Employees need the flexibility to purchased items they need to fulfil their role in the business, without having to ask for money and permission each time.
Virtual company cards are a great solution to this and are quite literally a company card formed of a random 16-digit card number which is linked to an existing credit account. It is a prepaid card which can be used for all the online purchases for which you would use a conventional credit card, but it cannot be traced back to the original account by hackers.
A secure and convenient alternative to the conventional credit card
Many businesses use a company credit card to enable staff to make small purchases on behalf of the company, which are necessary immediately, or as a means of managing staff travel and subsistence expenses.
The problem with this practice is that the conventional credit card was never intended to be used in this way. The card becomes a cash flow liability, passed from person to person with no one person feeling that it is their responsibility. It becomes an invitation to careless, unaccountable spending and is, most significantly, an insecure method of spending company money.
The card may be lost, stolen or cloned and online transactions using a credit card potentially gives hackers direct access to the company bank account. A virtual company card has no physical existence and cannot be traced to the company bank account, it is loaded with a set budget which cannot be exceeded. Virtual cards can be allocated to individual staff members or to specific groups; they can be set for single use or multiple use. Appropriate budgets can be set precisely for all staff, from the most junior, to the most senior.
A tight grip on cash flow
Knowing exactly what is being spent on behalf of the company is crucial to business success and virtual cards enable the employer to have a real time overview of all spending on each card issued, either by means of desktop software or a mobile app.
You can monitor who is spending, where they are spending and what they are spending it on. The employer can increase or decrease budgets, impose spending limits under specific headings or freeze an individual card, without the need to freeze an entire account.
Convenient and enabling for the employee
A virtual credit card gives your employee financial autonomy, which helps generate a sense of trust, responsibility and accountability. In the past, many employees who travelled on company business had to retain tickets and receipts, submit laborious expenses claims and then wait for the finance department to deal with them. A time wasting and irritating process for all concerned.
An employee using a virtual card simply photographs all necessary documentation and uploads it via the app. At the end of the month they will receive a PDF detailing their expenditure alongside a copy of the documentation. If the employee needs to work abroad, the card can be pre-loaded with the appropriate foreign currency prior to the trip, which enables you to wait to buy currency at the most advantageous rate.
The virtual credit card is a fintech solution to tracking business expenditure which is secure, convenient and highly adaptable.
