Signs you should get prepaid company cards for your business
There will always be times when employees in your company need to spend money in the course of carrying out company business. In the past, employees have often been expected to pay for these expenses themselves and then claim them back, but a lot of millennials would now find this practice unacceptable. A common alternative has been to give employees access to a company credit card, which gets passed around to whoever needs to use it. Neither of these alternatives is a satisfactory solution to employee expenses.
Reimbursing expenses is very time consuming
Getting your employees to pay their expenses themselves may seem like a good way to keep costs down, after all an employee is less likely to overspend if it’s their money which they then have to reclaim. The disadvantage of reimbursing expenses, however, is that it inconveniences both employee and employer. The employee may not be able to afford the expenditure, will have to ensure that necessary receipts are saved and presented to the accounts department and will then have to wait for the claim to be processed before being reimbursed. The employer has to devote finance team time to checking, collating and paying expenses. The end result? A waste of time and therefore money, for the employer, and source of irritation and inconvenience for the employee.
Employees overspending on expenses
Traditionally there has been a perception amongst employees that expenses are a perk of the job, to be exploited to the full when the opportunity arises. This is particularly the case with a company credit card. If this is a communal card, no one is taking responsibility for the expenditure. A company credit card encourages employee overspending.
Tracking expenses is time consuming
Keeping track of who spent what where, tracking down tickets and receipts is an archaic, irritating and time-wasting process.
Company credit cards put your business at risk
Online purchases with a credit card reveal your billing address, card number, expiration date and security code, which means they can be easily traced by hackers.
- Prepaid cards allow for differentiated budgets
Issuing your employees with their own prepaid credit card can help you resolve all these problems. Prepaid credit cards are loaded with a specific amount of money by the employer. This means that an employer can allocate a set budget to each member of staff, from the most junior to the most senior. If the employee needs to travel abroad the card can be loaded with the required currency when the exchange rate is at its best.
- Prepaid cards make life easy for everyone
With a prepaid card, employees always have access to expenses, and they can record receipts by photographing them and uploading them to the app. Employers have a real time overview of who is spending what and where. They can also adjust budgets, freeze cards or impose spending limits on specific headings such as food or transport. The cards link directly to your accounting system so there’s no more time wasted chasing paper.
- Prepaid cards are secure
Prepaid cards are not linked to a bank account, so they are far more secure for online transactions than conventional cards. If a prepaid card is lost or stolen it can be frozen without the inconvenience of freezing an entire account.
