Unlocking Efficiency: The Transformative Impact of Virtual Cards on Invoice Payments

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses are seeking new avenues to optimize payment operations and enhance financial efficiency. Amid a plethora of tools, one stands out – the virtual credit card.  

The global virtual card market is expected to triple by 2030, according to Vantage Market Research. As businesses look to leverage this payment option, SAP Concur is uniquely positioned to help via a new integration from Extend, a leading virtual card platform. With Extend’s virtual card functionality embedded into Concur Invoice as a payment option, businesses using SAP Concur solutions can pay invoices easily, quickly, and securely from an embedded Concur Invoice workflow and with the corporate credit card they already have. There is no need for a new card, contract, or settlement process. 

So how can your organization leverage the benefits of virtual cards for paying invoices?   

Understanding Virtual Credit Cards  

First, let's explain what a virtual credit card is. This payment solution closely emulates the functionality of a conventional corporate credit card, with one key distinction – it exists solely in the digital realm.  

Traditional corporate credit cards are tangible cards issued by banks. These physical cards empower cardholders to make purchases and transactions within pre-approved credit limits, encompassing both in-person and online transactions. They serve as a convenient and widely accepted payment method. 

Virtual credit cards represent temporary digital subcards of traditional credit cards, initially conceived with security at the forefront. Each virtual card is endowed with a unique card number, often accompanied by a limited validity period, set spending limit, or single-use feature. This design defends the virtual card from fraudulent activities, rendering compromised numbers ineffective for unauthorized transactions. Traditional credit cards, while possessing fixed credit limits, lack the granular control of spending limits per invoice, rendering them more susceptible to misuse or fraud, particularly when their 16-digit card number is shared across an organization. 

The Advantages of Virtual Credit Cards for Invoice Payments  

Virtual cards offer a transformative approach to financial operations. They erase the need to share sensitive credit card details with vendors or use the same card for all your payments. Instead, you can automatically generate unique virtual cards linked to your existing credit card. And you can dispatch these virtual cards instantly via the platform you use to pay invoices. 

Incorporating virtual cards into business operations enables businesses using Concur Invoice to:  

• Settle invoices with unique virtual cards created from their existing credit card; 
• Better control payment amounts and timing; 
• Earn available card rewards on transactions; 
• Pay vendors more quickly; 
• Free up working capital to improve cash flow, and  
• Gain greater visibility into payment delivery.  

How to use virtual cards within SAP Concur Invoice 

After registering a corporate or purchasing credit card in Concur Invoice, customers of participating issuers can use virtual cards to settle payments with credit-card-accepting vendors. Concur Invoice automatically generates a virtual card linked to your registered credit card, complete with a distinctive spend limit, validity date, and invoice number corresponding to the invoice.  

David Blaha, chief revenue officer at Extend, explains, “Businesses want to do more with the tools they already use, and Concur Invoice delivers that frictionless experience to BMO Corporate Card customers, and with more bank integrations to come. The Extend integration with Concur Invoice marks a new era for embedded payments in which businesses can easily tap into powerful tools for managing payments from within the solutions they use every day.” 

Learn more about how Extend and SAP Concur solutions can transform your payment processes.