How to track expenses with small business corporate cards?

Simplify bookkeeping of all your business spending via corporate cards. Get hands-on with all your payouts and seamlessly sync them into your expense management software.

Learn more

Do businesses require corporate cards?

Any startup, in its initial stage, focuses on deriving more outcomes by maximizing its money input. Heavy expenditure is incurred on activities to generate more sales and, thereby, revenue. Scrutinizing expenses like- fixed assets, acquiring costs, accounting software, payroll, inventory, etc., becomes imperative to get hold of your business spending.

Managing all such activities in a single go becomes difficult and can cause a misplace of certain transactions or data entries. So, an effortless way to monitor this spending is by incorporating an intelligent corporate card mechanism.

Most common small business expenses

Utilities

Electricity

Water filter or cooler

Air conditioning or fans

Employee expenses

Salaries

Perks or incentives

Payroll taxes

Taxes

Employee deductions

Income tax

Government taxes

Equipments

Building

Furniture

Desks and chairs

Banking and insurance

Bank charges

Loan interest, charges, annual maintenance fees, etc.

Business insurance

Advertising

Online advertising( Google ads, Facebook ads, LinkedIn, etc.)

Banner ads, Posters, etc.

Podcasts

Benefits of corporate card for small business

Separation between finances

Having a corporate card enables you to segregate between all expenses; Personal and business, marketing and sales, etc. Allotting individual cards to each employee allows neat distinction between their expenses too. Since the initial workforce in a startup is pea-sized, no heavy software or infrastructure is required to reconcile these expenses. Expenditure for each purpose, like advertising, outsourcing, etc., will be crystal-clear. Therefore, the expense policy can be tailored according to the overall spend nature of employees and business.

Automation- the driving force

Using a tech-savvy spend management tool helps in simplifying accounting work. All expenses paid via corporate cards are automatically logged into the expense management system. No personal or manual entry will be required to fill in these expenses. Such a mechanism enables employees and business owners to focus more on growth and expansion activities.

Diverse functions

The benefits of any corporate card aren’t limited to making payments. Corporate cards bring much more to the table than expected.

- Streamlining of all business activities and their spending.

- Employees can use these cards while on a business trip. Uses include flight bookings, hotel reservations, transportation, food, drinks, etc.

- In-store, In-app and digital purchases can be made through physical cards.

- Easy subscription management via virtual cards or virtual business cards.

Track and manage your business expenses with corporate cards

Book a demo

Factors to consider while choosing a small business corporate card?

Security

Any smart card that can store banking credentials or other sensitive information has to be legally authorized. As employees will be making payouts through these cards, ensuring the safety and security of the provided data is very crucial to them.

Cost

Often businesses do not consider the cost of availing corporate cards for their employees. Corporate cards fees are more than just selecting the right plan. Costs like printing physical cards, money transfer fees, issuing costs, etc., should be evaluated.

Flexibility

Your corporate card should be flexible enough to incorporate the business dynamics. Changes in company expense policy, processes, or other improvements should be easily accounted for. Instant freeze, block, or reporting of any employee card must be as hassle-free as possible.

Adaptability

The corporate card system or expense management software linked to it should also provide seamless integrations with other software. As many users are adamant about shifting from their previous platform, full-fledged software that supports integrations and add-ons is a must-must.

Get the right corporate card for your startups

Integrations

Volopay offers integrations with platforms like Netsuite, Xero, and Quickbooks to enhance your business reporting. User can easily integrate their existing ERP system with these tools to allow smooth functioning of the accounting area.

Expense reports

You can view monthly expense reports to get an accurate picture of the company’s spending. Departmental expense reports can be considered to understand over-budgeted and under-budgeted departments. Card-wise spending breakup for each employee card can be exhibited through the platform.

Card requests

Volopay offers cards that get funded once or at the start of every month (recurring every month). Also, certain card requests can be partially or wholly pre-approved. The card requests which are completely pre-approved will be created as soon as the request is completed. This helps keep the work centralized to some extent and ensures the employees do not misuse their autonomy.