The Facts About Corporate Credit Cards
If your company is looking into corporate credit cards then you have likely made a very smart decision, because having a corporate credit card that employees and executives can use can make having petty cash on hand obsolete and can make it much easier for employees to make purchases for the company. There are many advantages to having these credit cards for your company, and we’ll explore some of the benefits as well as some of the drawbacks of having credit cards set up for employee use so that you can make a decision on whether or not you want to go that route.
First of all, let’s explore some of the drawbacks. The first drawback is that they may overspend, particularly if you have employees that are unfamiliar with how credit cards work. You may have to do some work to make sure that they know not to go over the limit with them because that will end up costing you money in terms of fees and over the limit charges. Also, you’ll want to make sure that they are aware of the fact that you can monitor each purchase and where they use the card simply by looking online.
Another drawback is that having a credit card on hand can make it tempting to use the company credit card for frivolous or personal purchases. A corporate business credit card can be tracked on a website in real time so this shouldn’t be a problem, particularly if you have employees that you can trust. However, if you do have a dishonest employee it is quite easy to throw in their own purchases with the company ones and you will likely not have time to check the details of every purchase that comes through the credit card and may not be aware of the problem.
However, the benefits may outweigh the drawbacks. First of all, you can set spending limits which you can’t do in a petty cash situation except in a case by case basis. Business corporate credit cards allow certain employees to have a set credit limit. For instance, if you have an office manager that spends between $400 and $500 a month on office supplies, then it would be quite simple to set up a business credit card that they can sign on with a five hundred dollar a month limit. In this way, you can make sure that they aren’t spending too much money, or have too much money available to spend.
Another benefit is that you can track employee spending easily. Company credit cards allow you to see the purchases listed online the minute that they make them and you can see if an error has been made or if the purchase was not authorized. Most of all, they help to build your companies credit file which is wholly separate from your own credit history. A company can build a history of good credit and can quality for loans and financing solely based upon the company’s credit history and is a good practice to start early in case you need financing later on.