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Business Prepaid Cards: Businesses with No Access to CreditThursday, January 7, 2010For new businesses starting up, being able to pay for new equipment and services easily helps get things up and running more smoothly. But for new businesses getting a credit card is next to impossible unless the business owner personally guarantees the line. Bank debit cards are an option but companies don't generally like them as there is a direct link to cash in the bank, card balances are unsegregated and tap into a single pooled account balance, there is ATM and check access and you have to wait for statements to view a breakdown of spend per cardholder.
New businesses come to PEX Card all the time for our business prepaid debit card service because we provide an organized way of managing cash employees can use in a controlled environment. What's more, funds allocated to this account are kept separate from main operating funds and are laid out to provide visibility into what people are doing, while controlling misuse. PEX Card helps early stage companies avoid problems with misuse, other mistakes and helps minimize wasted time. Have a look at our demo for a close look. Thanks for reading! Labels: Business Process, Credit, expense management, Petty Cash Posted by Toffer Grant
0 comments General Spend Prepaid Cards: Ouch, That Smarts!Thursday, February 5, 2009We got a call from a business owner who found us via web search (we love to hear that!). He is currently using a general spend reloadable prepaid debit card product to manage petty cash. General spend cards service the "underserved" or "unbanked" community. Which means, they provide a card option for consumers who do not have a bank account and/or are unable to get a credit card. General spend cards are a bad option for business owners, here are a few reasons why:
On the flip side, we can help this business owner by offering him:
Labels: Petty Cash, PEX Experiences, reloadable prepaid debit cards Posted by Pamela Kozak
0 comments Reloadable Prepaid Debit Cards: Teen Cards Are For Teens!Wednesday, February 4, 2009Now that we have had an opportunity to talk to some small business owners on the phone, we are hearing their stories about trying to run their business using consumer reloadable prepaid debit cards. One of our new customers was using a teen card product. Teen cards are not for business spending. Here are a few limitations he discovered:
Labels: Petty Cash, PEX Experiences, reloadable prepaid debit cards Posted by Pamela Kozak
2 comments Entertainment Series: Tracking and controlling expensesThursday, January 8, 2009To stay on budget - and protect your margin - you need to track and control expenses. Unfortunately, it sounds easier than it often is.
There are lots of expenses that are easy to track - you probably have a stack of invoices to prove it. But, in entertainment, there are a lot of purchases and payments made in cash, which is much harder to track and verify. To deal with the cash problem you can do a few things. First, and most expensive, is to hire an account. This professional will be on location with you and will be in charge of all the financials, like petty cash and sales, and reconciliation. Second, you can use an accounting software package and track the expenses yourself (or designate someone you trust to be responsible for it). This can be time consuming and you need to stay on top of it, but you will have a thorough understanding of where every penny is going. Third, you can use a controllable corporate card. Whether you use credit or prepaid, like the PEX Visa Prepaid Card, it doesn't really matter. What you'll want to look for is a card that allows you to control how employees spend money - by merchant category and amount. The fastest way to implement changes is via an internet interface, so look for a company that is able to give you real-time capabilities - for making changes to an individual's spending rules or reporting. Once you know what you're spending and how that aligns with your budget, you'll know where you need to start controlling expenses. Maybe it's catering, maybe it's your PAs, or maybe something else. Each situation is different, so we can't spell it all out here, but think of a few ways you can try to rein-in these expenses. For catering maybe you can cut back on name brand sodas. For fuel, maybe you can get a lower grade. The most important thing is to make sure you recoup the excess funds from any petty cash purchase. You already know this, but that's where of lot of the slippage will be. If you like to see a demo of how PEX Card works, and how it might help your next production or tour, click here. Labels: Budgeting, expense management, Finance Tips, Petty Cash Posted by PEX Card
0 comments Event Marketers - Staying on Budget and Tracking ExpensesFriday, December 12, 2008Though your business is driven by your out-of-the-box ideas and your top-notch execution, don't let the accounting fall by the wayside. Customers are under pressure to stay in (or under) budget - and this is where you can really set yourself and your company apart.
Make sure your team has a clear understanding of what the budget is, how it is allocated and how expenses are going to be tracked. If your non-invoiced payments are usually executed with petty cash, be sure to have a system in place for collecting receipts, recouping excess funds, and accounting for it all (Quicken or Excel are both easy to use options for this). Centralizing petty cash with one person in charge is a must. If it's an event with many distinct departments consider giving each a petty cash fund and an officer to manage it. If you prefer not to have all that cash roaming around, and want to save yourself some time, trouble, and paperwork try using a controllable corporate card, like PEX Card. PEX Card allows you to set specific spending profiles to each cardholder. For example, one employee may be authorized to spend $100 per day at only retail stores, while another is authorized to spend up to $2,000 in any merchant category. At the end of the event you will not only be on budget, but you'll have a complete record of all spending. If you are able to stay on or under budget your clients will remember you as that fantastic event marketer with a head for numbers, and you'll be working with them again sometime soon. Click here if you'd like to see a demonstration of how PEX Card can you help control employee spending. Labels: Budgeting, Finance Tips, Petty Cash Posted by PEX Card
0 comments Petty Cash Dos and Don’tsThursday, November 13, 2008During Senator Lieberman’s last election campaign (click here for the article), he went through a reported $380,000 in petty cash. There’s nothing petty about hundreds of thousands of dollars. Where did that money go? While a successful political campaign might be able to just write it off as “petty cash” and move on, no business can function like that. And one quick Google search on “petty cash procedures” shows that no one else does. Lots of time and effort has been spent working on regulating and documenting the money flowing into and out of the petty cash drawer.
Here are some dos and don’ts that can help guide your petty cash system and procedures: Do make sure that all employees have access to needed incidental funds. Some employees might be in the position to need more petty cash than others, but all employees should know how to access it and be able to take out funds if the need arises. Don’t put all the responsibility of petty cash on one person. The petty cash system does need a custodian and someone to ensure that everything is working as intended. However, each employee should feel responsible for their petty cash transactions. Encouraging shared responsibility will help foster responsible spending and thorough documentation. Do decide on a set amount of petty cash. You can re-assess if this was too much or not enough. If you don’t want to deal with how many bills or how much change you need, consider a prepaid card system with a set amount in a bank account. Don’t let petty cash be used for everything. This fund is really meant for small, immediate purchases. Set limits to what does and doesn’t fit under petty cash. With careful documentation, you should be able to check and see where the petty cash money is going and discourage larger purchases through the petty cash system. Petty cash doesn’t have to be an undocumented mess, nor does it have to be a complicated burden. It just needs to have a clear purpose and straightforward process. Labels: Accounting, Budgeting, Petty Cash, Travel Expenses Posted by PEX Card
0 comments Petty Cash and SecurityMonday, November 10, 2008Typical problems regarding petty cash usually involve accurate documentation and security. If the records are incomplete or inaccurate, or the box is not properly secure, the petty cash is compromised and cannot be accounted for. This is when petty cash fails. However, with some safeguards in place, these issues can be minimized.
Tips for Accurate Documentation:
Tips for Security:
Labels: Accounting, Finance Tips, Petty Cash Posted by PEX Card
0 comments PEX Card User Review: Cyber-NYWednesday, October 22, 2008Small business owner, Michael Brown was one of the first to participate in the PEX Card private beta program. Over the last few months he has integrated the card program into his New York office, and will soon be incorporating it into his San Francisco office.
His firm, Cyber-NY, is a full service web design agency, employing designers, developers, and account managers. The needs and budgets of his employees differ, but PEX Card is helping him control spending while keeping business moving. Recently he sent us an email outlining some of the ways that PEX Card is helping him move business forward:
If you have a story about how you've put PEX Card to work in your business - send us a comment. Labels: Finance Tips, Petty Cash, PEX Card News Posted by PEX Card
1 comments Our StoryThe inspiration behind our company came from personal experience. At other jobs we saw spending control problems which included theft and misuse, inconvenient expense management processes and inefficient processes for managing checks and payments. This was very disruptive for our employers to deal with and the owners were uneasy about trusting employees. I saw an employee purchase a vacation for his mother, another buy personal clothing and yet another order furniture for their apartment. All on their company credit card. A friend recently told a story of an employee who wrote himself a check from the company's checkbook and cashed it! These stories are common among people who have worked in offices.
When doing our market research, we spoke with many business owners who said they don't issue cards to employees. Many believe that cards are convenient and would issue them to employees if there was a way to limit the risks. To solve this problem, we started PEX Card. Employees of customer companies can now carry a reloadable prepaid Visa® card with no spending ability until the employer funds the employee's card for authorized purchases. Every employee in our office has a card. Because the service segregates funds between our business account and cards, I know there won't be any surprises. When our marketing director needed to post a press release on the wires, I funded her card with $200; when we need office supplies, I load up our admin's card. It takes less than thirty seconds for me to login, add funds and log out. Because the service summarizes balances for me online at both the card and business level, if anything seems off, I can investigate immediately. My colleagues and I are prepaid card veterans. We took what we learned from our prepaid card experience, past work experiences and market research and created a product that delivers controlled card spending for SMBs. Toffer Grant, Founder Do you have similar experiences or thoughts about this? Share them by posting a comment! Labels: Accounting, Expense Fraud, Finance Tips, Petty Cash Posted by PEX Card
0 comments Petty Cash: Advantages, Disadvantages, and AlternativesMonday, October 13, 2008Petty cash funds have been around for a long time as a way to cut down on paperwork and make funds available. However, expenditures in the miscellaneous column make accounting a challenge. Is the petty cash box a help or a hindrance? And is there a better way to solve the small expenditure dilemma?
Petty Cash Advantages: Cuts down on paperwork Accessible to employees Understandable and familiar Disadvantages: Cuts down on accountability Subject to potential abuse Outdated and inefficient There are obviously good and bad aspects to the petty cash box. If there was a way to eliminate the disadvantages while keeping all the advantages, it would be an ideal way to deal with smaller business expenses. Fortunately, there is an alternative. Debit cards offer a more precise way of managing small expenses, because everything from lunch to a subway ride can be charged on a debit card. There is no need for cash to be lying around the office and there is an added level of accountability since there is exact information on who spent what and where. With a system like PEX Card, the finance team can see where company funds are going in real-time and allocate funds to employees as needed. Who needs a petty cash drawer when everyone takes VISA? Labels: Accounting, Petty Cash Posted by PEX Card
0 comments Petty Cash on LocationMonday, September 22, 2008On the road petty cash can be a burden. Large expenses can be approved and processed in a traditional fashion, whether it involves reimbursement, purchase order, or other means. Small incidental expenses are the ones that are difficult to predict, manage, and accurately record. While a petty cash box may work for a small company office, when your employees are on location, petty cash is arguably more necessary and definitely more difficult to keep track of. How can your business manage petty cash on location?
If you do want to have the standard petty cash box, be sure that it is a lock box and have a specific place where it will be. It helps if there are a few specific people that help keep track of the petty cash and help employees access it. The most important part is to require specific documentation each time money is used. Alternatively, you can have access to funds without petty cash. This can be done by issuing corporate cards. The benefit of such a system is that everyone who needs access can have their own card, the purchases are automatically documented, and money is safe yet available. Visa cards are accepted just about everywhere you would need to buy from—no matter where your location—and can be used for the small purchases that usually fall under petty cash without having to deal with cash. However you decide to deal with on location purchases, there needs to be a way to make funds available for both large and small purchases. While on the road, anything can happen and your operations must continue to run smoothly in order to achieve your goals. Labels: Petty Cash Posted by PEX Card
0 comments Petty CashMonday, August 11, 2008Cutting a check for $1 is a waste of company resources, which is why so many businesses use a petty cash drawer. For all those little but necessary expenses, this has been a fairly effective way of making cash available yet accounted for. And yet, the petty cash drawer can be an accountant’s nightmare. What do you attribute these miscellaneous expenses to in order to track and budget funds? What happens if the numbers don’t balance?
The current state of the petty cash drawer is inefficient and error-prone. Companies need to take the next step in petty cash, whether that means changing the system to be more reliable or getting rid of petty cash in favor a more useful solution. It’s all about finding what works best for your business and meets the needs of your employees in a convenient yet accountable way. Here are some articles that can give you ideas on how to make these ubiquitous drawers more efficient as well as alternatives to the petty cash status quo:
Labels: Accounting, Petty Cash Posted by PEX Card
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