Every company has had a project have unforeseen challenges arise. Maybe you need to buy additional materials at the last minute, or an employee unexpectedly needs to stay overnight at a job site. You need to empower employees to quickly purchase those things to prevent further delays. Traditional methods – cash, reimbursement paperwork, or waiting on credit approvals – would slow them down. Instead, they’re issued an instant expense card. With this card, they head out, make the necessary purchase, and every transaction is tracked digitally in real time.
Sounds convenient, right? This is the power and simplicity modern expense cards offer – especially in fast-paced sectors with high turnover or temporary workers.
Across countless industries from construction to field services, and from small-scale retail to hospitality, these cards offer a tailored solution to financial management challenges. For instance, in construction, the ability to issue cards without credit checks streamlines operations for a varied workforce, ensuring that project efficiency is maintained. Similarly, for field technicians in industries like HVAC or landscaping, these cards facilitate on-the-spot purchases, keeping jobs on schedule without financial delays.
Rapid, reliable expense management tools like modern expense cards simplify business life while doing two powerful things: Streamlining operations while ensuring financial control. You don’t have to wait around for credit checks and other annoyances. Your business and employees only need to focus on doing what they do best.
The Limitations of Traditional Expense Management
Traditional expense management is a maze of annoyances and inefficiencies. For example, wading through receipts, filling out endless reports, chasing down employees who don’t file on time, and waiting for reimbursements.
From employees to managers and everyone in between – nobody likes dealing with an expense report. Plus, there’s always the risk of fraud. According to a study by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, expense reimbursement fraud makes up 14 percent of business fraud with a median annual loss of $33,000.
Source: Association of Certified Fraud Examiner
Of course, there are other options for reimbursements, such as company credit cards or handing out cash. But both come with their set of headaches. Issuing company credit cards is a complicated process. Beyond concerns about fraud, you must deal with credit checks and other bureaucratic red tape – particularly with temporary or foreign workers. And cash? That’s the most susceptible to fraud, not to mention the potential accounting nightmares.
The reality is that, with traditional methods, employers face the dual challenge of administrative overhead and the ever-present risk of expense fraud. You want to keep your team accountable but also want them to be empowered to make necessary purchases. The old way of doing things burdens your team with manual reporting and slows down operations.
The Advantages of Modern Expense Cards
This is where modern expense cards come in. Specifically, we’re talking about reloadable debit cards that you can instantly issue cards to employees for immediate use. Employees can even add the card to their mobile wallet so they can pay on the go – especially helpful if the employee isn’t the immediate vicinity to pick up a physical card. Best of all, there’s no credit check required for the employee or your business.
These cards integrate with your company’s operations, providing a level of integration and control that was not previously possible. They focus on empowering businesses with the tools to manage finances efficiently.
Here’s a look at what sets them apart.
- Issue Expense Cards Instantly: Provide single-use, reloadable, physical, or virtual cards to employees; no credit checks required.
- Centralized Control: View, manage, and adjust expenses and spends via an admin portal.
- Granular Spend Controls: Tailor spending limits, choose specific merchant categories, and even define transaction locations – which ensures expenses align with company policies.
- Mobile-Friendly: Employees can upload expenses easily and quickly through mobile apps.
- Flexible Funding: Add funds to cards anytime, whatever the needs.
- Branding Options: Customize your cards to reflect your business identity.
Impact on Specific Business Sectors
Modern expense cards provide a level of financial control and efficiency that traditional banking and credit solutions can’t match. They democratize access to financial tools for all types of businesses, no matter what type of employees you have. Avoid any unwanted friction of credit checks and the risk of spending in unapproved categories.
Modern expense cards have advantages across many sectors, but there are a few where they are especially applicable.
- Construction: These cards simplify issuance because no credit check is required, which is ideal for a diverse workforce. They allow for tight spending controls on specific needs – like materials at a hardware store – which leads to a boost in overall on-site efficiency.
- Field Services: For technicians on the go in fields such as HVAC or landscaping, these cards are helpful for purchasing on-site supplies, fueling fleet vehicles, or other needs. It ensures jobs aren’t delayed by financial logistics.
- Small-Scale Retail: Small business owners get a grip on daily expenses, from inventory to maintenance, without the headache of credit processes. They’re also a simple way to manage fluctuating inventory and maintenance costs.
- Hospitality and Events: The fast-paced nature of this industry means a need for flexibility. Expense cards mean quick access to funds for situations, and the ability to control expenses across different vendors and locations.
Across these industries, there’s a theme: modern expense cards meet the unique needs of businesses while bypassing traditional banking barriers. They also offer businesses a strategic tool to manage diverse workforces.
The Juice Approach: Experience, Efficiency, and Expertise
Remember that situation we discussed earlier, in which you needed to buy additional materials for a project at the last minute? Or when that employee needed to stay somewhere overnight? With a modern expense card, these situations just got a lot less complicated. Decisions and purchases are able to be made, jobs are done, and you can move on.
As FinTech evolves, businesses can gain competitive advantages through modern technology. If you’re unsure where to start, Juice Financial can help. With decades of experience and over $30 billion processed in transactions, we have a proven track record of innovating how companies handle expense management.
Juice’s expense card solution brings a range of impactful benefits for businesses:
- Instantly issue single use or reloadable physical, virtual or tokenized expense cards to employees, and create authorized users quickly; no credit checks required.
- View expense reports, approve or reject spend, manage spend controls, and process reimbursements in a centralized administration portal.
- Apply custom card settings, including granular spend controls that restrict expenditures by merchant type.
- Allow employees to easily and quickly upload their expenses through the Juice mobile app.
- Quickly provision funds to any card, any time, when funding is needed.
- Issue fully customizable and branded cards & carriers to promote your business.
Our prowess in the financial world offers businesses – especially those in dynamic sectors with high turnover – effective control of how their finances work.
Are you ready to choose a future where financial operations are secure and integrated with your growth ambitions? With Juice Financial, we are ready to lead, innovate, and thrive with you. Find out how.