Businesses of all sizes are slowly phasing manual expense tools out of spend management strategies. Employees now work on a global scale more than ever, and require expense products that can keep up with their expanded ranges of services. It is, thus, important for businesses to find spend software that can benefit both them and their employees, and 70 percent of spend managers cite expense control and financial visibility as top priorities when searching for tools and software in this area.
The latest Workforce Spend Playbook analyzes how expense management tools are shifting to provide quicker and more convenient services to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in all markets. It also looks at how banks, card networks and other expense management providers are competing to lure SMBs to their platforms over those of competing services.
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Bank of the West is one institution upgrading its expense management tools. The bank will soon offer its SMB clients a co-branded corporate card for expense management. The card does not require SMBs to have prior credit histories, either, which will help them gain more access to capital in the future.
Card network American Express is also searching for ways to entice SMBs to use its expense services, announcing a new corporate spend management program for startups. Its Corporate Program for Startups will focus on connecting SMBs to digital tools for fixed spending, as well as offer them access to the American Express rewards program.
Visa is another player looking to bring SMBs more access to digital spending services, focusing its efforts on SMBs in India. The network has partnered with business banking platform firm Open to develop the Founder’s Card, a credit card product offering expense and subscription management features to Indian companies. Open already works with more than 200,000 SMBs in the country, and hopes the partnership will help expand its presence.
Visit the Playbook’s News & Trends section to find out more about these and other stories.
How Sysco Uses Credit Cards For More Robust Spend Management
Relying on manual expense tools is an easy way to frustrate employees and their employers. Food management and distribution company Sysco stopped using such paper-based systems nearly four years ago, preferring to utilize a suite of credit card products that can more easily trace and categorize employees’ spending.
Brent Anderson, senior director of finance policy and internal controls for Sysco, recently spoke with PYMNTS about why speedy and assured access to digital expense tools is critical to robust spend management. To learn more about Sysco’s use of credit cards for more convenient expensing, visit the Playbook’s feature story.
How Manual Expense Processes Ar
e Straining Employer-Employee Relationships
Paper-based spend management tools may rarely be used, but some employers and employees still find themselves wading through thousands of documents to file cumbersome expense reports. Approximately 20 percent of employee expenses are late because of delayed receipt submissions and reliance on manual expense systems, but moving to digital spending tools to easily track spending can benefit both employees’ productivity and their relationships with their employers.
Visit the Playbook’s Deep Dive to learn more about how manual expense management tools can strain corporate finances, and add time to spend management.
About The Playbook
The new Workforce Spend Playbook, a PYMNTS and Bento for Business collaboration, showcases the shifting landscape of spend management solutions, and how improved services are affecting SMBs’ in-field expense management, back-office operations and bottom lines.
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