There is no running away from this fact – that running a business is all about money – and not just the money you get out of it but managing the money that you already have in the business pool. However, with how everything is digital there is quite the risk of things like fraud, and if you are using business credit cards online that risk doubles as anyone – particularly scammers can get their dirty scammy hands on your money and essentially clean you out.
Thankfully there is a way to avoid this – a modern-day knight in shining armor to slay some modern-day dragons: a virtual credit card. Let’s talk about why you and your business should probably hop aboard this techy way of dealing with your finances.
1. Enhanced Security
Now, in the world of highly effective cyber crimes, the financial safety of your business remains the priority. Virtual cards work by providing a unique credit card number for each transaction.
This means that even if someone gets a hold of your virtual card details, there is no way for them to do substantial financial damage as the card number can be used only for one transaction or one specific purpose. This provides an assurance against fraud and unexpected charges that are often a scheme to drain your account.
2. Simplified Expense Tracking
Juggling multiple transactions can be a pain, and this is especially true for businesses. Virtual cards help ease the stress by providing a real-time transaction history report.
You don’t even have to worry about segregating your transactions, as most providers do that for you on an automatic basis. Talk about convenience. Save yourself the hassle and discrepancy and no longer face those scary blenders in accounts.
3. Control Over Employee Spending
Allowing your employees to make purchases is a good idea until unmonitored spending gets out of hand. Your employees can really get out of hand if their spending needs are not monitored.
This is where virtual cards come in handy. Virtual card programs allow you to set up spending limits according to where the card is to be used. And look at it this way, every employee can have a card for themselves with their name smack dab on it!
4. Easy Integration with Financial Software
The best virtual card solutions often come with built-in connections to the most popular accounting and financial management software. This means you can easily import transactions straight to your accounting software, which eliminates manual data entry work.
A strong accounting program like QuickBooks or Xero can be a great counterpart to your virtual card, allowing you to manage the back office more efficiently and focus a bit more on strategy instead of invoice submission and receipt saveage.
5. Instant Issuance
When there’s no time to waste, you would hate to wait a few days for physical cards to be shipped to your location. Virtual cards eliminate that wait to issue a card—it is often done in a couple of clicks. This can be a game-changer for companies who need to make purchases in a hurry or perhaps just send cards as employees travel for business. You won’t have to put off sending a card because of red tape; it’s all about finding the right digital fit for you.
6. Easy to Cancel or Freeze
Have you ever misplaced an open credit card? Cue the panic attack followed by the flow-dialing of customer service to turn off the card. Virtual cards provide an unparalleled level of control in your ability to enable or disable cards with the click of a button on a financial platform mobile app. This feature allows you to manage risk instantly, pick up your head, and move forward without wasting too many thoughts worrying – or time for that matter.
7. Cost-Efficiency
Virtual cards offer competitive fees to traditional corporate credit cards that can eat into profits. Many fintech solutions offer zero annual fees with free transactions — making it the most affordable investment for businesses. In addition, enforced spending rules with improved tracking mean no overspending; and no effects on your cash flow.
8. Improved Cash Flow Management
Virtual card technology also provides real-time information used for making cash flow decisions. Understanding spending habits, allows your business to make educated decisions on how budgets are established, in addition to helping to identify where money can be saved.
Cash flow is the lifeblood of every successful business, and virtual cards produce data that can be used to help improve financial strategy moving forward.
Best Practices When Getting a Virtual Card
After reading all of the above benefits, you may be wondering how can you get started on implementing a virtual card system into your company. Lucky for you, we have a few best practices to get you started:
- Use Credible Providers: Not all virtual card providers offer the same product. Before you decide on a provider, make sure to do your research and find a provider that fits what you and your company are looking for. Check out providers like, say Kohowhich offers some virtual credit cards that have user-friendly features as well as amazing customer support!
- Set Spending Policies in Place: Before you start handing out virtual cards to your team members, set a spending policy in place across your company. This way your employee cardholders should know what is acceptable company spending.
- Train Employees on Appropriate Use: Next, once the cards have been handed out, train your team on how they can use the cards. Doing this can help to prevent miscommunication and implement the changes you are wishing for.
- Review Reporting & Analysis: Once the virtual cards have been issued, keep up with the reports and data behind the purchases. You can also use analytics tools provided by your virtual card program to see where money is being spent and what sort of patterns you can recognize.
- Use Analytics to Forecast Your Budget: If you have analytics tools offered to you by your virtual card provider, make sure to use them. Virtual card providers can help to give you insights into what you can forecast to spend in the future as well as give you an outlook on the spendings of your company. This can help to give you the right financial strategy moving forward.
- Continue to Review Spending Policy: Lastly, review and update your virtual card policy. You never know how often you are going to have to re-evaluate your spending policy for company cards.
A Virtual Credit Card For Business Success
The businesses that not only survive but thrive understand that they have to adopt whatever new-fangled tech that is making waves in the industry and a virtual credit card is one such thing. So head on over to places like Koho and pick up some virtual credit cards – and watch your budding enterprise scale to never-before-seen heights!
