Play your (corporate) cards right with Concur Expense

Picture this: You’re at work, and everywhere you look are happy employees, spending company money on travel, meals, supplies, and other necessities freely and without fear of noncompliance. As a manager, you’re happy, too. Because even with this spending freedom, you still have complete control over employee spending and can forecast more accurately.

If this sounds too good to be true, it isn’t. Corporate cards and purchase cards (p-cards) are an easy way for you to gain control over expenses, and Concur Expense makes managing these programs simple. By centralizing information from your bank in one place, you eliminate the risk of errors and late fees and allow your company to maximize program benefits and focus on what matters most: your business.

Here’s how corporate cards and p-cards work, and how Concur Expense and its extended solutions can help you manage them.

What are corporate cards and p-cards?

Corporate cards and p-cards have different benefits and use cases. Choosing one over the other depends on your company's needs and the nature of your business spending. 

• Corporate Cards are credit cards issued to employees for expenses such as travel, meals, and lodging. They allow an employee to spend as they need (within an approved limit), whether while traveling on business or for any other work-related purpose and give the company a way to monitor spending. 
• P-Cards are lines of credit used to buy supplies, subscriptions, or tools in the organization’s name at preferred vendors. They can have set spending limits and can only be used on approved items, giving a company improved cash flow management in real time. 

Both corporate cards and p-cards give added visibility into and control over company spending. They also both have the added benefit of cost savings and rewards, depending on your bank.

Managing corporate cards and p-cards (and how Concur Expense can help)

Whether you choose a credit card or a p-card for your company, it’s important to consider how you’ll manage the program. Concur Expense can help you submit business expenses faster and easier with features that automatically capture and categorize expense data.

However, if you’re looking for more specialized support, we have a number of extended solutions specific for managing corporate cards and p-cards:

Company Bill Statements: Easily automate and reconcile p-card expenses while tracking spend and enforcing policies in one centralized system. With Company Bill Statements, employee transactions are automatically assigned accounting codes based on your company’s accounting structure and are ready in near real-time for review, reconciliation, and posting, improving visibility into company spending

Bank Card Feeds: Automate data entry and accelerate the reimbursement process by linking credit card transactions with expense reports. With Bank Card Feeds, corporate credit card charges from your bank are automatically uploaded to user accounts within Concur Expense, taking the manual labor and potential errors out of expense reporting and accelerating reconciliation.

Expense Payment Manager: Streamline credit card reimbursement no matter where your employees are in the world. Using safe and secure third-party payment processors, Expense Payment Manager allows companies with a global workforce to automatically and accurately reimburse employees in their preferred currencies.

Central Reconciliation: Match, review, and approve invoices generated by a company lodge card and gain greater control over your spending as a government organization. Central Reconciliation automatically gathers charge transactions into a single view, matching charges to the invoice provided by the card bill issuer, so you can verify accuracy prior to approval in one place.

Deciding between a corporate credit card or a p-card is up to you and the needs of your business. No matter which option you choose, Concur Expense makes managing your program simple.

To learn more, see a demo or contact us and a Concur Expense expert will be in touch soon.