting hours chasing employee expense receipts, reconciling expense details, reading through emails, and manually matching business spend. This manual effort takes time away from initiatives that add genuine value to your business, such as forecasting, implementing strategic initiatives, and providing analytical insights across departments.

Streamlined expense processes

Corporate cards paired with modern expense management software help streamline and simplify the business spend management process for both employees and finance people. Luckily, using OCR technology, employees can scan their invoices and expense receipts, automatically extracting the data from the documents and reconciling it with the accounting application. That means no manual data entry and no human error.

The above technology improves accuracy in expense receipt collection, streamlines the expensing process, and increases accurate expense reporting. And with the right solution, you'll also find that any captured spend data is linked to the corporate card (and assigned to a spend category), meaning it's clear to see who made the payment and why.

Your business can improve your employees' experience tenfold by eliminating manual paperwork and reimbursement delays and letting them focus on their job without getting bogged down in manual expense submissions.

Automated expense tracking

If your corporate cards are linked to your expense management software, then every time an employee makes a payment, an expense is automatically created in the system.

After payment, the employee receives a notification reminding them to scan their receipt. Plus, with the use of OCR technology, all important information on the receipt is filled automatically, making it easy for employees to attach the receipt details to the corresponding spend.

Enhanced employee experience

Smart corporate cards also empower employees to embrace accountable spending. Some of the better solutions on the market let finance teams set individual or team spending limits, so teams can spend without creeping outside of your spending policies.

By implementing automated approval workflows, your employees won't have to wait long for fund requests or reimbursements, either. After their receipts get captured, uploaded, and the accounting team approves the expense, they get reimbursed immediately.

Spending control in expense management software

You don't want to end up in a situation where an inefficient process delivers zero financial transparency. Efficiency and control need to work simultaneously to deliver an expense management solution that delivers accurate business spend, cost-efficiency, improved employee experience, and minimised human interference.

And that's exactly what Payhawk's spend controls did for Barcelona-based hamburger chain VICIO. With a smart solution in place, they were able to maintain visibility and control over spend, reducing time spent on tiresome logistics as the number of receipts and invoices multiplied.

Spending limits and restrictions

With some corporate cards, you can set individual spending and transaction limits, which means CFOs and finance controllers can control the level across multiple entities, teams and expense groups for granular control.

By setting limits, restricting transactions (limiting card use to specific types of expenses), implementing automated approval workflows, and even auto-blocking cards, you can eliminate unauthorised business spending, which can cause significant headaches and waste resources.

Real-time visibility and reporting

Well-connected spend management solutions offer real-time spend visibility that gives you complete control over your finances. You can who's spending what, change card limits, block employee corporate cards, issue new Visa cards quickly, and change approval workflows to meet organisational needs.

This level of transparency means you can better forecast business spend and plan for sustainable growth with ease. Expense management software can help you create customisable reports to help analyse spending patterns and spot unauthorised spending quickly.

Integration with expense Management, accounting and ERP systems

To keep everything centralised and accessible, consider an expense management solution that integrates flawlessly with market-leading ERP, accounting, business travel and productivity tools. So whether you're utilising QuickBooks, Microsoft Dynamics, TravelPerk or Microsoft Azure, you can connect everything, giving you a 360-degree view of your business as a whole.

This is business transparency at its finest.

With an all-in-one expense management system like this, you can manage corporate spend under one roof. With seamless data synchronisation, your company has a single source of truth, making sure that all stakeholders have access to the same financial information.

3 strategies to improve employee corporate card adoption

Communicate the benefits of corporate cards

There are many ways using corporate cards will benefit your employees:

• A convenient mobile app means they can manage expenses on the go
• Purchases are made easy with Apple or Google Pay
• Smart receipt capture means no more manual expense reports

Providing training and support to ensure proper usage

Whenever you introduce a new concept, you must provide training to ensure high adoption rates. Show your employees how to use the software and guide them through the mobile app and how it works. Encourage questions both throughout training and beyond implementation.

Set clear business spending policies

Understanding how to use your new corporate card is essential for high employee adoption rates and compliance with spending policies. If employees know how you set spending limits, how your new approval workflows work, and what happens if designated approvers are out-of-office, they will likely remain within your spending policies.

Final thoughts

Corporate cards for expense management make business sense, provided they offer more than just a way to make payments.

Smart spend management solutions are more convenient for employees, give financial teams unrivalled financial visibility, and help promote efficiency and control in optimising the entire expense process.

The software does all the heavy lifting — employees aren't pestering you for reimbursement, approval workflows are automated, spending limits can be capped, and finances are controlled with a degree of autonomy.