How Can Corporate Cards Eradicate Expense Fraud?

Most of the employees are frustrated by the expense reporting process; they spend money out-of-pocket and claiming back involves stapling a receipt to spreadsheet, getting authorization from manager and posting it off to head office. Certainly, this process involves paperwork and would lead to potential errors and expense fraud.

Expense fraud is one of the common ways of cheating employers. Adding a few extra miles, getting an extra receipt, and reporting the same expenses are some of the common ways of committing fraud. Validating and verifying expenses is difficult and is significantly costing companies more, if there are no proper methods in place.

Companies want to gain visibility into employee spending. The numbers will add up quickly, and clumsy expense reporting process can have more impact on the bottom line. Having a clear expense policy by defining the limits for line items such as flights or hotels can help manage expenses clearly. Providing corporate credit cards to employees can help reconcile transactions easily.

How do corporate cards work?

Corporate cards pre-sets spending limit as per the company policy, and gives complete control over employee expenses on the road. Corporate cards offer greater insight into spending by defining merchant codes or time limits. With corporate cards, spending can be monitored in real-time, so irregular spending patterns can be quickly identified and the cards can be canceled. Automating reimbursements through expense report software enables employees to directly import corporate card transactions to the expense report.

Mobile payments eliminate fraud

Mobile payments require biometric confirmation such as fingerprint or face ID. The most secure solution is the virtual card, the digital online purchase process that links back to a single account. Virtual cards will work the same way as physical cards, but with targeted limits such as spending limits for expense categories.

Moreover, virtual cards can be easily linked to back-office systems and cannot be stolen or used for other purchases except for the one they are intended for. This makes the whole process secure as the data is available on the cloud, so you can see what’s being spent and where the spending is happening. You don’t have to carry a card or cash, the virtual cards can be pushed to a mobile device, so employees can use whenever required.