One platform, all cards: How real-time visibility changes the way finance teams operate

Picture it: It’s the final week of the month. Your finance team is closing the books, answering leadership questions, tracking budgets, and staying on top of expenses all at the same time.

The pressure isn’t just to close fast, but to close accurately while still supporting the business in real time.

And yet, instead of uncovering new information, the team is stuck reconstructing the past. Transactions arrive late. Receipts are missing. Context lives in inboxes and spreadsheets.

The close compresses into a narrow window, not because of poor processes or lack of effort. It’s caused by a structural timing gap between spend and finance oversight.

Spend happens continuously. Visibility arrives in batches.

This is the reality for many finance teams operating on traditional bank feeds and statement uploads. Spend occurs every day, but visibility arrives at the end, forcing reconciliation, policy checks, and corrections into a last-minute sprint.

This isn’t a card problem

Most finance teams haven’t chosen their corporate cards by accident.

Bank-issued card programs are deeply embedded in how companies operate. They’re tied to credit facilities, treasury workflows, rewards, and long-standing banking relationships. Replacing them isn’t simple, and in many cases, it introduces more risk than it removes.

The challenge isn’t the cards themselves. It’s the lag between when spend happens and when finance can see it.

Traditional bank infrastructure was built for settlement and reporting, not real-time insight. As a result, finance teams are forced to operate in hindsight, reviewing spend after decisions have already been made.

Some businesses try to combat these issues with newer technologies. While these tools improve parts of the workflow, digitizing receipts or simplifying submissions, they often still rely on delayed transaction data through direct bank feeds and statement uploads. Visibility improves, but finance is still reviewing outcomes instead of shaping them. Controls are applied after spend occurs. Reconciliation remains batch-based.

The result is not just friction, but real cost: companies lose up to $1.3 million annually because inefficient tasks hold staff back.

The experience feels newer. The operating model stays the same.

Without real-time data, finance teams are still reacting instead of guiding. In this article, we’ll explain how real-time visibility can transform your expense management, spend visibility, and spend control. We'll also share what to look for in a provider and actions for successful spend management.

What changes when visibility arrives on time

Real-time visibility doesn’t just make close faster. It changes when finance work happens.

When transactions surface as they occur — with receipts, context, and categorization attached — reconciliation no longer waits until month-end. Exceptions are identified earlier. Policies are enforced upstream.

Routine spend flows through without friction.

Work spreads across the month (when decisions can still be influenced) instead of accumulating at the end.

Month-end becomes a point of confirmation, not reconstruction.

In practice, this is where AI agents begin to take real work off finance teams. Take Payhawk’s Financial Controller Agent, for example: it automatically follows up on missing receipts, completes expense fields, and pushes transactions forward as they happen, so issues don’t pile up waiting for month-end.

What is automated real-time expense management?

Automated, real-time expense management isn’t about accelerating month-end cleanup. It’s about reducing the need for cleanup altogether.

Did you know it takes 20 minutes to create an expense report and costs $58 on average to process one? Traditional expense management solutions and processes are often cumbersome and expensive. The low financial oversight and control is also risky, creating hurdles to achieving targets. Some common challenges you’ll encounter include:

• Tiresome data entry wastes precious resources and drags down team morale. Think of reconciling receipts and transactions by hand. Half of employees at companies with limited digitalization spend two to three hours each workday on inefficient processes
• Error-filled financial data that makes financial reporting a nightmare. Get this: 18% of accountants make financial errors at least daily, and 59% make three per month
• A lack of real-time spend visibility. This issue causes delays in spotting overspending and decision-making, resulting in blown budgets
• Time-consuming business credit card reconciliation. Multiple payment methods and processes make verifying expense reports and transactions long-winded
• Limited spend controls. Catching overspending and expense fraud is challenging. Course correction is also more difficult, making losses more likely
• Inadequate tracking, categorizing, and filing of things like VAT and receipts. Regulatory non-compliance and tax dramas during audits soon follow

But it's not all doom and gloom, thanks to automated expense management. And in fact, the breakthrough isn’t automation itself. It’s automation that operates in real time.

In a real-time model, the admin doesn’t sit with people. A Financial Controller Agent reads receipts and invoices, fills in accounting fields, and automatically nudges employees when something is missing, removing
the need for manual chasing.

This technology eliminates such issues by handling the admin associated with balancing the books. The five biggest differences is in a real-time model are:

1. Transactions are visible immediately
2. Receipts are captured at the moment of spend
3. Categorization and coding happen automatically
4. Policy checks run continuously
5. Exceptions surface when they matter, not weeks later

The real-time card feed, a.k.a. credit card linking, is one of automated expense management’s many game-changing features. No more waiting for transactions to load from your bank or uploading statements, hoping the data is correct. You’ll have instant access to accurate insights as they occur. This feature makes card reconciliation and spend tracking painless.

Watch a short video of Payhawk's Financial Controller Agent in action below.

How linking all your corporate cards drives universal compatibility

For many companies, switching card issuers isn’t realistic. Linking existing cards offers a different path forward.

Instead of replacing bank-issued cards, linking brings them into a real-time control layer. Finance teams can apply consistent policies, monitor spend as it happens, and centralize fragmented card programs, all while keeping their current banks and cards in place.

With Payhawk, teams can connect American Express and other major card providers into a single system, gaining real-time insight across entities, departments, and issuers.

The cards stay the same. The visibility changes.

Real-time expense submission, categorization, and transaction notifications for fuss-free admin

Most employees want to complete expense management tasks quickly and painlessly. That’s why we offer on-the-spot expense submission features, like an AI-assisted camera. We combine this feature with automatic, customizable expense categorization through OCR technology and live notifications. Your employees will no longer need to keep receipts, and processing expenses will take less effort (more on these features later).

Native, two-way sync with ERPs and live reconciliations for healthy books and pockets

Keeping your financial data clean is essential for compliant financial reporting and decision-making. Our expense management solution allows you to join and share data live from your ERPs globally. You'll get up-to-date information on obligations and upcoming expenditures across entities. Our technology also automates real-time reconciliations for banks, invoices, and card transactions.

An American Express (AMEX) integration for more spend control and efficiency

Does your team dread the lengthy, tedious admin involved in manually executing credit card management? There’s a way out. With Payhawk's AMEX integration, you can give each employee a corporate card. These cards come with built-in spending controls for effortless supervision no matter where your staff is. Plus, your U.S. business can earn rewards, making every dollar go further. Not using Amex? No problem. Our solution supports all major card providers.

Enhanced security features to pay expenses with confidence

Fraud is increasing, with each incident costing businesses an average of $145,000. So, it’s essential to have tools that shield your assets from sneaky schemes. Our solution has plenty of security-boosting features. One gives each virtual AMEX cardholder a unique 15-digit code that differs from the funding account number. We also use multifactor authentication, multistep approvals, and live alerts to keep your business safe.

When visibility is real time, control becomes selective and intentional

Control doesn’t come from more approvals or tighter rules. It comes from seeing spend early enough to act. Real-time visibility makes that possible.

Earlier insight into cash flow and budgets

Is your team constantly guessing your company’s cash flow status? Get up-to-the-minute expense oversight with our instant transaction capture. When transactions appear instantly, finance teams don’t have to wait for month-end to understand spend patterns. They can see who’s spending, where, and against which budgets, while decisions are still in motion. This allows teams to proactively guide spend rather than react after the fact.

Automated reconciliations for a speedy month-end close and razor-sharp efficiency

Gone are the days of waiting for staff to return from trips to process expense reports. Our real-time credit card feed and AI-powered camera receipt submissions let you match transactions live and on autopilot. Our expense management platform also reviews expenses in real-time and exports settled transactions. Now, transactions are automatically matched, coded, and documented throughout the month. The result? Up to two times faster financial closes, a 50% reduction in manual effort, streamlined bookkeeping, and fewer errors.

24/7 AI fraud detection and process optimization on autopilot

These days, generative AI can automate tasks that take up 60% to 70% of your staff’s time. One of those tasks is fraud detection. For example, our AI fraud detection tools monitor transactions and activities 24/7, so your team doesn't have to. Have staff at a conference in New York, and a suspicious transaction pops up? An employee away on business in Hong Kong lost a card? You’ll have in-depth data on their spending and can block transactions and cards automatically.

Plus, you no longer need to assign staff for data cleaning. Payhawk's machine learning (ML) algorithms will identify and correct errors in transaction data. Over time, it will make process improvements and recommendations without your team’s prompting. The peace of mind and business improvements you’ll gain are game-changing. Companies that adopt AI improve their productivity by up to 40% and decision-making accuracy by 50%.

Eliminate time-consuming processes and costly errors

As we touched on earlier, some reconciliation methods require you to upload statements or wait for the data to come in from the banks. Here’s where the issues begin. Your team has to match them manually, and it's a painstaking task. We’re all human, so mistakes like mismatching and missing data are inevitable. But such problems siphon precious time and money from your business.

For instance, say it costs your team $50 to amend a reconciliation error on an expense report. If they complete 80 amendments per month, that’s an extra $48,000 in avoidable expenses annually. You'll avoid such headaches by leveraging the automated expense management tools we provide.

The power of real-time transaction notifications and expense submission

If you’ve been working in finance for a while, you’ll know the wrong tools and processes for expense management are a recipe for disaster. Issues creep up and attack from multiple angles, overwhelming your business. However, when you onboard solutions that update your team as events occur and automate actions, such issues fade into the past. Your team can then focus on tasks that push your department closer to its targets. 24.8% of CFOs who have invested in building an autonomous finance function said freeing up talent to focus on strategic initiatives was their most significant benefit.

Take our expense management platform, for example. Your team will get immediate alerts via mobile and email on things like:

• Out-of-policy spend
• Suspicious and fraudulent transactions
• Overdue expense reports
• Expense submission and approvals
• Reminders for outstanding submissions and approvals

What it takes to automate expense reporting with OCR and AI

There’s a dynamic duo taking the finance world by storm: the AI camera and OCR technology. They’re revolutionizing how teams manage expenses, making them more efficient and cost-effective.

It works by having your employees snap a photo of the receipt, choose from customizable expense categories, and hit send. Our AI-powered camera accurately extracts critical information. Our OCR technology then handles the rest, automatically identifying, extracting, categorizing, and storing the data. This setup benefits everyone. The fuss-free process increases data accuracy and submission timeliness while speeding up reconciliation with less manual effort.

Farah Rouassi, VP Finance & Strategic Partnerships at Media & Education company Paradox, explains:

My Financial Controller Agent sends all the reminders during the month... meaning, at the end of the month, I don’t have to send any messages. No stress, no patience needed. Receipt chasing has gone from two days of manual reminders to zero. I’m calling the Financial Controller Agent… my new best friend!

How Payhawk drives seamless integration with accounting software and ERPs

Finance technology has come a long way since the heyday of typewriters and carbon-copy forms. However, the downside is that many teams endure fragmented tools. The constant switching between solutions, the use of varying processes, and scattered data dampen productivity. But there’s light at the end of the tunnel: our native, two-way live sync capabilities with ERPs and software integrations. Here’s a snapshot of how they work:

ERP syncs

• Our solution automatically transfers data like expenses, receipts, and transactions to your chosen ERP
• Simultaneously, our software pulls data from your ERP, including budget information, cost centers, and reconciled expenses
• Any changes or updates, like categorizing expenses or approval, reflect immediately on our platform and your ERP, so the systems stay in sync

System integrations

• Using direct APIs, our solution links with popular financial, ops, and HRIS systems, including SAP, TravelPerk, QuickBooks, Factorial, and Zenefits
• We offer custom mapping for expense categories, projects, and cost centers. This feature ensures the data from our platform flows to the correct categories in the financial system
• Set up the integrations for all your entities in 5 minutes or less using our multi-entity connector for effortless connectivity

The benefits you’ll gain from using our platform to unify expense management across providers are plentiful. You’re looking at these top nine for a start:

1. More up-to-date data and cross-platform consistency that improves spend compliance
2. Insight into spending trends to optimize budget allocation
3. Better cashflow visibility
4. Reduced errors and duplicate entries
5. Faster reconciliation and financial closing cycles
6. Saved cash and time on financial operations
7. Fewer lost and missing receipts
8. Enhanced data visibility to aid in informed decision-making
9. Consistent data for audits and regulatory reporting

Ensuring customizability and scalability in expense management for all business sizes

Whether you run a start-up or a large corporation, picking a spend management solution adaptable to your business’s specific needs and policies is critical. This characteristic will ensure expense management policy compliance, longevity, and agility. For instance, some adjustable features our platform has are:

• Customizable expense categories you can align with internal policies
• Flexible approval workflows for tailored expense tracking and reporting
• Country-specific compliance tools, including VAT, GST, and Per Diem calculators, to observe local tax regulations

The importance of advanced security measures and data protection in spend management

If your company’s data and funds are rare rubies, your expense management software is the vault that keeps these precious gems safe. So, it pays to have a solution that prioritizes security. For best results, look for a provider that layers robust, innovative security solutions and conducts pen tests on them. For example, our solution makes securing business spending possible by providing multiple protection layers across all linked cards and the software. Some of our top security features include:

• Encryption
• Tokenization
• Role-based access control
• Two-factor authentication

Now, let's address your data protection obligations. How you approach them can make or break your business's reputation. Only adopt an expense management solution with features that’ll keep your business compliant with data protections like GDPR. Our platform uses features like:

• Data minimisation and anonymisation
• Data subject rights management
• Audit logs and tracking of all data processing activities
• Compliance certifications like ISO 27001 and PCI DSS

Find out more about our powerful security features and certifications.

Six best practices for managing corporate cards

Effective corporate card management comes down to a few fundamentals. Get these right, and spend stays visible, compliant, and easy to manage. Start with these six:

1. Build a culture of compliant spending: Staying on a budget takes a team effort. So, train staff on your expensing standards and expectations. Make a distinction between personal and corporate expenses
2. Leverage flexible budgeting tools and corporate cards: Don't set and forget budgets in Excel. Use expense management software that lets you set, track, and adjust budgets live across departments
3. Set clear spending policies and automated enforcement: Don’t leave room for interpretation or doubt in what counts as compliant expenses and reporting. Opt for an expense management solution with customizable expense approvals, like our workflow designer. Additionally, embrace transparency and maintain an open-door policy for whistleblowing
4. Use automation to encourage budget adherence and efficiency: Advanced card control features, like autoblocking and ATM blocks on linked cards and reminders, will be invaluable for reducing non-compliant spending. They’ll also save your team time and effort
5. Select technology with an excellent user experience to boost longevity: When staff enjoy using tools, they’re more likely to keep up the habit and encourage their colleagues' usage. Put expense management in every employee's pocket via our comprehensive mobile app. Staff can send expense reports and approvals in just a few clicks
6. Use purpose-built corporate cards via an expense management solution: Managing unlinked cards can be confusing, inflexible, and stressful. Free your team to focus on other essential tasks by issuing virtual or physical corporate cards. These cards should link to robust expense management software to improve spend visibility

Effective expense management in action: Vicio’s story

A great way to understand the power of optimized expense management is to look at the brands doing it right. Take the popular hamburger chain in Spain, VICIO.

The finance team battled time-consuming manual processes, like weekly expense reimbursements and sorting large receipt piles. VICIO’s previous spend management tool lacked visibility into spend. This drawback left the finance team in the dark about specific financial data, slowing decision-making. VICIO decided to switch gears from manual to automated expense management with Payhawk. Now, VICIO has transformed its operations and is thriving. Some top wins include:

• Streamlined and accelerated expense management. Employees now use a virtual or physical corporate credit card and capture receipts with our mobile app. Our solution has eliminated manual keying and reduced errors, which also saves time and energy
• Rapid scaling through improved spend visibility, even as invoices and receipts increase, and the need for cards and budgets change
• Improved cost savings, spend control, reporting, and business opportunities. The team now has numbers they trust from the real-time expense reports. This change supports better negotiations with hotel chains and decisions on where to invest cash for higher profitability

Speaking on the 180-degree change using our solution, VICIO’s CFO Adrià Vázquez said:

I am confident that we have control of our expenses thanks to Payhawk’s spend controls and real-time view over spend.

Kickstart your corporate expense management transformation

With the right technology, expense management doesn’t have to be painful. But don’t be tempted by all the solutions out there. The path to stress-free expense reporting starts with robust expense management software. It should have a real-time credit card feed, linked corporate cards, and live transaction monitoring. A solution that uses AI and OCR technology is critical to make expense reporting easier for everyone while improving data consistency.

Use the spend management solution to improve your corporate card management first for quick, noticeable wins. But don’t stop there. Stay agile and make tweaks to fit your business needs. Support your team through the transition by providing training and listening to employee feedback.

Great tools and processes lead to even greater business outcomes, so don’t wait. Take the first step to transforming your expense management today: Book a personalised demo with one of our experts.