Are Corporate Credit Cards A Good Idea?
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Are Corporate Credit Cards A Good Idea?
By: Robert Bain

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.

The most common types of business related expenses that an employee may experience include transportation, accommodations, and meals. It is a good idea to get corporate credit cards that offer frequent flier miles as this will allow your business to get some of the travel needs covered for free. Many rental car companies offer discounts if you use a particular type of credit card as well.

Look for airlines that offer frequent flier miles, rental car facilities that offer discounts, and hotels that have rewards programs. The less money you have to spend on travel expenses the more profits your company will make. You will be surprised at how quickly those types of savings can increase over the course of a fiscal year for you.

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.

Placing limits on corporate credit cards is a good idea from the very beginning. While most employees will be very responsible with them, not all of them will have the same good judgment. Since they use their personal credit cards as they wish, they may think the same circumstances apply when you offer them one. While business travel expenses are part of doing business you want them to be reasonable.

 

Article Source: http://www.articles4free.com

Robert Bain writes about how to build corporate credit the smart way, and avoid the common small business financing disasters.

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