How to pick best corporate credit card program for your business?

When it comes to small business credit cards, the owner of the business is liable to pay for the credit received even if the business is under another entity’s name. 

With a corporate account, the liability can be divided between relevant stakeholders based on the corporate credit card provider you choose:

- When an employee pays for the expenses and is later reimbursed, it falls under individual liability.

- When the business pays off the bills, it is known as corporate liability.

- And another option is a joint liability, where both the company and the employee are liable to pay the debt.

Within Volopay, since we provide corporate credit cards that draw funds from the credit provided on the platform, it is only the business that is liable to pay for the amount utilized.

For any sort of credit or lending activity, there will be eligibility criteria to make sure that your business is financially sound.

To be eligible for small business credit cards:

- You must have business credit reports.

- Depending on the bank, the age of your business will be taken into consideration.

- And your annual revenue reports will be checked for financial stability and growth patterns.

To be eligible for a corporate credit card program:

- Depending on the provider, there might be a minimum number of users you must have to use their platform and be part of the corporate program.

- You must also be able to show a certain amount of forecasted credit charge based on past data. The amount again depends on the provider.

Some other common requirements for both these types of credit cards include:

- Financial statements of the organization

- Tax information

- Company structure

- Contact information of the representee.

A corporate credit card program eliminates the need for reimbursements by allowing your employees to spend from the company budget instead of spending their own money and filling for reimbursements later. But just in case you do still need the reimbursement feature, it is available through the provider platforms where your employees simply have to upload a picture of the receipt through the mobile and add the necessary details to get their money back.

No more do your employees need to worry about paying from their pocket when traveling for business, or making subscription payments and getting overcharged. They will spend less time worrying about when they’ll get their reimbursements and spend more time getting work done. All due to fast payment approvals and direct spending from the company budget instead of their own pockets.

Be it physical corporate credit cards or instant virtual cards; your employees and finance team will experience complete transparency as each transaction will be recorded on the credit platform being used.

The reduced level of paperwork, increased employee satisfaction and transaction trackability are all factors that ultimately contribute to saving a lot of time for your company, leaving more opportunities to engage in value-generating work.

Corporate credit card programs can go a long way in helping your company curb and prevent fraudulent practices. Corporate credit cards typically come with a set of controls that you can implement at different levels of expenditure to ensure no unauthorized transactions ever go unchecked. Besides, if you have a concrete corporate credit card policy in place your employees will never be able to bypass protocol and engage in dubious behaviour.

Corporate credit card programs also make it much easier to manage and close your books at the end of the month. Alongside a monthly statement, most cards provide cardholders with tools that enable online record-keeping to manage their accounts, including an account summary at year-end. This can help your accountants categorize, track, and manage expenses. It can simplify bookkeeping, help when navigating an audit and pay taxes, and provide an easy way to monitor employee spending.