Our financial ecosystem is changing rapidly, with new technologies and methods of payment. This has resulted in a more efficient and secure system for both individuals and businesses. However, there are also major security risks that need to be monitored carefully. This is where virtual cards come in.
Virtual cards for businesses are a reliable way to clear accounts payable. Recently, they have become a popular choice among SME owners due to their versatility and secure nature. Through virtual cards, SMEs have complete control over the spending, as card details are protected. They are also incredibly convenient to create and use, ensuring SMEs always stick to their budget.
In this article, let’s explore the benefits of a virtual card, how they work, and why they’re essential in controlling business spending.
What are Virtual Cards?
A virtual card is a payment card that is stored on your phone, tablet or computer. It is an e-card or digital card that has a unique 16-digit card number, CVV and expiry date. It is similar to a debit or credit card, but does not exist in physical form.
Virtual cards are designed to protect users from the typical vulnerabilities of physical cards, and some cards also offer additional benefits. Virtual cards can be used anywhere physical credit is accepted. This means it can be used for online and land-based payments.
With virtual cards, you have complete control over your transactions, and they work seamlessly with your accounts payable system. This makes it easy to request, approve, and generate cards based on your business needs. The process is similar to invoice processing, but the approvals happen before the purchase is made. Virtual cards also automatically capture transactions as they happen, and they can be synced with your SME resource planning system.
This card also offers a wide range of customization options to meet your specific needs. You can create cards for specific or general usage, based on a given cardholder, a specific usage type, such as one-time, multi-use, or revolving. Plus, with full control over the amount, vendor, purpose, and budget–you’re in the driver’s seat!
Benefits of Virtual Cards
There are many reasons why businesses are switching to virtual cards. Let’s take a look at a few of them, and see how they work.
High Level Security and Fraud Prevention
With virtual cards, you can prevent fraud and misuse by setting powerful permission settings for all cards. You can restrict certain purchase categories on all cards or restrict cardholders from being their own approvers. Virtual cards give businesses complete control over card issuance, suspension and cancellations–all with just a few clicks.
Subscription Management
Many businesses use a single credit card to pay for all their subscriptions. This makes it difficult to track who spent the money and can lead to your card details being leaked to multiple employees. Additionally, free trials that fly under your radar could turn into monthly bills which are deducted from your credit card automatically.
With virtual cards, you will always have a complete view of your subscriptions and be notified when payments are due. This will help you keep control of your bills and stop companies from automatically deducting money from your credit cards. Fazz Business Cards provide you lots of convenience with powerful, in-built features. It allows you to set a monthly limit, track spending, freeze cards – you can do it all on one dashboard.
Global Coverage
Virtual credit cards offer payment in different currencies, so if your business has vendors and merchants overseas, this feature can be very beneficial. Before getting a card, be sure to check with the issuer to see if they have the currencies you need.
Hassle-Free Approval
Since card transactions are often processed after they’re made, approvals usually come afterward, rather than beforehand. This means that your employees can input the details of their transactions and wait for higher-ups to review and approve or decline them.
With virtual cards in Singapore, you can reduce the amount of rejected transactions by pre-approving a budget. This will make it easier for your employees to file out their expenses for you to approve, saving you time and hassle.
How Does Virtual Cards Control Business Spending?
Keeping track of important expenses for businesses is a must. However, this can be time consuming and frustrating. Fortunately, virtual cards can help ease your workload in managing expenses.
Improved Spend Control
Virtual cards make it easy to onboard your team. You can request a card, set a spending limit, and choose the date it ends. You can also restrict its use. The set spending limits on your card can help prevent an overcharge even if someone manages to get control of your unique identifier. You can also set an auto-lock so the card automatically becomes unusable once the maximum amount has been spent. Also, virtual cards make it easy to track different subscriptions, vendors, and tasks.
Real-Time Expense Tracking
Business virtual cards feature real-time visibility of all transactions made. Whenever a virtual card is used for a transaction, a record is automatically created on the expense management system associated with it. If it’s a swipe that requires approval, employees can attach details of the transaction and receipts for approval.
Approvers can always access detailed information on transactions and raises, so there’s never any doubt as to who approved them. This makes it easy to see if anyone exceeded their authority or if someone was trying to pull a fast one.
Simplify Reconsolidation
Closing the books at the end of the month can be a tedious task, especially if there are a lot of internal company expenses to keep track of. Multiple physical company cards can make it difficult to bring all of the company expenses together under one file, which can make it tedious to figure out where each expense should go.
With virtual cards, your business is able to close the books faster because everything is connected to one account. Additionally, metadata could be added to each virtual card which could be used to identify and reconcile a transaction quickly. For example, this could include a booking reference or a campaign ID.
Things to Consider Before Applying for a Virtual Card
Virtual card providers may offer various accounting software and integrations, so be sure to find the ones that work best for you. Consider some points below before deciding on one.
Ease of Integration
Your business may use a range of accounting and payment tools. Your virtual card should easily integrate with all these tools, helping to ensure seamless operability and automation. Otherwise, you will have to enter data across several platforms and lose out on efficiency.
Make sure your virtual corporate card has an easy-to-use API or that your card’s support team can help you create a bird’s eye view of your entire business finances.
Consider Perks and Privileges
There are a number of virtual card providers in Singapore, each with their own rewards and privileges. Before choosing a provider, be sure to compare their offerings and see if they align with your business needs. Then, use the cards to their fullest potential to promote your business. For example, if your company interacts a lot with local companies, it will be very beneficial to have a virtual card with zero local transaction fees as offered by the Fazz Business Card.
Security is Top Priority
Keeping your data safe is important, and with virtual cards, it’s even more important to pick a provider that is known and trusted. With providers that have security certifications, you can be sure that your data is safe. For example, the Fazz Business Card does not only offer you a secure transaction, but its cutting-edge AI fraud detection technology gives you the peace of mind when carrying out your day-to-day business transactions.
Final Takeaway
Modern business calls for future-ready solutions, especially in the financial space. Virtual cards are an intelligent form of payment processing with a variety of cost-saving benefits. From better security to a more efficient accounts payable workflow, businesses of all sizes should look into how virtual cards can streamline their SME transactions.
Access Spend Control with the Fazz Business Card
Issue unlimited virtual cards to track spending seamlessly. With zero local transaction fees and cutting edge fraud detection, the Fazz Business card is designed to help you spend smart and scale fast. Plus, there’s zero annual fees. Apply for a card today!
