Managing your company’s credit cards
If several of your employees have a company credit card that they use to pay business expenses, it is important that you implement an adequate system to track those expenses and to enter them on the accounting program regularly. Very often people lose receipts and then there is additional work when the credit card statement arrives or at month end.
We have talked before about how important it is for your business to be organized, particularly in regards to bookkeeping tasks. If you implement the adequate routines and systems in your company, not only will it save you time and money but it will also give you the peace of mind you need to dedicate yourself to your business’s important matters.
At Preferred Client Services we have had the opportunity to help some of our clients get on track with their credit card management. We thought we would share some of our tips.
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Do not allow the transactions to pile up. Depending on the number of credit cards your company has and how often they are used, block a suitable amount of time each week to post the previous week’s charges. Instruct your staff to hand in all the receipts and expense explanations at least on a weekly basis.
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You can opt for entering all single transactions on your accounting software or keep a tracking spreadsheet for each type of expense and then just post a summary. However, it is important to keep a complete and organized list of all the transactions and corresponding receipts, so that when your statement comes in, reconciling becomes a simple, easy and quick matching task.
Having a good credit card management system in place has other benefits as well.
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You can keep your sales team in line by requesting receipts each week.
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Although credit card issuers are required, by law, to send your monthly credit card statement at least 21 days before your minimum payment is due, having updated and accurate expenses tracked daily or weekly will allow you to calculate your credit card payable amount earlier, thus, giving you more time to review and manage your cash flow.