Commercial Card Program: Five keys to successful implementation

A top priority for any business is managing cash flow, and putting an effective commercial card program in place early on can be a huge help. Along with growth comes complexity, and it becomes increasingly important to efficiently control spending, meet procurement needs on the fly, and simplify accounting. How can you set the stage for success?

Here are some best practices that can help your company quickly implement a card program that can grow with your business.

1 - Launch your commercial card program now

If you think your startup is too small to have a commercial card program, remember that it’s easier to change processes and train staff when there’s only a few of you. As you grow and your spending starts scaling up, you’ll want to minimize finance burden and risk. That means putting controls and policies in place to better manage budgets, compliance, expense reporting, and forecasting analytics.

Think your company is too big to change how you’ve been managing corporate cards for a long time? Consider the high cost of inefficient processes. It's smart to get ahead of potential payment issues by reducing risk and reporting hassles. A well-designed commercial card program with integrated spend management capabilities puts you on the right track for the road ahead.

2 - Put commercial card fraud protections in place from the start

To mitigate the growing risk of fraud, partner with a bank that will help you implement robust controls for your card program. Fraud protections might start with card usage policies, as well as controls to restrict budgets, transaction types, and approval and reporting requirements. You might also add merchant blocking, real-time alerts, auditing procedures and more.

Be sure to follow industry best practices with the ability to continuously monitor card spend and access real-time reporting of transaction data to identify unusual activity and potential fraud.

3 - Integrate with your finance systems

Key to an efficient commercial card program is ensuring all your payment data is integrated with your expense management system, as well as syncing to your accounting software or ERP. You need staff to focus on strategic work, so you don't want them wasting time and risking errors by manually re-keying transactions between systems.

Automated integration helps ensure real-time visibility and can dramatically simplify reconciliation and reporting. It also aggregates valuable payment data to capture actionable insights on spending patterns and trends that support better budgeting and forecasting. Analytics can also identify vendors and categories where you spend the most, which your supply chain managers can use to negotiate discounts with suppliers.

4 - Invest in management and training

Getting teams on board is essential to an effective card program, from finance staff who will manage administration to employees involved in procurement, business travel or other company spending. If, like with SVB, your commercial card includes an AI-powered spend management platform, onboarding and maintaining your card program can be easier than you think.

For example, our clients have been able to quickly set up the platform with helpful self-service guides and send a simple article to teams on how to get started. Employees can then install the system’s mobile app to use their card, monitor budgets, and submit expenses and receipts to auto-generate expense reports. The platform automatically enforces spend policies and limits, which minimizes the need to train people about compliant use of company cards. And for finance staff, getting a real-time stream of transaction data saves time and expedites reconciliation.

5 - Help suppliers implement card payments

For your suppliers you have typically paid by check, helping them transition to accepting commercial card payments can benefit you both. It's important to help vendors understand the wins, including faster payments and potentially more business from you, plus reducing costs by avoiding the time, expense and risk of processing checks. Card payments also increase efficiency with access to data to simplify invoice reconciliation.

Although your finance team can be actively involved, with a banking partner like SVB, we can help support the vendor enablement process. We’ll work on your behalf to engage suppliers and onboard them into a system that can automate payments and reporting.

By following best practices and working with a trusted banking partner for expert guidance and support, your business can quickly get started in realizing the significant benefits of a commercial card program.

Learn more about you can benefit with SVB commercial cards.