P Card vs corporate card: which is best for your business

Purchasing cards, procurement cards, or P-cards are physical cards issued by a financial institution to an organization to make purchases by its employees. These cards work like other charge cards, where the employee completes the payment via these cards, and the details of the vendor and transaction amount are sent to the system linked by.

By using P-card programs, the cardholder has to make a monthly payment to the P-card issuer for the amount utilized. P-cards are also enabled with built-in spend controls that restrict the payment after reaching the ceiling limit to oversee the purchasing process. Thus, managers can only load the amount required for the purchase.

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Features of corporate cards

Corporate credit cards are the finance tool for streamlining the accounts payable process. Businesses rely heavily on these cards for typical business transactions and other purposes.

Budget linked cards

Spend limits for individual cards

Easy reconciliation for effective bookkeeping

Approval requirement for high transaction value

Real time visibility and alerts to the administrator

It can be used for in-store as well as online purchases.

Card for every employee and a card for every purpose

Features of P-cards

Purchasing cards were essentially created to reduce the burden of administrative and reporting processes.

Expedited payments to suppliers

Individual card for every employee

It is not linked to any pre-fixed budget

Detailed statement at the end of every month

Spend limits for transactions above a certain amount

Restrictions can be added for merchant categories and specific purchases.

P-card benefits for businesses

P-cards are a definitive tool for an improved purchasing process. Modern day businesses are gradually moving towards purchasing cards to streamline the procurement tasks of goods and services

Enhanced controls

Maximum spending limits can be locked for each card. The limits can be set daily as well as monthly for each card. Restriction can be added for purchasing from a specific merchant category code.

Simplification of the process

P-card programs discard the traditional approach of the Purchase order or Purchase invoice. The P-card issuer has to be paid monthly for the amount exhausted for purchases, unlike the obsolete method of paying each vendor individually.

Detailed statements

P-card issuers provide an extremely granular monthly statement of the purchases made. The details include the vendor's name, transaction amount, the reason for payment, mode of payment, transaction ID, and other tracking information. Integrating this system into the accounting software can help generate accurate reports, increasing its reliability and authenticity.

Cashbacks

P-card provider allows prompt cashback payments to suppliers. The transaction costs are significantly less than other forms of payment. Prevents mishandling cash payments. Some providers grant perks through air miles and discount vouchers too.

Pros of using corporate card for your business

Though corporate cards and P-cards both allow better Accounts Payable visibility, streamlined workflow, and reliable spend reports, corporate cards seem to run the show. Here’s why corporate cards are better at reducing the friction between accounting and finance work.

Broad spectrum of spending

P-cards are tailor-made only for business expenses. These cards can be used for making payments for business purchases and other equipment. At the same time, corporate cards can be used on business trips for fare charges, hotel reservations, flight bookings, etc.

Instant statements

Expense management software displays spend analytics of each card and budget on the go. Card statements of all employees can be viewed and downloaded instantly to analyze spending behavior or check on any immediate transaction. P-card reports can be viewed at the end of each month only.

Business credit Line

A typical corporate card program offers a flexible credit limit to its customers. The limit is determined based on their previous Credit score. This can help raise excess capital in times of need or expansion plans. P-cards do not offer such facilities. Their functionality is limited only to making payments to vendors.

Why choose Volopay's corporate cards?

Objective specific card

Volopay’s virtual cards are purpose driven. Each virtual card is created for a specific purpose, like ads, subscriptions, etc. Funds can be loaded in these cards for a single purpose only. This helps in estimating the amount spent towards that objective.

Multi level approval

A multi-level matrix is established for certain transactions to keep certain transactions centralized. If any amount above the maximum ceiling is being requested, the request will travel through all the levels of approval as selected by the company. Volopay offers a total of 5-level approvals. Companies can choose anywhere from 1 to 5.

Payment protection

Using visa or mastercard-backed cards is very crucial in terms of data security and protection. Having their authorization prevents fraudulent transactions and can be reported immediately too. Cards offered by Volopay are Visa-authorized and all data uploaded into our software is end-to-end encrypted.

Budget roles

Card owner- All employees own their unique cards, and therefore they become card owners. The functionality of card owners is limited only to requesting funds and making payments. Budget owner- Budget owners are responsible for creating the budgets. They have access to all the cards attached to their budgets and hence, they can load, unload funds, freeze or block cards and create new cards. Admin- The admin is superior in the hierarchy. He can perform all the functions of a card owner and a budget owner.