Expense Management. These two words often trigger a collective groan from your finance team, managers and employees. For all parties involved, managing expenses is a process seen as tedious, manual and fractured.
Before we get into that, what exactly is expense management? It is a company’s process and systems to keep track of employee spending on work-related items. Typical expenses include travel (e.g. taxi, hotel, food) or items that employees need to fulfil their duties (e.g. uniforms, laptops and tools). More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has opened up the door for expenses related to working from home.
It’s safe to say that expense management can be a productivity killer. This is particularly true for companies that have a large, distributed or remote workforce with lots of ongoing expenses. In many cases, companies only give out company credit or debit cards to team leaders or senior staff, to keep expenses and reconciliation process controlled and to prevent overspending. However, what this means is that employees who do not have access to company cards is that they resort to paying out-of-pocket or ‘borrowing’ the company card.
Prepaid cards are different to credit and debit cards in that it is impossible to spend more than what you top up in your account. You can set individual spend limits for each cardholder and in some cases, even restrict the use of cash withdrawals at ATMs. Credit cards and debit cards don’t provide real visibility and control over spending, and can incur stacks of additional fees if not carefully managed.
Here’s how prepaid cards are revolutionising business expense management
- Your finance team have a clear view of the company’s spending by tracking all transactions as expenses are incurred. Real-time monitoring sets your company up for success by allowing better monitoring of card misuse or fraudulent transactions and allow early intervention if necessary.
- Your finance team or administrator can apply for new cards, lock or close cards online in a matter of seconds.
- Your team leaders and employees can all receive individual cards with individual spend limits. They can also track their spending and account balance in real-time via their smartphone.
- Transaction reports can be downloaded and exported to accounting software for easy and timely reconciliation.
- Removes the need for employees to pay out of pocket, even if they’ll be reimbursed at a later date.
- No more risky business sharing company credit card details, which can make expenses hard to track and opens up risks of misuse.
Other use cases
Perhaps your mind is already thinking about the other opportunities prepaid cards can enable your business. Outside of employee expenses, you can also use these cards to:
- Manage petty cash
- Disburse funds to contractors, agents, affiliates
- Pay out staff commissions and bonuses
Interested in our expense management solution?
Vasco Pay’s Prepaid Visa Card, Card Management Hub and Mobile App are perfect for SMBs of any industries that are looking to improve their business expense management process.
Contact us on (02) 9158 6047 during business hours or Get Started today to book a demo or apply now!
