Bento For Business

4 ways prepaid cards can grow your business

How prepaid cards can grow your business?

 

Professional Services have needs for many different payment options  (T&E cards, Purchasing cards, ACH, Wires, Subscription cards, Prepaid cards etc.) but managing and reconciling can be a nightmare.

Using a check approval process wouldn’t give you the flexibility you need and lending out traditional credit cards is not ideal either. Both methods have limitations and can cause problems, however. Bento can consolidate and simplify all your expenses in one easy to use interface with reporting tools.

Choosing right prepaid cards may offer more benefits than either writing checks or allowing employees to use business credit cards.

The cards are prepaid, so approval does not depend on your credit. The cards can be used anywhere that accepts credit cards, and the information from them is sent electronically directly to the bank account to which they are linked so that the data can be readily accessed by you.

How are prepaid cards useful to Professional Services?

 

  • Companies with heavy T&E expenses give T&E specific virtual cards to employees and booking agents to track expenses and enforce expense policies upfront. Our virtual cards make managing multiple projects easy. Keep tabs on your budgets. Use a separate virtual card for each client, market, or campaign for better tracking. Our built-in controls prevent accidental overspend.
  • Bento makes employee per-diems and meal allocations easy to implement and track. Prepaid cards can be turned on/off as needed with a click. Bento replaces the notion of petty cash with petty cash cards. This leaves CFO’s available to focus on projects at hand.
  • Paying invoices have become so easy. Bento Pay and Bento ACH make invoice payments easy while providing enterprise-level security.
  • Prepaid cards help you manage procurement, travel, and entertainment expenses. Set controls for merchant category, spending amount, and days of the week. Our customers report an average of 14% savings in the first month of use—more valuable than anyone else’s points. You may find that you can eliminate expense reports, too, because Bento for Business stores your receipts. Everything syncs with your accounting system. You save time and get better information to run your business.

Why are prepaid cards a better solution than credit cards?

 

Credit cards generally have several limitations that make them less attractive for businesses. While the National Small Business Association reports that 10% of the businesses that they surveyed were in the Professional Services industry, it can be difficult for many small company owners to gain approval for business credit cards.

Many business credit cards charge high rates of interest and high annual fees. In order to qualify for them, you must have good credit, and your business must have been operating for a substantial period of time.

Debit cards are a better solution because:

  • You can limit the spending amounts and the categories of spending that can be completed.
  • Since they are not credit cards, your credit won’t matter for approval.
  • You also won’t be charged interest on the balance on your cards since it is your own money.
  • You can get cards for each of your employees that need them and limit the amounts that they can spend on a daily or weekly basis, and you can control the spending limits on each card yourself.

When should you start looking into prepaid cards solutions?

 

When you run a business, there are often high capital outlays. This can make it difficult to keep your expenses under control. Controlling your expenses with prepaid debit cards for businesses earlier in the process is a good idea. This can help you to prevent waste so that you can get the expenses under control.

Bento can be used to meet your needs and regardless of how you choose to use Bento you will be protected from unauthorized spending, have real-time visibility of cash flow, and have innovative reporting tools.

You save money, time, and hassles. All of that can be invested in your business so that you can help your clients tell their stories. Check how other Professional Services use Bento here.