Business
Prepaid expense card: the best option for managing your franchise’s expenses
If you own a franchise, it’s likely you’ve come up against many of the challenges that afflict the industry when it comes to managing expenses. You may not have considered using a prepaid expense card, but we’ll show you why this option makes more sense to franchisees than the traditional corporate credit card.
There are over 44,000 franchises in the UK, representing an industry that is worth over £15 billion a year. While most are profitable, buying a franchise can be a steep learning curve, as you suddenly acquire a fully-formed business, and need to hit the ground running (and stay running).
Eliminating some key risks – chiefly those that involve expenses – can not only considerably reduce stress, but can help you save money. This is where the prepaid expense card comes into play.
Reduce your personal liability as a franchisee
As a franchisee, it’s likely that you’ve taken on a degree of debt in order to buy your franchise – or, at the very least, you’ve invested a lot of personal capital. If you are using a corporate credit card, then you (or your authorising officer) can be held personally liable should the business have insufficient funds to pay your credit card bill.
Using a prepaid expense card like Soldo Business, instead of a credit card for your franchise means that you only use the money you have right here, right now, for those all important expenses.
Debt has its place, and without it, it would be almost impossible for most business owners to set up shop. But debt should be kept in its place – reserved for big purchases (such as when you bought the franchise itself), and avoided in other areas.
The key thing is that when you apply for a prepaid expense card for your franchise, you don’t need to undergo a credit check. Banks don’t let you open a business bank account with no credit check, but there are no credit checks when you apply for Soldo, so you’re not at a disadvantage if you’re a new business or a sole trader.
A prepaid expense card is not subject to banks’ whims
Financial forums abound with tales of credit card limits suddenly reduced (significantly) with very little notice given to consumers or businesses. Whether you’re a new franchisee working hard to reach profitability, or a seasoned player with a stable growth plan, you cannot afford to leave your expenses at the mercy of capricious banks.
With a prepaid expense card, you alone have control over how much is spent, and when. The bank has no say in the matter, so it’s more predictable. If you use a credit card, on the other hand, you may one day find that your whole operation grounds to a halt because vital purposes become an impossibility.
A prepaid expense card encourages sensible business spending
Buy-now-pay-later is as tempting for businesses as it is for consumers. For both alike, credit cards can be the only way of funding key big-ticket purchases.
But once these large buys have been transacted, a prepaid expense card will help you reign in on other expenses. You will think carefully before every purchase, and plan ahead to make sure that your franchise can definitely afford something at a specific given moment.
This is to say nothing of the fact that allocating a prepaid expense card to those employees who needs one, will give you an unprecedented ability to control their spending.
Soldo Business allows you to set bespoke budgets, limits and rules to suit each employee’s needs (and trust levels) to perfection. You can also allow or prevent online transactions, cash withdrawals or overseas use; and lock or unlock the card instantly with a single click.
Don’t pay through the neck for your franchise expenses
Credit card interest rates, especially after the first year or so, can be highly unfavourable for a franchise. And if you accidentally exceed your limit, or are late in paying the bill, you could be hit with high and unexpected fees – the last thing you need when you’re trying to grow your franchise.
Choosing a prepaid expense card like Soldo Business for your franchise means that any fees will be simple, transparent and reasonable. You’re paying for a specific and useful service; one that comes with indispensable features that UK credit cards lack (see below). But once you’ve paid the fees, that’s all there is to it – no unexpected red letters waiting to shock you when you least expect it.
From petty cash to big buys – fund everything, and stay in control
Particularly if you have multiple franchises, each with its own local manager, you will be familiar with the need for funding petty cash kitties. Cash brings problems of its own – mostly in the areas of tracking and controlling.
A prepaid expense card eliminates the need for cash advances, floats and kitties alike. Just allocate one to any of your employees who need to make purchases in the course of their work.
The right prepaid expense card will do more than fund your franchise’s petty cash expenses. If there’s an emergency that requires an immediate purchase, or a one-off event with its own costs (such as travel/hotels), you can transfer the money to the relevant employee’s virtual wallet instantly with Soldo Business. You’ll have the perfect mix of flexibility and total control over your expenses.
Give a prepaid expense card to junior (or new) employees with confidence
Not everyone in your business can be entrusted with a piece of plastic that gives access to the company’s credit allowance (or current account, in the case of debit cards).
Giving credit or debit cards to junior employees, or new recruits whose trust levels you haven’t yet been able to assess, is a risky business.
But what if a payment card is essential to your junior employees’ work?
Using a prepaid expense card will enable you to fund junior and new employees’ business expenses with total piece of mind. Using Soldo Business for your franchise means you can tailor everyone’s budgets appropriately, and track their spending in real time.
Stop wasting time and money on tedious expense reports
You’re a franchisee – responsible for the health of the entire business. According to the British Franchising Association, 97% of franchisee-owned units are profitable.
But how do you make sure that you’re one of them? How about moving from ‘profitable’ to ‘very profitable’?
To be able to focus on your core business – on growing it and perhaps taking on other franchises, you need to reduce the time spent on operational procedures. Not only are operational hours often unnecessary in a world of high tech, but they are costly in terms of salaries and processes that ought to be obsolete.
Soldo Business, the multi-user spending account for business, puts an end to tedious expense reports, frantic searches for lost receipts, and forgotten information.
Complete with Mastercard® prepaid expense cards, an app for employees, and effortless reporting everything is firmly (and easily) under your control, thanks to Soldo’s intuitive admin dashboard.
With the Soldo Business app, your employees become active contributors to the expense reconciliation process – effortlessly adding receipts, notes and tags to each transaction.
At the end of the expense cycle, a couple of clicks is all it takes to generate a report that exports seamlessly into all the major accounting systems – job done.
