Companies deal with different types of expenses. Think of invoices from regular suppliers and recurring contracts. But there are also other expenses, such as one-off and online payments. Many companies use virtual business credit cards for these, alongside their existing payment processes. ICS offers this solution as part of ICS Payment Control. In this article, we explain the four biggest benefits of this payment method.
At many organisations, employees pay for expenses out of pocket with their own Card. That costs time: employees have to claim the costs back, and the finance team then has to process the payment manually.
A virtual business credit card solves this. It’s a digital Card number with an expiry date and a CVC code. You link this number to a central Virtual Card Account for your organisation, and create a virtual credit card for a specific expense, a fixed budget, a project or a set supplier.
When you create a virtual credit card, you set conditions straight away, such as:
All transactions land in your organisation’s central Virtual Card Account, where they're immediately visible to the finance team. Curious how this compares to a physical Card? Read more in our comparison of virtual and physical credit cards.
Many companies have their procurement processes well organised for fixed and recurring expenses, with regular suppliers, pre-approved contracts and clear agreements on pricing and invoicing. For this type of expense, that structured approach usually works fine.
At the same time, there are also costs that fall outside this, such as a one-off purchase, an online service or a supplier without a contract. In these situations, you often have to process invoices manually. You often only see who spent what after the fact, so corrections pile up and the risk of errors grows.
Virtual business credit cards help make this type of expense easier to organise, without having to change your existing procurement process.
You set up and process payments in a new way, which brings the main benefits: more visibility, less manual work and better control over business expenses.
With a virtual business credit card, an employee pays directly at the moment of purchase. There’s no more paying out of pocket or claiming costs back, and no need to request an advance and settle it afterwards either. The payment appears immediately in your organisation’s central account, with the details you set in advance automatically attached.
This is particularly useful for expenses outside your standard procurement process. Right now, employees often pay out of pocket for these, request an advance, pay by bank transfer or borrow a colleague’s credit card. Think of:
This lets employees move faster, and gives your finance team less manual work.
You have to process, check and pay every separate invoice. With many small or one-off suppliers, that takes up a relatively large amount of time. With virtual business credit cards, you record payments centrally, with the details already known in advance, and you also set up fewer new suppliers for small or one-off amounts.
That means:
Don’t have an automatic connection to your financial systems, such as your accounting system, ERP system or expense management system? Even then, this saves time. When you create the virtual credit card, you already record details such as cost centre, project or employee, and that information travels automatically with the transaction. This means there’s nothing left to enter or correct manually afterwards.
You set up a virtual business credit card for a specific expense, supplier, project or temporary budget. This limits the risk of unwanted use.
For example, you can set up a virtual credit card so it:
This gives you extra control, even when multiple employees make purchases on behalf of your organisation.
When you create a virtual business credit card, you add details straight away, such as:
You record these details together with the transaction. With Mastercard Smart Data Connect, you forward them automatically to your accounting system, expense management system or ERP system. If you don't have an integration, you export them to Excel. Either way, you immediately know who made which expense and why, without having to work it out afterwards. This saves your finance team a lot of time.
Virtual business credit cards are a good fit for organisations that:
They complement existing payment methods, such as physical business credit cards and invoice payment. They also fit in with your organisation's existing payment and procurement processes.
Curious when best to use virtual business credit cards? Read more about the practical applications.
ICS calls virtual credit cards Virtual Cards, part of ICS Payment Control. You link Virtual Cards to a central Virtual Card Account and set them up according to your organisation’s policy.
You decide how far to take it, from a simple setup with no data integration to full automation, depending on how you've organised your financial processes. You can choose to:
This way, the solution fits exactly with how you already work, without having to change anything.
Want to know if Virtual Cards are the right fit for your organisation? Get in touch (link in Dutch). We’re happy to think it through with you.
We have put together the answers to the questions we hear most often. Don't see your question listed? Feel free to get in touch (link in Dutch). We're happy to help.
