Corporate Card Players Embrace Collaboration To Drive Value

The corporate card industry continues to dig its heels into adoption efforts with the launch of new products and features designed to elevate the value of the card beyond a mere means of payment. This week’s look at commercial card innovation finds industry players embracing collaboration to streamline accounting, widen acceptance, and connect business card holders to a range of third-party services.

Employees Lack Access To Corporate Cards

A new survey from B2B FinTech Center has revealed that employees often have to front the bill for their employers when making business purchases. In its Business Spender Sentiment Survey, Center polled more than 500 professionals and found more than 70 percent of them reveal having to use their personal credit cards for work expenses. In a statement, Center CEO and Co-Founder Naveen Singh said that, despite CFOs’ and other finance leaders’ assumptions that employees like to use their personal cards to take advantage of rewards programs, the survey revealed that many professionals are in fact burdened by this expense strategy. While 80 percent agreed that it is beneficial to use personal cards for work expenses, only 52 percent said it is reasonable for employers to ask employees to use their personal cards and wait for reimbursement.

WEX Links MYOB Users To Card Payments

Business users of accounting platform MYOB in Australia will now have integrated access to commercial card services from WEX, the companies revealed in an announcement this week. Companies will be able to pay their suppliers from within the MYOB platform using WEX virtual card technology, with WEX facilitating the transaction even when suppliers don’t accept cards. MYOB General Manager of Financial Services Andrew Baines said in a statement that the connectivity aims to strengthen cash flow for businesses by providing greater choice in payment options.

Plastiq Loops Into QuickBooks

Plastiq, a business payments platform that enables companies to adopt corporate cards, this week announced an integration into QuickBooks. The company’s connectivity allows firms to connect invoice data within QuickBooks, pay the invoice and then automatically add that transaction data into QuickBooks as well. In a statement, CEO and Co-Founder Eliot Buchanan said the data integration aims to save businesses valuable time by cutting down the need for manual entry.

Conferma Pay, NTT DATA Pair On Hotel Virtual Cards

For all of the benefits of the virtual card, whoever is on the receiving end of the transaction can face plenty of hurdles, not least of all the challenge of manually collecting and inputting card data. A new partnership between Conferma Pay and NTT DATA aims to address that challenge for hotels, facilitating the movement of virtual card information to the recipient in an integrated and digital manner. The companies are providing hotel firms with an online platform that delivers virtual card information, replacing outdated processes like faxing.

TravelCenters Of America Keeps FLEETCOR Deal

TravelCenters of America has expanded an existing agreement with corporate payments technology company FLEETCOR, enabling TravelCenters of America to continue accepting FLEETCOR Comdata fleet cards at its various travel centers. The extended arrangement also means TravelCenters of America will begin to accept FLEETCOR fleet fuel cards as well at various locations.

SpendHub Talks Value-Added Corporate Cards

As the commercial card arena continues on its path to drive adoption in areas of the enterprise beyond employee expenses, solution providers have found that value-added benefits and features are now a must to entice businesses to use their solutions. In a recent conversation with PYMNTS, SpendHub Co-Founder Ashkan Rajaee highlighted the variety of these value-added services, with businesses increasingly demanding spend management and control as key features. Other opportunities include rewards and points programs, as well as perks like access to software solutions.