Use a Corporate Credit Card Program to Fight Fraud

Most small business owners feel like they know their employees fairly well. Being involved in day-to-day operations means working closely with most of your staff, building both a rapport and trust. So when you first learn of fraud happening within your company, it's no surprise the news comes as a shock.

You are not alone. In fact, for a typical organization five percent of annual revenue is lost to fraud each year. That’s five percent more funds that could have been reinvested back into the business. This begs the question: What can a business owner do to fight fraud?

Employee expenses (especially travel) are not only a large spend category in a company budget, but also an opportunity for fraudulent claims. Instituting a corporate credit card program is a straightforward way to tighten up controls, while getting access to purchasing data and reducing expense reporting errors.

Gain more control of employee spend

A corporate credit card program gives you more authority over employee expense management. You can set restrictions when it comes to credit and transactions limits, as well as set merchant and location controls. This helps regulate employee spend, and reinforces your expense policy.

In addition, corporate credit cards take the burden off of employees having to use their own money for business expenses. This makes traveling for business or entertaining clients a little easier, knowing they do not have to wait for an expense report to be approved and processed before they can see those funds again. It is a win-win for everyone involved.

Catch fraud before it happens and reduce the potential for errors

When employees charge to their corporate card, it goes directly to the company, giving you access to this data. You can better monitor spending, and be able to flag expenses that look suspicious. So, you're able to stop bad spending before an expense report is even sent for approval.

Not only can you spot items bought outside of policy, such as those that are for personal use, you can also catch items that employees may then try to reclaim through your usual expenses reclaim process again. Spotting errors on expense reports is that much easier, especially if what is being claimed and what is on the credit card statement don’t match up.

Being able to charge expenses directly to the company also reduces expense report mistakes, such as accidentally entering incorrect numbers or the same purchase twice. By shaping your expense and travel policy around corporate credit cards, it makes the business expense process easier for your travelers, and ultimately for you.

Augment with automated, cloud-based expense solutions

Your expense and travel program can be even better with the addition of automated, cloud-based software solutions. Not only will an automated system make your process more streamlined, but you can integrate it with your corporate credit card program, giving you the visibility you need into employee spend and providing the reporting data needed to make sound business decisions. And, it makes the experience easier for employees. According to one SAP Concur user: "I love SAP Concur's ability to link up with my corporate credit card so that everything flows into Concur making the expense process such an easy process."

Solutions such as Concur Expense are not only automated, but also mobile. Employees can submit expenses directly from their phone while on the road, making expense reporting even more efficient (and accurate).