PEX Card and Tallie have combined the Tallie expensemanagement system with the PEX prepaid Visa Card to offer a corporate prepaidcard that companies can use to manage employee expenses, the companies announced.
Administrators can provision fundsfor cards instantaneously at the time of need (i.e., card balances can be setto zero while unused to limit unauthorized use and minimize company risk andfunds can be deployed instantaneously to the person’s card at the point ofpurchase). Charges are posted immediately to the website for immediatevisibility, can then be easily accounted for and matched with receipts andnotes, and checked for duplicates in Tallie. The integration allows for adirect, real-time feed of PEX Visa Prepaid Card transaction data into Tallieand ultimately a company’s accounting system.
Prepaid has been touted as a tool for corporate expensemanagement, but questions of budgeting and control have slowed down itsadoption. For example, it is not always easy to know how much money to loadonto a card before expenses are incurred. If the Tallie system can provide forreal-time loading and adjustments, then it may overcome some of the resistanceto using prepaid. Prepaid does offer the ability to manage cash flow closely.However, credit cards will still be a strong competitor because companies maynot always have the cash on hand to load to a card, and credit card rewards mayincent the use of credit over prepaid.
Overview by Ben Jackson, Director, Prepaid Advisory Service for Mercator Advisory Group
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