MarginEdge Mastercard Card Targets Restaurant Petty Cash

Restaurant management and payments platform MarginEdge has launched a commercial card designed specifically for restaurants.

The new MarginEdge Commercial Charge Mastercard is now available as a physical card and will soon be offered in a digital version, the company said in a Wednesday (June 24) press release.

The card is purpose-built to replace the petty cash, shared cards and paper checks that restaurants often use for everyday expenses. It streamlines this ad hoc spending, gives restaurant operators greater control over purchases and visibility into spending, and is integrated with the MarginEdge platform, according to the release.

MarginEdge CEO Bo Davis said in the release that he has been using the card in his own restaurant, Wasabi, for months and has found that it solves the challenges of lost receipts, on-the-fly purchases and delayed reconciliation of card spend.

“The team can make purchases without worrying about receipts, and I can see what’s being spent in real time, which just wasn’t possible before,” Davis said. “Having all expenses in MarginEdge makes our cost control even stronger.”

The MarginEdge Commercial Charge Mastercard provides real-time visibility into every purchase, empowers employees to make necessary purchasing decisions, identifies spending patterns, flags out-of-policy purchases, and automatically connects purchases to MarginEdge workflows, according to the release.

In addition, cardholders can use the MarginEdge platform to issue new cards, cancel cards and set spend limits for team members. The ability to create a virtual card will be launched soon, per the release.

Mary Beth Livengood, executive vice president, corporate solutions, North America at Mastercard, said in the release that restaurant operators are looking for better ways to manage spending.

“By leveraging Mastercard’s network, MarginEdge is helping bring greater control and visibility into day-to-day payments for an industry that has traditionally relied on manual processes,” Livengood said.

The PYMNTS Intelligence and Mastercard collaboration “Ready for Change: Why Nearly Half of SMBs Want to Ditch Cash and Checks“ found that cash and checks still play an outsized role in the day-to-day operations of small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), especially for supplier and vendor payments, but many SMBs want simpler, more modern options that let them run their businesses with more control and fewer headaches.

The report found that business credit cards and modern digital payment methods offer better visibility into spending, more flexibility in timing and stronger protections that reduce operational risk.

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