Emburse Debuts Card to End Employee Out-of-Pocket Spending

U.K. spend optimization firm Emburse has debuted Emburse Cards, designed to eliminate the need for employees to spend money out of pocket.

“The cards also offer immediate visibility into spend, enabling more dynamic budget management and reducing the potential for fraud and overspend,” the London-based company said in a news release Tuesday (Oct. 25).

With the card, employees can handle upfront expenses instead of having to pay for them on their own cards and wait for their employees to reimburse them.

Emburse says its cards can be created within the company’s expense solution, “with new virtual cards available to be distributed and used in near-real-time.”

Administrators can set up granular spending controls based on a wide range of criteria, such as amount, time, date and merchant category code, per the release.

“This ensures spend policy compliance at the point of purchase, unlike personal or traditional corporate cards which require expense claims to be submitted before being verified,” the news release said.

PYMNTS spoke with Emburse CEO Eric Friedrichsen about the way decentralized workforces have made spend management solutions a much bigger priority for businesses looking to get a handle on cash flow.

Read more: Decentralized Workforces Require Specialized Spend Management Solutions

First driven by the pandemic, when companies hired people in different locations and existing employees moved to remote locations, the remote workforce is now strengthened by companies’ desire to attract and retain employees.

“Now organizations are trying to figure out, ‘How do I manage all that?’” Friedrichsen told PYMNTS.

Among the challenges are making sure they’re in compliance, managing spend and negotiating with suppliers in the right way — all while offering a user-friendly experience for employees who spend money on behalf of the company from their home offices.

“There’s been a lot of innovation around both technology and around corporate cards that has just made it so that we can actually facilitate and help organizations in those kinds of environments,” Friedrichsen said.

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