Employees are normally bound to incur certain expenses while getting potential clients to the business. Such expenses can sometimes be challenging to monitor, especially when employees have to spend from their pocket and seek reimbursements.
Instead of tracking physical evidence of expenses, you can actually monitor the expenses using a corporate card.
Having a corporate card is not different from owning other cards; the only difference is that they are linked to the main company’s corporate credit card. Therefore, you can issue these cards to employees like managers and the sales and marketing team, who are likely to incur expenses when attracting a new client or accomplishing their corporate duties.
Despite offering it to employees openly, you should check the nature of their expenses to avoid unnecessary bills on corporate cards. Doubt a side; here are some reasons to consider giving your employees these cards.
- Company Branding and Marketing
Imagine two employees of the same level in competing companies, but one has a corporate card, and the other does not. Whenever the two approach and entertain a client, a business-savvy client would likely deal with the one with the card instead of the other. This is how to make your brand stand out in corporate wars to acquire clients and show an example of anticipated client services.
Rather than issuing plain or bank corporate cards, you can customize the card to capture your brand details like color, name, etc. Therefore, you can partner with the iChoose corporate cards to ensure all your cards are branded and customized according to your brand details. Such cards will likely stand out and attract more attention whenever your employees use them for corporate expenses. Even the user will be proud to carry one and take it out to pay for the business expenses.
You can also use the branded card as part of the company reward program to issue it to employees to cover all expenses. They can use the loaded amount as part of their rewards programs to pay for personal expenses in malls and hotels. This is one of the ideal ways to market your brand and stand out as a part of your employee recognition program.
- Monitoring Employee Expenses
Your employees deserve some freedom to spend on expenses related to client acquisition, entertainment, closing a deal, and excellent customer service. Normally, when faced with such a situation, employees tend to dig into their pockets to cover all these expenses and then seek reimbursement from the company.
What if the employee cannot afford to meet all the expenses from their pockets? What if they pay for the bills, manipulate the receipts, and ask you to reimburse them for more than they spent? This is the burden of not having a corporate card. With a corporate card, the employees can entertain clients, close deals in exclusive places, and meet other business objectives that require some cash.
To ensure the cards are used accordingly, you can monitor the payment in real-time; all you have to do is ask for the statements for every card and then see what your employees are doing with the cards. The accounts team can also monitor every expense notification whenever the card is used.
- Preventing Employee Fraud
There is more than one case where employees are likely to engage in other activities and then charge it on the company accounts. Fraudulent employees can easily add all these expenses as part of client entertainment or business expense activities. Businesses lose so much money annually to such expenses, hence the need to crack down.
With the card, it is much easier to track every expense and record all the details. You can know whether your employee was working for you or not. For instance, if an employee pays for large expenses on a company card but does not acquire any clients or make more sales, it’s time to let them go or have a talk with them. Therefore, instead of planning for fraud, it can motivate them to work hard to make more sales or close the next deal because you observe their activities.
- Boosting Employee Morale
For some employees, being issued with a card shows the degree to which the company trusts them, hence, more commitment to the organization. Instead of thinking of ways to fraud your business, they can actually start thinking about how to use the card for their sales target and other business-related activities.
Before issuing a corporate card, you should choose the employees who deserve one. Not all of them should be given a card based on their behaviors. Issuing certain employees with a card can be a good part of company incentives through a card reward program. This can be in two forms, i.e., reward them with the card as part of the gift card program.
Next, you can give the card as a way of trusting them to acquire more clients and giving them the freedom to do more than they are currently doing. Such employees are likely to be happy as they feel seen and recognized by the company. Trusted with the card, most are likely to give their full effort, acquiring more clients to prove themselves to the company and gain financial rewards.
- Forecasting Miscellaneous Expenses
Every business must plan and forecast all expenses, including those involving your employees entertaining their clients. Suppose employee spend their capital and then seek reimbursement; you are likely to forecast for more, including for fraudulent actions that affect business cash flow. With the card, expense forecasting is made easier as you can monitor all the card statements, total expenses, and major expenditures. From there, you can plan for such financial expenditures.
You can also initiate other financial control and activities. An example of these controls are the maximum expenditure per card or event, types of expenses accepted, and when such expenses are accepted. With time, the employees will become accustomed to spending wisely to limit the financial burden on the company.
It is also good to have some corporate card expenditure rules so employees do not overspend or use them wrongly. To enforce some of these rules effectively, enforce punishment like salary deductions for non-business related expenses charged on the company corporate cards.
Conclusion
A well-customized and branded corporate card will always leave an impression in all the places it is used.
Therefore, you should ensure the card is branded with all the company’s unique details, like name and color to make it memorable. You can use this card as part of your employee motivation program by ensuring they spend wisely while accomplishing all their business goals and targets.
For expense control, forecast the amount to load on each card and monitor employee expenses to avoid non-business expenses.