Optimise business spend with expense cards for employees

You're probably here because you're already looking for the best company card for your team. You want to give your team access to company funds in a way that still keeps financial control in the business and avoids any risk. But you also want to give your employees spending power and make it easy for them to pay for the things they need.

So, where should you start? Here are the top six company card features you should look for:

1. Powerful software that supports your company card

The best corporate cards can offer you real-time information on employee spending, insight into trends, and the ability to implement controls and policies. How? From the comprehensive platform that the company cards are linked to.

With Payhawk, our corporate visa cards are so much more than a piece of recycled plastic. Each card is a smart, software-backed tool that enables flexible, real-time spending.

We believe that the best company cards for startups should provide powerful, customisable features (like custom spend categories and subscription tracking, for example) and easily integrate with the rest of your finance stack. We integrate with all the most popular ERPs, including Oracle NetSuite. Plus, we have non-company-card reimbursements, bill payments, and invoice management too, all in one place. Perfect for a growing business.

2. A way to track company spend

Company cards can potentially be exploited in traditional card systems, and there's a danger of fraud. But not with corporate cards linked to secure financial software.

With Payhawk's company cards, every single transaction and business expense can be monitored in real-time, and the cardholder will receive a notification of each transaction. Suspected fraud can be caught immediately. And suspected cards can be frozen with a click. Monthly spending limits can be easily controlled and analysed with approval flows that fit your unique company spending too.

No more calls, emails, and restrictive red tape regarding fund requests. That's how business cards can empower employees when they need it most – with flexible but controlled spending.

3. Team budgets and categories

There's no doubt that the best company cards have the support of powerful software. Software that automates tasks and helps the finance team (and users) avoid manual data entry, saving you and your team money.

With solutions like Payhawk, you can get one-click accounting integration, automated expense reports, and our special Team Cards feature, all of which make managing business payments clearer and more straightforward.

Team cards, for example, are an innovative way to gain control and total transparency over your team budgets. They're essentially shared budgets that correspond to company cards. Each card linked to the shared budget can be used to spend, each user can view the spend, and each transaction is visible. Meaning team managers, and the accounts team, can easily check on spend in real-time, every time.

Another unique feature is our expense categories, which give you a way of classifying spend into specific areas relevant to your business. Let's say your salesperson, Peter spent £63 on a train journey for work, his spend will be categorised under 'transport.' And it could be even more prescriptive with a 'train' category.

These categories are useful because when you want to find a specific transaction or check your spending trends, you can do so in a matter of clicks.

4. Built-in spend policies

The best corporate cards make spending easy and expense management even easier.

With Payhawk, team leads can set spend limits, keep informed of each payment, and see all outstanding expenses simply using one tool. Adjustments such as issuing a new card can be made in real-time and, in the case of virtual cards, used instantly.

Compliance is an easy win too. The cards and app are easy for employees to use, so they want to use them. Then, as the policies are already built into the solution via the app and platform, breaking the rules is hard, meaning compliance is high.

5. Subscription tracking

After HR, subscriptions are one the largest cost centres in mid-sized businesses. Therefore, a tracking tool for this type of cost is crucial.

Payhawk's subscription feature allows finance teams to create clear forecasting for recurring payments and to spot duplicate or unused SaaS payments quickly.

"The subscription feature has enabled us to take immediate actions to avoid unnecessary spending. We were immediately able to identify which subscriptions are not required anymore and trigger cancellation on time."

— Lenka Bartuskova, Finance Manager

6. Integrations with other company tools

The best company cards come with software that integrates seamlessly with your ERP and accounting system by syncing your expenses, ensuring that all the expense data is pushed accurately with no error.

ERP integrations mean fast and efficient reconciliation and a pain-free month-end close, freeing up time for work on initiatives that will drive the business forward instead of managing fiddly expense processes.

We recently launched a direct integration with ERP Oracle NetSuite, one of the most used systems for Enterprise business. Our direct integration enables finance teams to push all expense information and have real-time reporting in just a few clicks.

Give easy (but controlled) access to company funds

Whether approving a fund request in seconds or getting real-time visibility over team spend, the best corporate cards can be managed so that everyone who needs company money can get it instantly and stay within the rules.

No waiting for sign-offs. No phone calls. Just immediate access to company funds via automated, real-time software. Your employees feel empowered, and your finance team has complete control of the money spent.

Book a demo if you want to learn more about simplifying your business finances with company cards and a powerful software solution.