How do virtual card payments help accounts payable team?
The finance team has to go through many complicated payment processes. From vendor payments to employee payroll, all payments needed a new channel if you want to bring about efficiency and increased productivity in your company.
Thanks to technology we have a solution which is in the interest of all finance teams. Businesses no more use cheques or cash to make or receive payments. All things cliche and conventional have been eliminated with virtual cards. Virtual cards enable sending money electronically, regardless of your company’s ERP or accounting system. B2B ePayments have been made a lot easier and especially the accounts payable teams can benefit tremendously with the use of virtual cards.
What are virtual card payments?
Virtual card payment is a digital transaction conducted between the AP departments. It is not a physical card instead it's a cardless way of making payments. Virtual card payments are of different kinds like single-use cards, third-party cards, etc. While making payments, you can pre-decide the amount.
One of the most common virtual payments is a single use card, where the possessor company of the card gets a uniques string of numbers that are connected to the company’s bank account and used for a one-time payment. Since the money transfer is being done virtually, this method is secure and protects against any fraud.
Why your AP team needs virtual cards?
Virtual cards possess numerous special benefits which you do not get with any standard credit or debit card. This digitized spending solution empowers the user with control options over finances, company funds, and spending.
Virtual cards are more convenient than physical cards, as it allows you to make easy and fast payments without the chaos of passing cards here and there. Additionally, you can never lose a virtual card which also eliminated the risk of theft. Along with this, this is an extremely safe payment method as it is connected to your bank account but does not open or reveal your personally identifiable information. With the lack of magnetic strips and physical visibility of card numbers, it is impossible for any unauthorized persons to breach your account. However, if somehow your virtual card is compromised, you can easily freeze or block the card from anywhere.
Virtual cards also give you the feature to set spending limits and allot specific vendors or merchants to each card. The measure is effective to ensure that all the employees spend funds in compliance with the company policies. Plus, you can manage and organize all your company subscriptions through virtual cards and immediately know if any vendor is overcharging you or changing any terms.
Manage your business expenses with virtual cards
What benefits do virtual cards provide to account payables teams?
Get rid of the headaches that come with dealing with paper checks
Virtual cards are the optimum replacement of the tedious and conventional paper check accounts payable payments method. Paper checks are a manual process that involves a lot of inefficiencies. The accounts payable team can focus more on other important financial responsibilities instead of processing payments, with the use of single-issue or recurring use of virtual cards.
Along with this, the whole accounts payable process gets streamlined due to the time that is saved and the reduced human errors which are the entailing benefits of virtual cards. So, get rid of the whole writing checks and sending across envelopes process.
With more secure disbursements, you can save money on payment processing
Virtual cards are literally free — instead of costing you something, it helps you earn cashback and rebates. Generally, payments made through check cost at least $5 for any company. Along with this you also have to add other aligned costs of the time and labor invested in folding, signing, and posting the mail.
However, with virtual cards and the right automation software, the majority of the pains and soft costs that come with check payments can be easily eliminated. Ultimately, your whole AP department will function more efficiently with AP automation and virtual cards which gives you the opportunity to save more money and earn some payment discounts.
Reduce your risk of check fraud
Once you have written and signed a check what if it gets lost or stolen? You may lose your money. Checks are highly vulnerable to fraud and theft as it does not have any security measure like any debit or credit cards.
Virtual cards potentially eliminate all the risks that entail check payments. These cards cannot be stolen or lost which also implies that all your bank account details also cannot be misplaced. Along with this, virtual cards have all the protection measures against theft and unauthorized breaches. You also have the feature to instantly block or freeze any virtual card if you suspect any problem.
Improve your cash management skills
Managing the company’s cash flow and monetary funds is a challenging task. It becomes a complicated job to determine what funds are available, how much is to be paid to each vendor, and in what time frame. Your employees live through a nightmare while managing accounts payable.
However, with the use of virtual payment cards and accounts payable automation, the system easily manages all the company funds and cash flow with advanced data capturing and analyzing techniques. The internal transparency of the company’s spending increases with the instant reconciliation facilitates and reporting techniques that come with virtual accounts payable.
Earn rebates on AP spend routed through virtual cards
The most interesting and intriguing benefit of virtual payment cards is that your company can earn extra money (revenue) with the cash rebates that come with every payment you make to your vendors or merchants.
Whereas most banks do not give you the cashback until you reach a certain amount or complete some time frame. More transactions with virtual payment cards mean more revenue earned from rebates.
Get started with virtual card payments with right spend management platform
The best way to enjoy the benefits of a virtual card is by selecting the right spend management platform according to your company's needs. However, for any and all business types, the optimum and best spend management, virtual card, and accounts payable software is Volopay.
With Volopay virtual cards you can make secure payments, track your department & team budgets, set multi-level approvals, flexibly freeze, block, or unblock your card with our mobile app, easily reimburse your employees, earn cash backs and so much more.
Volopay is a smart and modern spend management software that aims to take your business to the next level with technologically advanced and avant guard methods to make your business payments a simple process.
Trusted by finance teams at startups to enterprises.