Are Corporate Credit Cards A Good Idea?

Having corporate credit cards is very convenient and it
allows you to be able to offer them to your employees when
they travel for business. It is very important that you
establish rules for using them though or the expenses can
quickly get out of control. Corporate credit cards should
only be used for business related travel and expenses. All
personal expenses should be paid for another way.

It is unreasonable to expect your employees to pay for their
own transportation, hotel rooms, and food when they are
traveling for business. It can be a burden for them to pay
the expenses out of pocket even if you plan to reimburse
them for it later. The best solution is to offer them the
use of a corporate credit card to cover all of those
expenses. You will find plenty of different businesses will
offer discounts when you use a corporate credit card as
well.

Common hotel chains such as the Marriott, offer free nights
and discounts for those businesses that frequently stay with
them and pay with a corporate credit card. Find out about
these chain hotels so that you can pay less for rooms. The
more often that your employees have to travel for business,
the more money you will save being a part of such offers.

It is a good idea to try to schedule travel arrangements in
advance. This way your employees won't have to go over the
set limits you have established for a flight or a hotel room
while they are on business. While you want them to eat well
too, you do need to have a cap on either the amount per meal
or a daily limit they can charge. They really don't need to
eat three meals a day at the most expensive restaurants out
there, on your corporate credit card.

It isn't unusual for your employees to need a corporate
credit card to entertain prospective clients so be prepared
for this expense as well. You need to draw the line though
at what events they can use the credit card for. Most
employers are fine with a nice dinner out to discuss
business but concerts and other perks are generally
considered to be frivolous.

Keep a close eye on the statements coming in for corporate
credit cards though as you want to make sure they are only
being used for business related expenses. Have employees
keep their receipts as well in case you need to review any
of the charges that they incurred on the corporate credit
card.

Work with credit card companies that are business friendly
and that process of looking over the statements will be
easier. You don't want to have separate credit card accounts
for each employee but you don't want hours spent deciphering
charges either. There are plenty of ways the charges for
each corporate issued credit card can be tracked.

Corporate credit cards are a good idea as long as they are
used properly. Once they start being abused though it is
very difficult to get spending under control. Don't wait
until you have problems with corporate credit cards before
you establish clear policies about using them. It will save
you both time and money in the long run.

Robert Bain - Discover the the difference between typical small business credit and real corporate credit at this website.

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