How Spend Tools Feed Food Banks’ Need For Accountability

Every dollar matters for a small to medium-sized business (SMB). Recent data indicated that 82 percent of SMBs shutter in their first year because of poor cash management operations. Due to a lack of strong financial buffers like their larger counterparts, it is essential that SMBs make every dollar count to ensure that funds do not get wasted.

As SMBs seek opportunities to expand their operations, and reach new customers and markets, they will need the right spend and workforce tools to ensure funds are spent appropriately. This demand is driving the global expense management software market to reach $6.6 billion in value by 2025. The new Workforce Spend Playbook highlights the newest solutions helping SMBs to more effectively manage their capital, and focus on their expansion ambitions.

Inside The Playbook

Many card-based solutions have recently debuted, aimed at helping businesses to more easily track expenses, and gain insights into how company funds are spent in the field.

One such solution was released by ScaleFactor, a provider of business accounting services. The company’s new commercial card is designed to help SMBs more effectively manage their expense workflows, and can be used by managers to issue either physical, temporary or virtual cards to employees. The solution also allows managers to set limits on how much money can be spent with the cards, and cancel or freeze them at any time, if necessary.

Yordex, a U.K.-based FinTech, recently added a new corporate card to its portfolio of solutions. The company claims its cards can reduce expense management costs by as much as 60 percent to 70 percent, and enables managers to add controls to the cards. Yordex offers virtual cards as well, which can be used to manage online business expenses, such as recurring subscription charges.

A financial services newcomer is also offering new features to SMBs to help these companies transition away from paper-based practices. Tide, a digital banking solutions provider, issued several updates intended to help SMBs use optical character recognition (OCR) to automatically match receipts with individual transactions. In addition, the solution allows users to download attachments, and helps SMBs to better understand the state of their financials.

Spend Tools To Win The ‘Game Of Keystrokes’

The mission of some nonprofits is to ensure that those in need have access to warm, nutritious meals. These organizations face increased demand during the holidays — when they deliver food to communities in need. Among the nonprofits working to feed local communities this holiday season is the The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB), which provides food services to 190 cities and towns in the eastern Massachusetts region.

In the Playbook’s feature story, GBFB’s Chief Financial Officer David Noymer explains how spend and fuel cards help the organization focus on its mission, and win the “game of keystrokes.”

Deep Dive: How Spend Tools Keep Nonprofits Focused

SMBs have a lot in common with nonprofit organizations when it comes to spending. Both groups need to carefully keep track of their funds, and ensure that their organizations’ money is being spent appropriately.

The Playbook’s Deep Dive looks at how spend management solutions are enabling approximately 1.56 million nonprofits in the U.S. to track spending, pinpoint savings opportunities and follow important regulations.

About The Playbook

The new Workforce Spend Playbook, a PYMNTS and Bento for Business collaboration, showcases the shifting landscape of spend management solutions, and how improved services are affecting SMBs’ in-field expense management, back-office operations and bottom lines.