Why Your Business Needs Petty Cash Cards

Companies rely on petty cash for its flexibility to cover smaller expenses. However, the tedious manual processes are often overlooked:

• Managing a physical safe
• Maintaining vouchers and documents
• Assigning a custodian
• Reconciling transactions manually 

As your company grows, tracking and controlling each transaction becomes more challenging, leading to unaccounted-for cash and information gaps.

You find yourself buried in a messy petty cash process—chasing down missing receipts, dealing with stacks of vouchers, and struggling with delayed approvals. 

Monthly reconciliations become a nightmare, with incomplete records and unexplained discrepancies, leaving you vulnerable to financial blind spots and accountability issues.

Switching to a solution like petty cash cards eliminates manual processes and reduces the risk of financial discrepancies. 

In this blog post, we'll explore if it's worth transitioning to petty cash cards and see how they work and their key functionalities.

What is a Petty Cash Card?

A petty cash card is a physical/virtual card specifically designed to replace traditional petty cash systems. 

Instead of managing a physical cash fund, companies issue these cards to employees for small, everyday expenses. The card is pre-loaded with a set budget, allowing for controlled and monitored spending.

Each transaction made with the card is automatically recorded, providing real-time visibility and eliminating the need for manual record-keeping, receipts, and reconciliation processes.

How Does a Petty Cash Card Replace Traditional Petty Cash?

The traditional petty cash management process is manual and tedious. 

A small cash fund is maintained by a custodian, who issues handwritten vouchers for each transaction. Employees line up to request cash for minor expenses, and the custodian meticulously logs every detail in a ledger. 

While this method works, it is time-consuming, prone to errors, and lacks transparency. Reconciliation at the end of the month becomes a headache, with missing receipts, unaccounted-for cash, and questions about who spent what and why.

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With petty cash cards, instead of dealing with physical cash and manual records, employees use their assigned cards for approved purchases. Each transaction is automatically recorded, providing real-time visibility and control. The need for tedious petty cash reconciliation processes reduces, as all expenses are recorded digitally and can be tracked down instantly.

So, you not only gain efficiency but also enhance financial security and oversight, ensuring that every dollar spent is accounted for and authorized. 

Why is a Petty Cash Card a Better Alternative?

Managing petty cash is a hassle, with manual tracking, paper receipts, and limited oversight making it prone to errors and inefficiencies. 

Pluto’s petty cash cards offer a modern solution that not only simplifies petty cash management but also enhances control and transparency at every step.

Here's a closer look at how Pluto’s petty cash cards streamline petty cash management. 

Unlimited Virtual and Physical Cards

Pluto allows you to issue unlimited physical and virtual cards. This means that each employee or department can have their own dedicated card, eliminating the need for shared cards and reducing the risk of mismanagement. 

Each card transaction is automatically recorded in real time, providing precise tracking of expenses by allowing you to monitor who is spending, what they’re spending on, where the purchase is made, and when it occurs.

“Rather than waiting until the end of the week to collect enough receipts, you can actually see the money as it goes.”

~ Christopher Anthony, Global Business Controller, Platinum Heritage

Budget Controls

Pluto enables you to set up specific policies and categorize spending limits for each card. 

For instance, you can designate a card exclusively for fuel purchases, with a monthly budget capped at AED 5,000.

This precise enforcement of petty cash policies ensures that employees can only spend within the specified categories, effectively preventing unauthorized or excessive use of funds. 

WhatsApp Receipt Capture

Pluto simplifies invoice capture with its WhatsApp receipt upload feature, where employees can quickly snap a picture of their receipt and send it through WhatsApp. 

Pluto's optical character recognition (OCR) technology automatically extracts and logs the relevant details into the system. This eliminates the need for manual entry, reduces human error, and ensures that all expenses are accurately recorded almost instantly. 

The ease of uploading receipts via a familiar platform like WhatsApp encourages timely submission, improving overall financial reporting.

“The beauty in one part that I was amazed about Pluto, in terms of your technology, was your whole integration with WhatsApp and the ease of how easy it was to swipe, make a payment, take a picture, upload it via WhatsApp, and it's there on the platform for approval.”

~ Lee Kersen Mascarenhas, Head of Operations, BloomingBox

Approvals

Pluto offers a customizable no-code approval workflow builder, where you can create workflows based on simple if-then rules. 

So, based on predefined triggers, expenses go through the approval chain. Managers review and approve or reject expenses directly from their dashboard, ensuring that only necessary expenses are authorized. 

This approval process not only adds a layer of security but also helps enforce company spending policies consistently across all departments.

Duplicate Receipt Detection

One of the common issues with petty cash is the potential for duplicate entries, which can lead to inflated expenses. 

Pluto addresses this issue by automatically flagging duplicate receipts, preventing fraud and theft.

Advanced Controls

Pluto provides advanced controls that go beyond simple budgeting. 

You can restrict spending to specific vendors, define the types of purchases allowed, and even set triggers to auto-lock the cards. 

These controls offer a granular level of management, reducing the risk of fraud and ensuring that funds are used as intended.

Accounting Integration

Pluto integrates seamlessly with popular accounting systems like Xero, QuickBooks, and Zoho Books. 

This integration ensures that every transaction is automatically synced with your accounting software, reducing the need for manual data entry and minimizing the risk of errors.

Complete Audit Trail

Pluto’s platform offers a comprehensive audit trail, with every transaction documented and accessible from a single dashboard. This makes it easy to track the flow of funds, identify any discrepancies, and ensure compliance with company policies. 

The centralized documentation simplifies audits, as all necessary information is readily accessible, reducing the time and effort required to prepare for internal or external reviews.

Customized Reporting

Finally, Pluto’s customizable reporting features allow you to generate reports tailored to your specific needs, be it analyzing spending trends by department, tracking expenses by category, or reviewing compliance with budget policies.

Pluto provides detailed insights that help you make informed decisions about petty cash management, identify areas for improvement, and optimize budget allocations.

Simplify Petty Cash Management With Pluto

Petty cash cards simplify petty cash management by eliminating the need for physical cash and manual tracking. They provide a secure way to manage smaller, everyday expenses while offering greater control and transparency.

Pluto’s petty cash cards offer a comprehensive solution for managing business expenses, combining convenience with robust controls. 

You can issue unlimited virtual and physical cards with specific spending limits and categories, ensuring that employees can only use funds for approved purposes. Features like WhatsApp receipt uploads with OCR and advanced controls ensure precise tracking and security.

However, if your vendors still rely on cash and you can not completely eliminate petty cash, Pluto also offers a digital cash register module. We understand the importance of petty cash, especially in UAE, and enable you to digitize petty cash management, making it easier to track and record cash transactions.

Book a demo today to see how Pluto’s petty cash module caters to your specific needs and simplifies petty cash management.