- Accessing real-time business credit card payment data enables you to rapidly determine whether employee spending is staying on-budget, and if your budgets adequately support your growing needs.
- The finance team gets a stream of credit card payment data throughout the month instead of all at month-end.
- With an SVB commercial card, the integrated expense management platform enables you to seamlessly sync with your accounting software or ERP.
Managing the finance workload in a fast-growing company requires a keen focus on efficiency. One pivotal strategy is to take advantage of commercial cards that provide multiple opportunities to put critical payment card data to work for you.
Automate card expense reporting to free up valuable time
Innovation economy companies are often looking for data-driven efficiencies for finance management. Having a commercial card with an integrated spend management platform can make it easier to automate expense reporting and speed reconciliation.
Consider a typical scenario with an SVB card program. The finance team can quickly issue company virtual cards with custom limits and controls that enable employees to pay for procurement, SaaS applications, business travel and other expenses. Cards can even have assigned rules about reporting such as what information needs to be submitted, and auto-categorization of expense codes to help ensure accounting staff gets the data they need.
As they spend, employees can use the card platform’s mobile app to see all their transactions and submit expense details and receipts – and the app automatically turns that payment card data into an expense report.
It’s a tremendous time-saver. Employees no longer have to manually compile expense reports, so they can focus on more strategic work. And the finance team gets a stream of credit card payment data throughout the month instead of all at month-end. With no more need to chase down reports and supporting documents, they can easily account for every transaction and close books faster.
Improve budgeting with credit card payment data
Accessing real-time business credit card payment data enables you to rapidly determine whether employee spending is staying on-budget, and if your budgets adequately support your growing needs. For example, you could generate a consolidated view of an expense category, such as office supplies. It shows you how much the company is spending with each merchant, and helps you identify any purchases made with an out-of-policy supplier.
With that insight, you can explore cost-saving procurement strategies such as negotiating discounts or better rates with preferred suppliers. You could also modify budgets and expense policies on employee cards to control spending more precisely.
Keeping tight control over expenses is also a key part of managing your burn rate.
Automatically sync card payment data with your accounting
As your workforce and needs grow, your commercial card may generate a wealth of payment card data every month – but are you still manually inputting data into spreadsheets or into your accounting or ERP system?
Increasing efficiency relies on reducing manual work and data entry errors that can take hours to manage and keep up to date. With an SVB commercial card, the integrated expense management platform enables you to seamlessly sync with your accounting software or ERP. You’ll have real-time visibility as transactions occur and expense reporting is submitted, and all business credit card payment data can automatically stream to the right places in your accounting ledger.
We’ve had finance managers tell us it’s so easy and straightforward, they never even have to think about it. And that’s the ideal when you’re aiming to boost efficiency, so your accounting staff and employees can stay focused on high-impact work.
Learn more about our commercial cards, or talk with your SVB Relationship Manager to get started.
