Business credit cards can save a lot of time in managing your business. Here are some ways in which having a business credit card can help you.

Many businesses spend a lot of time on writing cheques to pay suppliers. Using a credit card to pay for business expenses will reduce this time considerably. It also means that business owners do not have to carry cheque books around and can keep less cash in the office. This is a good security feature.

Streamlining Accounts

The accounts departments of many businesses also spend a lot of time rationalising and paying employees' expenses claims. Since a business credit card account allows business owners to issue multiple account cards to employees, these can be used to cut down on that time. Some of the tasks that employees can fund with their business credit cards include:

· corporate hospitality (entertaining business clients)
· getting foreign exchange when travelling on business
· paying for hotels, car hire and meals
· buying products or services for the business

Employees no longer have to worry about paying for expenses up front and then waiting for weeks before being paid back. They can also spend the time they would have used on filling out expense claims forms on doing other, more profitable tasks. Employers are able to track employees' expenses and do not have to spend company time on processing expense claims and foreign exchange requests.

Credit Control

Business credit cards give employers firm control over company spending. They can often set individual spending limits for each credit card issued on the company account. Best of all, business credit cards accounts have detailed reporting that will help business owners know exactly where their company's money is going.

Once a month, business owners get a detailed statement which shows:

· money spent on the business account
· each individual transaction
· which card it was spent on

Many card issuers also offer segmented tracking, so that expenditure can be put into different categories, such as 'travel' or 'entertainment'. At the end of the year, business owners will get a management report with a breakdown of all expenditure. This type of information is useful not just for tracking, but also for planning future spending.

Keeping Track Of Cash Flow

There are also cash flow benefits. Most business credit cards offer an interest-free period of up to 56 days. This means business owners can put supplies or services on the business account without worrying about finding the money immediately. Paying by business credit card can also bring large discounts, providing another major benefit for business owners.

Business Card Incentives

Finally, business owners can benefit from the range of discounts and upgrades available to business credit card holders.

These can include:

· discounts on hotel bookings
· discounts on car hire
· emergency travel assistance
· breakdown cover
· help with itineraries and bookings
· upgrades to seats and airport lounges
· air miles or other travel rewards
· travel insurance
· other reward points

All of these advantages are powerful reasons to have a business credit card.