Personal credit cards are designed for personal use. Similarly, there are options designed for businesses. This implies that they can be used as payment solutions for business-related transactions. The options are either business or corporate credit cards.
While some people use the terms “business” and “corporate” credit cards interchangeably, they are quite different. For starters, the former is for larger and well-established corporations. It usually has a higher purchase limit and additional benefits than the business option. You can click here for more on the differences between both.
Proper management of these credit cards is essential regardless of the kind used. Proper and timely management can be an uphill task without the necessary tools. This is why credit card expense management software solutions are necessary. More about these software tools will be discussed in this article. So, ensure that you keep reading to stay informed.
What Corporate Credit Card Expense Management Requires
This kind of software enables systematic oversight and control of employee expenses through business or corporate credit cards. The major objectives for using this software solution are to ensure that expenses are:
- Rational
- Legitimate
- Transparent
- Facilitate reimbursement
- In line with the company’s policies
The use of this automated management system makes it possible to achieve the aforementioned. However, this would require:
Well-Developed Expense Policies
Every business that has employees needs expense policies. These policies ensure purchases made using the business’s funds are in line with the business’s goals & objectives and serve its best interest.
These policies must be formed and well-documented before using this software. Its details are supposed to inform the use of this software solution. For instance, its details can be a massive part of the software’s settings; helping to automatically flag expenses that breach the company’s policies.
Issuing Credit Cards
Credit cards must be issued to authorized individuals within the company. The good thing about some of these tools is that they allow you to reset certain things. For example, you can adjust the spending limit and expiry date for the authorized individual.
Even usage categories can be set. The ability to do this further helps in adhering to the expense policies that have been previously established.
Education
Employees authorized to use corporate credit cards are supposed to be duly educated. The education must cover subjects including the company’s expense policies, penalties for violating them, proper use of credit cards, and automated submission of expense details. These will ensure the following:
Expense Reporting
The use of this software requires that expenses be submitted in real time. This may involve a summary of expenditures and/or uploading receipts. This is for accountability and to ensure expenses are in line with company policies. For more on this subject, you can visit: https://www.linkedin.com/.
Review & Approval
There should be designated officers within the organization that review, approve, and disapprove expenses. They must be aware of the details of the company’s expense policies; reviewing, approving, and disapproving expense requests based on that.
The use of these tools will make their job easier. This is considering that it offers real-time updates. The fact that a lot of these tools also enable seamless integration of third-party accounting and financial tools equally helps. Regardless, there should be an officer acting in a supervisory capacity for the sake of reviewing, approving, and disapproving expenses.
Coding & Reconciliation
This automated tool does everything. However, humans are still crucial as they must put certain things in order. The need for proper expense coding and reconciliation is a perfect example.
This implies the expenses must be properly categorized. This is required for accountability reasons. For instance, it makes things a lot easier during external and even internal audits. For this reason, employees authorized to use credit cards should be educated on how to categorize expenses based on projects, accounts, and cost centers, at the least.
Continuous Improvement
One thing that we all know is that information technology is dynamic. There are periodic reviews of digitized solutions, and this informs upgrades with better features & functionalities. The same applies to this expense management solution.
Regarding the above, management of different business processes is not left out. You should ensure that your Corporate Credit Card Expense Management software is duly updated. This is to ensure that your software application is not obsolete and lacking in useful features that are usually in updated versions.
Choosing the Right Corporate Card Expense Management System
You need to choose the best credit card expense management tool to make the most of this automated solution. To this end, here are some tips to help you choose the right one:
Features
This is the first thing you should be worried about as the software’s functionality is heavily linked to its features. As a result, it is advised that you only consider options that can:
- Capture receipts easily
- Enforce expense policies as part of its settings
- Integrate third-party accounting and finance tools
- That allows for mobile usage
Expense tracking & reporting is the major task that these tools should be able to offer. However, the right one should be able to offer all the aforementioned as well.
Security
Preventing financial misappropriation is one of the major reasons for its use. So, there could be attempts to compromise this software. This is why it must work with high-level encryption.
User-Friendly
The software’s UX/UI design should be user-friendly. Navigating the entire software should not be difficult.
Updates
There should be periodic updates to improve the software’s functionality. This could even mean introducing more features into the mix.
Trail/Demo
It is highly suggested that you consider options that allow for free or highly subsidized trail use. This way, you can have an innovative idea of what the software offers even before paying for it.
Conclusion
Business or corporate credit card expense management tools enable adherence to expense policies, among other things. Seeing how this helps save & control costs, influence financial decision-making, and prevent financial misappropriation, these software tools should be well-engaged in work environments.
