As an accountant, you know how tedious and time-consuming it can be to collect expense reports and reconcile credit card expenses.
What if there was a solution that could reduce the time it took for employees to submit expenses, and automatically reconcile them with credit card statements?
Real-time credit card feeds enable all of this, and they’re finally here.
What Are Real-Time Feeds and How Are They Different From Direct Bank Feeds and Statement Uploads?
Real-time credit card feeds are card transaction data received directly from credit card networks like Visa and Mastercard, without depending on the issuing bank. This data is received as soon as a transaction happens, and can then be used to track and control spending, reconcile card transactions without any manual effort, track budgets, and identify fraudulent transactions.
Direct bank feeds connect to your bank account to import transactions into your accounting software at regular intervals, such as daily, weekly, or monthly depending on your card program. The problem with bank feeds is that they are often not available for SMB customers, and when they are, they’re not real-time. The lag of a week or month means the reconciliation process also follows the weekly or monthly schedule, instead of happening instantly.
Statement upload is the process of manually uploading credit card statements into your expense management software (EMS) when it's made available by the bank. Accountants don't prefer statement uploads as the gap between when the transaction is made and when the bank provides the statement leads to delayed reconciliations, incomplete financial insights, and increased errors, like mismatched receipts, missing transactions, and incorrect categorization. They also need the owner's banking credentials and MFA codes to access accounts which can be time-consuming.
Why Choose Real-Time Credit Card Feeds Over Direct Bank Feeds and Statement Uploads?
Direct bank feeds and statement uploads lead to many challenges, such as a lag in financial reporting, delayed reconciliation, and missed opportunities to optimize spending or curb fraudulent transactions.
Real-time credit card feeds can help businesses overcome these challenges by providing up-to-date information, automating reconciliation, and helping to detect fraud more quickly.
Here’s a quick breakdown of how real-time credit card feeds are more beneficial to your business than direct bank feeds and statement uploads.
How Fyle Is Different From Other Expense Management Solutions
Fyle is a comprehensive expense management software that goes beyond other expense management solutions. We integrate directly with Visa and Mastercard to bring real-time feeds on your existing business credit cards, so you don’t have to depend on your bank or card program.
Why Fyle’s real-time feeds is the best way to manage card expenses
- Instant text notifications on card spend: Employees receive text notifications as soon as a transaction is made, often while they are at the PoS with the receipt in their hand. They can reply to the SMS with a picture of the receipt, and Fyle matches it to the correct card transaction automatically. Businesses saw a 48.7% jump in timely receipt submissions with instant text notifications!
- Automated reconciliations without manual intervention: Since Fyle has real-time feeds for all Visa and Mastercard business cards, transaction data is reconciled with receipt data within seconds of being uploaded by the user. What took days with direct bank feeds can now be done in less than 2 minutes with Fyle.
- AI-enabled expense coding and integrations: Fyle's AI-powered engine instantly codes card transaction information, reconciles it, and pushes the data to your accounting software like NetSuite, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, or Xero. This reduces a ton of manual work and simplifies the reconciliation process.
- Real-time policy checks: Fyle instantly detects and notifies accountants of fraudulent card spend with real-time policy checks, making it easier to curb unauthorized spend.
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In Conclusion
Bank feeds and statement uploads are archaic. Fyle’s real-time credit card feeds are the future of expense management for accountants that doesn't force you to change your cards or how you work.
