Corporate credit cards are an essential component of your business, but the question stands as to whether they provide the best financial visibility for your business.
If the answer’s no, what are the alternatives?
Scroll down, to learn why virtual credit cards are the better alternative to corporate credit cards, and how they can provide optimal financial visibility.
What are virtual credit cards?
Virtual cards are a unique type of corporate credit card, that gives your company a digital way of completing and monitoring payments.
This corporate credit card alternative works very similarly to standard, physical cards, except they exist on a virtual platform.
Your virtual credit cards are stored in a digital wallet, which is an application on your mobile device that lets you access and use your cards. In this wallet, you can view how much money is on each card, look through your transaction history, and top up money on your cards.
Payments of all forms are available with these cards, just like standard cards – payments over the phone, online, in stores, etc. The only difference here, is that these cards can’t be used at an automated teller machine (ATM).
When using your virtual cards, it’s also important to ensure you have spend management software implemented in your company.
This advanced software gives you a platform to store your virtual cards, as well as use a variety of expert features to enhance how your cards are managed, such as tracking, spend controls, automated workflows, etc.
How can virtual credit cards provide visibility for your corporate spending?
Virtual credit cards are the best way to provide full visibility on your corporate spending, and they can achieve this in a variety of ways, including:
- Extensive data on every payment
One of the ways you can have full visibility with virtual cards is through the accurate and thorough data that’s recorded by your spend management software.
Every transaction that takes place throughout your company will be recorded in real-time, and you’ll see exactly which card was used, how much was spent, what was purchased, and what team or employee the card resides with.
This ensures you have the most up-to-date and precise data for your card payments, without any transactions being missed or recorded incorrectly – since all the data is automatically uploaded in real-time.
- Detailed spend insights
Your spend management software can also give you detailed spending insights on all your virtual card payments, to give you key visibility on corporate spending throughout your entire company.
When a card payment is made, one of the insights you can receive is information on any cheaper alternatives to the transaction.
This could be, for instance, an accommodation expense on an employee’s business travel, where you’re shown alternative options in the area, providing the same service but at a cheaper price.
This gives you visibility on not only where you’re spending your money with each card, but how you can be more cost-efficient with each type of transaction.
- Clear and efficient payment workflows
Visibility is also provided in the way you can customize your payment workflows when it comes to virtual card payments.
The spend management software can allow you to tailor the processes of your card payments to be clearer and more organized for your company.
For example, you can automate your card payment approvals, so any transactions which meet specified criteria are automatically green-lit, without any intervention needed.
This will not only give you a clear overview of the payment approval journey but let you design it how you see fit for a smoother operation.
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Are you ready to incorporate this virtual, corporate card alternative into your business, and begin experiencing its vast range of benefits?