The choice of means of payment is part of the daily decisions of all profiles and sizes of a company, but, for some reason, its management is little discussed in the corporate world.
We prepared this text to bring you important information about the main corporate payment methods available on the market, as well as interesting tips so that you have more tools to choose the best option for your company.
So that we’re all on the same page, let’s start with the basic definitions. Good reading!
What is the corporate payment?
When organizing the main responsibilities and financial expenses of a company, we are faced with these 3 main pillars: salaries, benefits, and corporate payments.
The definitions of the first two are already well established for everyone, but what about the third, what does it represent in practice?
Corporate payment is any expense made by the company or employee on behalf of the company, that is, performing some activity for the organization in which they work. This covers several areas and dynamics, such as:
- Purchase of office supplies and materials;
- Contracting suppliers;
- Stock replenishment;
- Corporate travel expenses, etc.;
Therefore, expenses with food (whether in an external appointment, travel, or lunch with clients), urban mobility, tickets, accommodation, etc.
We already know that the company has to pay. But how can this adjustment be made? We’ll start talking about that in the next topic.
What are the corporate payment methods?
Despite being more complex, the financial management of a company does not differ much from ours as an individual. We usually segment our expenses and define the best way to pay them, don’t we? Debit, credit in installments, automatic debit, bank slip, pix…we can choose the most appropriate way for each case. In the corporate world, it is also like that.
To define the best method for corporate payments for your management, it is necessary to understand a little more about each option available on the market – and that is exactly what we will do now.
Check out the selection of the 4 most relevant alternatives below and then a list of exclusive tips to make your decision.
Invoicing
This is a conventional corporate payment method that has been used for many years. Although very common in larger supplier expenses, it can also be used in corporate travel expenses. For example, a supplier sends an invoice detailing the purchase of plane tickets for the company to pay, as we do with a bank slip.
The main disadvantage of this alternative is bureaucracy. The process requires a lot of attention from managers to ensure safety and assertiveness, especially for a medium or large company. Imagine organizing, accounting, and keeping track of multiple invoices at the same time.
Corporate card
Compared to the previous alternative, a corporate card is an option that is much more coherent with the scenario in which companies are currently – that is, it is more modern.
This choice offers the convenience of several employees being able to buy and hire services simultaneously – mainly through the virtual card resource – and, at the end of the month, have all expenses centralized in a single invoice. That is, making it even simpler to verify and control corporate spending.
In addition, as with an individual, the use of a credit card offers exclusive benefits for bookings and installments that can be interesting for corporate travel management.
Refunds
Like billing, the expense reimbursement option is a classic in the corporate world. If this is the company’s choice, the employee will pay the expenses on his own, that is, with his resources, sending the notes and vouchers for the company to reimburse him later.
For the process to work well, all parties involved must be aligned with the current corporate travel policy. Otherwise, it can be very exhausting and unproductive in all aspects, including financially.
Advance
This is the least common option, but it can still be the most suitable for certain company profiles. The company approves a value in advance and makes this resource available to employees. These, in turn, will be able to use the advance following the guidelines of the corporate travel policy and compliance, without having to spend out of their pocket.
On the other hand, it is more difficult to audit the process and ensure that financial resources are being used in the best way since management does not have as much control.
One way to adopt this option while enjoying all the practicality without giving up control is to combine it with the use of a corporate travel management platform, for example. We will talk more about this in the next topic.
How to define the best option?
We have prepared 3 important tips for you to define which corporate payment methods to use and how to optimize financial management:
- It is essential to choose according to compliance and current legislation – and if you can be in tune with the corporate travel policy, even better.
- Practicality and safety should be the focus of the decision – study well what will work for your company, bringing good results for managers, employees, and the company’s financial health.
- Prioritize the option that best integrates the process as a whole – when financial management and corporate travel go hand in hand, everything becomes simpler. Did you know that there are platforms that centralize all steps, from planning to payment?
Here on our blog, you can learn a little more about the solution offered by India and how to transform the management of your company.
So, did you like this content?
As we said at the beginning of the article, the choice of corporate payment methods is a matter of extreme importance for the financial management of all types of companies, but little is discussed.
So, if you liked the information we brought, share it on your LinkedIn and help us to broaden the debate on the subject by taking it to more people 😉
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