Employee Expense Reimbursement Management: Types & Policies

Corporate cards are a great way to manage your spending, control expenses, eliminate petty cash, and, most importantly - give your employees the freedom to focus on their work without any blockages.
But for everything to work smoothly and for everyone to know how to use your corporate cards, you must establish some ground rules.

What is a Corporate Credit Card Policy?

A corporate credit card policy entails the protocols and terms and conditions of use associated with a company credit card issued in an employee's name. A company credit card policy protects businesses and companies from unauthorized payments and inappropriate use by outlining the repercussions and consequences of such actions.

Why Do You Need a Corporate Credit Card Policy?

In the same way, companies have a travel and expense policy; they have a corporate card policy. A company credit card policy is set in place to ensure all company cards are used for authorized and permitted business purchases.

In a corporate credit card policy, the guidelines, responsibilities of the cardholder, dos and don'ts, and repercussions of misuse are outlined. This ensures that all business finances are regulated.

While it is important to have a corporate credit card policy, Pluto takes the extra step to ensure all transactions and purchases are pre-approved, regulated, and permitted by:

• Creating Pluto cards that can only be used with specific vendors
• Setting daily, weekly, or monthly limits on cards
• Having an approval workflow to make sure the necessary departments are approving all transactions

Which Employees are Eligible for a Corporate Credit Card?

It is essential to note which job roles are eligible for a company credit card to protect your business against accusations of favoritism or discrimination.

A company can decide whether all employees, c-suites, or department heads are eligible for corporate credit cards.

Typically, companies only give executives, VP levels, C-suite, and salespeople access to company credit cards. However, there are situations where employees who are not eligible for a company credit card may have to pay for business-related expenses, such as plane tickets. In this case, the employee would ask their manager to pay for such an expense with the corporate credit card, or they will have to pay using their personal credit card or cash and file a reimbursement, which will be reimbursed with the next paycheck.

 With Pluto's expense management platform, a company does not have to worry about corporate credit card eligibility or the hassle of employees filing reimbursements.

Using Pluto's platform, the business will have access to unlimited corporate cards, meaning any employee can be issued corporate cards with spend limits, approval workflows, and category-specific purchases. This results in no overspending and knowing all transactions are pre-approved and authorized due to the card only being accepted at allocated vendors.

Suppose an expense is made using cash or a personal credit card. In that case, the employee can snap a picture of their receipt and have it approved on the spot with Pluto's Whatsapp reimbursement feature, making it easier for finance teams and employees to sort through reimbursement receipts!

Components of a Corporate Credit Card Policy

When creating a corporate credit card policy, the credit cards intended to be used, the credit card provider's requirements, and the company's needs should be known.
In most cases, corporate credit card policies include the following points as part of their corporate credit card policy:

1. Employee Credit Card Agreement

When issuing a corporate credit card to employees, an employee credit card agreement must be signed to ensure that employees understand the card belongs to the company, regardless of the employee's name on the card.
The agreement will also state that the company credit cards can only be used for business-related expenses, where the company can investigate charges, if necessary.

2. Permitted Types of Expenses 

The types of transactions that can be made should be stated clearly in the company credit card policy: work-related expenses only. These include, but are not limited to:

• Meetings with clients
• Work-related travel (e.g., flight ticket, accommodation)
• Educational material
• Software subscriptions
• Legal document expenses
• Business meals

While tending to the above is a good way to ensure company credit cards are being used for business-related expenses, Pluto offers cards that can only be used for specific vendors, such as fuel cards, to avoid mishaps or fraud.

With these policies and procedures in place, employees should note that if an instance occurs where the company credit card is used for non-authorized transactions, personal expenses, or cash withdrawals, they will be faced with disciplinary action.

The disciplinary action could result in the following:

• Cancellation of the company credit card
• Withdrawal of corporate credit cards privileges
• Recovery of funds from employee's salary
• Termination of employee contract

3. Exceptions

In some cases, an employee cardholder may incur an expense that is not usually permitted under the company credit card policy. To be able to do so, the company credit card policy should indicate how the cardholders can apply for an exception and get permission for such expenses.
While doing so, the company should also outline specific transactions that can never be made using the company credit card.

4. Spend Limits

The spending limits on a company credit card usually depend on the employee's job and level of seniority. The company credit card policy should clarify the card's limits when receiving a new card.
In general, businesses can choose to have limits established based on transactions per-item or on a cumulative basis. However, not all employees will have the same spending limits.
With Pluto, you can set spending limits on virtual or physical cards before issuing them to ensure that employee spending stays within their budget.

5. Temporary and Permanent Limit Increase

To get a limit increase on a company credit card, the cardholder must fill out a form stating why they need a limit increase on their card and whether it is a temporary or permanent limit increase. The form will then have to be signed by the employee's manager and sent to the company credit card provider for processing.
Although it is possible, the process of getting a limit increase on a company credit card may take quite some time. Pluto allows managers, administrators, and finance teams to increase limits on virtual or physical company credit cards in seconds.

6. Approval Requests

A company credit card policy must show how approval requests work when using a corporate credit card. Usually, approvers are responsible for reviewing all transactions regularly. By doing so, the following is warranted:

• The transaction or expense adheres to the company credit card policy
• A receipt is attached to the transaction made
• The description of the transaction follows the details mentioned above

Pluto takes the extra mile to automate approval workflows and receipt reconciliation. With Pluto, all approval requests will be made through the Pluto platform, and receipts will be collected through Whatsapp as soon as a transaction is made.

7. Cardholder Responsibilities

Including the cardholder's responsibilities in the company credit card policy is an essential part of the document. The purpose is to describe how employees can ensure they use their cards appropriately.

It's important to include that:

• Cards cannot be used for personal expenses
• Cards must only be used by the cardholder to help avoid fraud 
• Cards and PINs must be stored in a safe place
• Cards must be reported as stolen and lost as soon as possible
• Document all expenses and send monthly reports

8. Policy Violations

Employees are expected to comply with the corporate card policy. If the cardholder violates the terms stated, disciplinary action will be taken against the employee.

The disciplinary action can include:

• Face a written warning for violating the corporate credit card policy
• Pay for the expenses yourself if you've used the card for any inappropriate use
• Lose the right to have a corporate credit card if you lose a receipt or violate the policy
• Suspension or termination of employment if you give the company credit card to unauthorized people or abuse the expense limits
• Loss of company card privileges if expenses are not submitted on time
• Legal action and termination can be imposed if prohibited purchases are made using the company credit card

How Can a Corporate Card Policy Prevent Fraud?

Globalization and remote work have increased the risks of card fraud and identity theft. A proper corporate credit card policy will minimize these risks and ensure that your corporate funds are safe.

1. Flexible limits

With Pluto, it is effortless to set card limits in real-time, so decreasing the spending limit when needed can be done in a matter of seconds. This ensures that a card is not over-exposed. If the card details were compromised, the perpetrator would not be able to withdraw any big sums.

2. Limited users

You can see all the cardholders from your Pluto dashboard and create additional cards if needed. This prevents sharing card details between the employees, as it is simply not needed anymore. The cards are used by authorized personnel, who are aware of the proper use and policies - further preventing any potential fraud and leaks.

3. Vendor-specific cards

Pluto allows you to create a card for a particular transaction, purpose, or project. This will enable you to allocate a certain amount of money that can be spent on the card, meaning the risks of any authorized charges, re-bills, or other online scams are non-existent.

4. No petty-cash

In a bigger organization, petty cash can be an issue as it is easy to defraud. Even when used properly, it is a pain to keep track of. Petty cash is no longer a problem with Pluto corporate cards, particularly when you can issue as many corporate p cards as you need with Pluto seconds (specifically 9 seconds).

The Value of a Corporate Credit Card Policy

Company card policies control employee spending, ensure compliance, and minimize fraud risk. It's even easier to maximize your results by integrating it with Pluto's expense management software.

By integrating with Pluto, you can:

• Issue unlimited corporate cards
• Digitize receipt reconciliation
• Reimburse in seconds
• Review all transactions in real-time
• Approve expenses in an instant
• Minimize the risk of employee fraud

Key Takeaways

A corporate card policy will help you to establish ground rules that will keep things running smoothly but, at the same time, will not limit your employees in their day-to-day work.

Ensure everyone who will have the card is aware of the rules. The great thing about using Pluto is that you can make your corporate card policy very simple, as Pluto has all the tools to manage your spending and keep everything under control.

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In modern business, cash and checks have gone the way of the horse and buggy: they’re simply too inefficient. But even their replacements – traditional payment methods like debit and credit cards – are overdue for an upgrade.

Welcome virtual corporate cards.

These digital payment methods offer numerous perks, from faster payments and reconciliation to greater control and security. They’re quicker, safer, and easier to integrate and use for accounting and operational teams alike.

Plus, the industry is on the cusp of an explosion, which could send innovation through the stratosphere. Between 2021 and 2026 alone, virtual card spending is predicted to skyrocket from $1.9 trillion to $6.8 trillion.

Here’s what to know.

First, A Brief Refresher on Corporate Cards

Corporate credit cards are credit cards issued to a business entity – not a person – as the responsible party.

In most other respects, corporate cards are like regular credit cards. They require a credit check to apply, charge a regular interest rate, and even come with reward systems. Corporate purchase cards are also unique in that the business can issue dozens of employee cards on the same account.

Pluto corporate cards come with specific controls to help your business manage spend. Real time tracking, setting limits on the go and quick reconciliations are just a few of the things that Pluto can provide.

But there is more. For companies who need to act quickly and require flexibility in their card issuing, there are virtual cards.

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What is a Virtual Corporate Card?

Virtual corporate cards, like regular corporate cards, are linked to the business’ budget. Employees can use these cards to pay for business expenses without using their own personal cards or cash.

But unlike physical cards, virtual credit cards reside solely in the digital realm. These cards are essentially unique, digitally-generated 16-digit card numbers that tie to a specific spending account. (In this case, the business’ account.) Each virtual card contains other essential card details, too, like the following:

• Cardholder’s name
• Company’s billing address
• Card number
• Expiration date
• CVV

Virtual cards are also unusual in that they can be generated and destroyed in moments. They can be designed to permit one-off charges, expire same-day, or hold only a specific dollar amount. Some virtual cards can even be linked to a particular vendor for one-time or recurring payments, perhaps with weekly or monthly spend limits.

Virtual cards can be accepted anywhere that online payments, and even some in-store payments, are accepted. Due to their ability to generate new numbers on demand, they offer additional security and control for business accounts. Plus, they can’t be lost or stolen like a regular credit card.

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Virtual Credit Card vs. Virtual Corporate Card

A virtual corporate card is simply a digital credit card issued to a corporation. For the most part, you can use virtual cards the same way you could use regular cards. However, like corporate cards, these virtual equivalents allow the issuing firm and receiving businesses to set particular spend and monitoring controls.  

Because virtual credit cards are 100% digital and able to generate new 16-digit numbers on demand, they’re optimized for safety and flexibility. They also make it easier to reconcile books and otherwise manage spending.

Why Use Pluto Virtual Corporate Cards?

Pluto virtual cards offer tons of perks and use cases. With more control and yet unparalleled flexibility, your business can remain nimble as you grow.

At the same time, department heads can keep an eye on expenses, spending, and accounting practices.

Flexible Setup and Spending

Modern companies need to be nimble, able to make purchases on the fly and reconcile their books in minutes, not days. Virtual cards let your business do so –without breaking their budgets.

Virtual cards provide unprecedented levels of flexibility to businesses of all sizes. After signing up, cards can be generated and issued to individuals with just a few clicks.

They also permit companies to limit available vendors, set a specific spending limit, expiration dates, and even the specific department budget the card should link to.

Unlimited cards

One of the biggest perks of Pluto's cards is that you can create as many as you need in a matter of seconds.

The times when an employee had to wait several days for the approvals and the card details to arrive are over.

For example - at 9:00, we had a team discussion about additional performance marketing activities.hile we were on the call, the department head created 3 virtual corporate card numbers for us to use.

It took him roughly 2 minutes to create them. All that without missing a beat on the call itself.

Right after we finished the call, we could start setting up ads.

Spend Control

Once you’ve generated a card – either for your team or by employee request – you can quickly personalize them for added constraint.

These controls are admittedly extensive, allowing your business to:

• Lock cards to a particular merchant or vendor
• Ensure cards can only pay to specific accounts
• Generate cards with set one-time, monthly, or recurring expenditure limits
• Institute purchase approval practices for individual cards, persons, or teams

Companies can use these various limits to prevent overspending, surprise fees, and unnecessary surcharges. Plus, with specific cards linked to individual employees or vendors, compartmentalized spend management becomes even easier. For many businesses, this is a welcome alternative to issuing high-limit cards to every employee that requires one.

In the example above, you can see one of the popular uses of Pluto virtual cards - employee benefits.

When a new employee joins, how much time does it usually take your HR department to get wellness or children's educational benefits to that employee?

With Pluto, it’ll take you leess than 2 minutes.

Higher Accountability

Another perk of virtual cards is that they can be generated for and linked to a single individual or team.

That makes purchase tracking easier, which increases personal and departmental accountability.

By using built-in accountability and analysis tools, your business can better track how and when money is spent at every level.  

Streamlined Accounts Payable

Enhance your finance team's efficiency with Pluto, featuring virtual corporate cards and integrated accounts payable software.  Pluto can integrate with your accounting software, making it easy to sync your chart of accounts, automate mapping your GL accounts, and bulk verify & export your expenses so you can close your books 10x faster.

From there, settlements can happen immediately rather than taking days or weeks. This eliminates the slow, potentially error-riddled manual accounting process with a faster, cheaper, and more efficient digital alternative.

Better Security

Pluto's virtual cards can help greatly reduce your overall card risk profile. Their increased security is due to their unique design, including their:

• Digital nature, which precludes them from being physically stolen.
• Set spending limits to prevent overcharging.
• Ability to block vendors and retailers from storing personal or card information long-term, helping to prevent fraud
• Ability to include one-time or vendor-specific expenditures and other spending controls, limiting financial hemorrhaging
• Auto-lock features to freeze cards instantly
• Ability to delete and regenerate virtual cards in seconds rather than days

Real-Time Reporting

Pluto's virtual cards feed their data directly into a centralized interface, allowing all data to show up in real-time reports, simplifying the analytical process. The spend management systems also offer real-time notifications.

Together, these features offer companies greater real-time visibility over their expenditures. This level of transparency can inculcate a healthier spending culture within a company beyond merely increasing accountability.

Plus, real-time reporting means that accounting teams and department heads can immediately respond to budget requests, verify receipts, and manage card limits.

Pluto expense management dashboard allows you to see everything and makes spend control a breeze.

Simple Reconciliation

Virtual credit cards provide an easy approval system to allow finance teams to take advantage of automatic reconciliations whenever possible.

Accounting teams can set codes for recurring transactions and tag controls to identify transactions before posting them to the general ledger. Each card can be linked to a specific employee to link specific transactions to each employee.   

With the right card and accounting integrations, it’s possible to automate the bulk of manual data entry and reconciliation out of the gate. Plus, you’ll increase the accuracy of your data and insights.

Efficient Vendor Payment and Management

You can also use virtual cards to simplify vendor management.

You can link specific cards to particular vendors, allowing you to track which teams use them regularly and how their prices change over time.

By setting limits and expiration dates to your specifications, you can prevent teams from “forgetting” about upcoming auto-renewals.

Reward Options

Pluto virtual corporate card offers a wide range of perks and benefits!

Instead of giving you Starbucks gift cards, we formed partnerships with some of the most critical services for the day-to-day operations of your business.

Reduce the Risk of Fraud

When multiple employees and vendors share a high-limit physical card, you run the risk of operational problems and fraud.

The more people who can access a single 16-digit number, the more likely unauthorized expenses can slip through the cracks.

Virtual credit cards don’t come with the same fraud and data loss risks that physical cards do.

• They’re impervious to hacks that come with swiping physical cards at in-person terminals.
• You can create cards for a particular purchase, vendor or project.
• You can easily link cards to specific employees and/or vendors, offering full control while minimizing risk.

Virtual Corporate Card Use Cases

Due to their innate flexibility and unprecedented control, virtual credit card programs offer multiple potential use cases. There are too many to go over here – but we’ll address a few of the most common or impactful.

Agencies

Digital agencies need to be able to make payments on behalf of their clients. This can be done using virtual cards, which allows the agency to keep track of spending and ensures that funds are used for the intended purpose.

With Pluto, you can create virtual cards for every PPC campaign or bigger project and keep track of your agency's spending in one place.

Not only does this allow you to scale the clients' performance marketing efforts, but the spend control dashboard shows you exactly how much was spent. You can go as far as naming and tagging your virtual cards, so you can see how much was spent per PPC channel on individual clients.

Event Organizers

Catering, lights, music, production, venues, drivers so many things that even organizers have to keep in the air! If you are an event organizer, chances are you understand how important it is to keep your spending in one place. That way when the time comes to file taxes or show ROI, everything is itemized and accounted for.

With a virtual card, all your charges will be automatically filed under the right categories. You can also set limits on how much can be spent per vendor, so you don't have to worry about overspending.

And if you have a team working on the event with you, you can give them each their own virtual Pluto card (or physical) with their own spending limits. That way, you can see at a glance who is spending what and where.

Startups

When you are a startup, your want to fully focus on your product and leave the rest to someone else. With a virtual card, you don't have to worry about setting up a corporate credit line or dealing with complex expense reports.

Just set up your team with Pluto virtual cards and let them manage their own expenses. You can see what they are spending in real-time and track progress against your budget.

Also, when you are at your early phase, there is no time for lengthy approvals. SaaS, ads, tools, plugins - virtual card can service them all.

E-Commerce

You business is digital and so should be your payment tools. With a virtual card, you can make payments online without ever having to worry about the security of your information.

Worried about that Alibaba supplier? Create a virtual card with a limit just for that vendor and you're good to go. Put a spending limit on it, and you limited any potential risks as well.

• Need your team to buy TikTok ads? -> Done. TikTok Ads Virtual Card
• Need to pay an Upwork freelancer? -> Done. Upwork Specific Virtual Card

You see where we are going with this. Create as many virtual cards as you need for as many occasions as you need.

Consulting

Consultants are on the road most of the time, and when they are not - they are seated in the client premises, helping to grow the business.

Employee travel is one of the most commonly-cited reasons for individuals requiring their own corporate cards. Travel expenses may include hotel rooms, a food allowance, or additional budgeting to purchase essential materials while they’re away from home, so to speak.

However, even in your own teams, it’s possible for employees to get carried away. An expensive dinner, unexpected expenses, and hotel room upgrades may all be well within your budget. But if you want to prevent excessive spending on your dime, virtual card controls hand you that power.

Fleet Management

Any company that have a vehicle fleet knows that a lot of time can go into fuel cards management.

Pluto can provide both virtual and physical corporate cards which makes it a perfect solution for efficient fleet management. 

You can issue fuel cards to the drivers as needed, and scale up and down depending on the current business situation.

In addition to that you see the fuel expenses real-time and can set limits and approvals where required. 

Key Takeaways

• Virtual corporate credit cards pave the way for the future while addressing a multitude of modern business pain points.
• They hand companies greater control over their spending, simplify accounting across the board, and even help protect employees.
• Plus, with so many nuances and use cases, it’s incredibly easy to personalize virtual cards to meet your unique needs.

The MENA Fintech Awards, a prestigious event within the financial technology industry, recently celebrated the most innovative and impactful solutions in the sector. 

We at Pluto are thrilled to announce that our company has been honoured with the 'Best Corporate Solution' award! This recognition is a testament to our team's hard work, dedication, and innovative approach in the fintech space.

Our co-founders, having spent a considerable part of their lives in the UAE. Working within the fintech sector, identified a significant gap in the region's finance sector. They observed that the tools, platforms, and software available to CFOs and finance teams were not only outdated but also overly complex, hindering efficient financial management.

With Pluto, they embarked on a mission to develop a software solution that would change how mid to enterprise level businesses handled their finances. 

The MENA Fintech Awards, organised in collaboration with the MENA Fintech Association, are designed to recognize excellence and innovation in financial technology. These awards are a highlight of the Abu Dhabi Finance Week (ADFinanceWeek), an event that fosters innovation and growth in the fintech sector. The 'Best Corporate Solution' category, in which we were victorious, emphasises practical, innovative solutions that address significant corporate financial challenges.

Our award-winning solution, the Pluto Card, addresses various corporate financial management needs. It offers features like employee reimbursements, petty cash management, and an efficient account payable cycle, along with robust accounting integrations. 

Winning the 'Best Corporate Solution' award at the MENA Fintech Awards is not just an honor but also a motivation for our future endeavours. We are excited about our upcoming initiatives, which include further enhancements to the Pluto Card and expanding our market reach to serve more businesses globally.

We extend our deepest gratitude to the organisers of the MENA Fintech Awards and ADFinanceWeek, the judges for recognizing our efforts, and most importantly, our dedicated team and loyal customers. Your support and trust in our solution have been invaluable!

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