3 optimization tactics to get more value from your corporate card program

When your company is scaling fast, sometimes procurement becomes a free-for-all as teams scramble to meet needs. Is your commercial card program keeping pace with your growth?  If not, uncontrolled spend and inefficient processes could be costing you more time and money.

Here we’ll look at some common challenges in procurement and finance operations, and how you can optimize your corporate card program to capture more value.

Tactic #1 – Increase spend control to improve cash management

A typical problem we’ve seen in fast-growing companies is SaaS spending gone wild. Employees may be signing up for subscriptions using their own credit cards or a team card, which may result in overlapping licenses, redundant tools and paying for unused seats. And when the finance team lacks visibility and control over this spending, it’s harder to forecast renewals and manage cash flow.

Or what about when the company gives field managers corporate cards for expenses like business travel, client dinners and conferences? If the cards have no pre-set limits or category rules, and require manual expense reporting, finance has no way to prevent overspending, and reconciliation can be a huge hassle.

To optimize your corporate card program, make sure your card is integrated with a robust spend management system. For example, with SVB’s AI-powered platform, you can quickly issue cards with custom limits such as budget, timeframe, and merchant categories, and auto-enforce spend policies as transactions occur. It gives the finance team real-time visibility and control and simplifies reporting. Employees save time with mobile expense submission that auto-generates expense reports and streamlines reconciliation.

Tactic #2 – Enable more strategic spend with category expansion

In your earlier stages, you may have restricted commercial card spending to a few basic categories. But as your workforce and supply chain evolves, expanding how you use your card can help you work smarter and faster. The key is to have the right balance between enabling more types of spending and ensuring your finance team has efficient, centralized oversight.

Card program optimization can include creating custom categories, such as breakouts to specify cloud infrastructure software, recruiting, employee stipends, and marketing. You might also create subcategories to improve audit trails, like whether certain expenses relate to R&D versus production.

Tactic #3 – Maximize rewards with your corporate card program

Another important growth strategy is to make sure you earn value from every dollar spent. Many companies miss opportunities to earn rewards or revenue share due to legacy payment processes. For instance:

• Are you paying large recurring vendor payables like cloud storage, advertising, and logistics via ACH instead of card?
• Are employees using personal cards for business travel and ad hoc expenses, then getting reimbursed?

A critical tactic for corporate card optimization is to capture more spend on the card, so your cash outflows earn cash back income. And by issuing virtual cards, you can better control operational expenses using cards customized for specific uses or vendors, and instantly enable employees on the fly with pre-set limits.

Cost-efficiently driving growth is essential for innovation economy companies. Having the right card and spend management capabilities is a core part of that – and SVB can help at every stage. Learn how SVB can help you optimize your corporate card program.