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Virtual Card Guide - Extend

The document discusses virtual cards, including what they are, how they work, and their benefits. Virtual cards are like physical cards but without plastic, instead having randomly generated numbers. They offer increased security, spending controls, and real-time visibility. The document provides examples of how virtual cards can be used to empower employees, pay vendors, manage client expenses, and distribute instant aid funds.

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Valentine Malama
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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98 views9 pages

Virtual Card Guide - Extend

The document discusses virtual cards, including what they are, how they work, and their benefits. Virtual cards are like physical cards but without plastic, instead having randomly generated numbers. They offer increased security, spending controls, and real-time visibility. The document provides examples of how virtual cards can be used to empower employees, pay vendors, manage client expenses, and distribute instant aid funds.

Uploaded by

Valentine Malama
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Virtual cards

are here to
stay:
A brief guide to this powerful
new payment tool.

paywithextend.com
Table of
Contents
01. Virtual cards pg 3

02. What is a virtual card? pg 4

03. How virtual cards work pg 6

04. When, where and how to use virtual cards pg 7

05. The possibilities are virtually endless pg 9

Virtual Card Guide | 2


Virtual cards:
A brief guide to this powerful new payment tool
For the last several years, technology has been drastically reshaping the payments
space. For businesses, payment processes still depend on checks, ACH payments, and
paper trails that are tedious to manage and prone to error. But with payment
innovation changing the game, new digital tools are being designed to solve the
complex challenges of managing a company’s finances.

As virtual cards become an increasingly popular topic within the industry, there’s still
an air of mystery that surrounds them. Until recently, there wasn’t any one solution
that made the technology widely accessible for anything beyond Accounts Payable,
but when leveraged correctly, virtual cards have the potential to create drastic
efficiencies across any organization.

Spend in Commercial Cards in 2022


Projected, US$

Plastic Corp. Card


$120B

Virtual Card 45%


$360B on Virtual Cards
In 2022 Plastic P-Card
$290B

Source: Accenture analysis, 2018; rounded.


Excludes: consumer, small business, and fleet card spend

Virtual Card Guide | 3


What is a virtual card?
A virtual card is a randomly generated card number associated with an existing
account. Simply put, a virtual card is just like any other credit or debit card but without
the plastic. They even have their own security codes and expiration dates.

Virtual Card Guide | 4


Virtual cards offer a number of key benefits:

Increased security & control


Keep your real account info out of site

Designed to safeguard your real account info and card


numbers, virtual cards are a more secure way to manage
transactions—plus spending limits and other usage
restrictions can also prevent fraud or misuse.

Better operational management & visibility


Track spending in real time and improve expense processes

The beauty of virtual cards is their digital nature. Not only can
you easily create unlimited cards and distribute them with
total control, but you can understand spending activity in
real-time and automate expense processes like reconciliation
with the data attached to every card and transaction.

Optimize cash flow and rewards


Use your card more flexibly

$ With better visibility and card security, using your card


is easier than ever. And when using virtual credit cards,
you can maximize your working capital and even earn
more rewards.

Virtual Card Guide | 5


How virtual cards work
Virtual card numbers are generated through a virtual card engine typically owned by
the card network or your bank’s card processor. How you create a virtual card and
what you can do with it depends on which platform or service you’ve chosen to use.
At a high level, here’s the basic way of creating and using virtual cards.

Create new cards Distribute cards


When you create a virtual card, a unique card On a platform like Extend, when someone
number is generated in association with your needs to charge an expense, you can
existing account. This unique number also instantly send them a virtual card with as
has an expiration date and security code, so it little as their email address and individuals
works just the same as any payment card. can also request virtual cards directly from
This all happens instantly, giving you a secure the cardholder.
payment method in seconds.

$50

Set controls + limits Manage + monitor spend


Give virtual cards spending limits, expiration Get real-time activity updates, automatically
dates, create automatic refills for recurring sort and organize transactions to see where
expenses, and assign merchant category money is going, and understand who is
restrictions—giving you increased controls spending where—giving your finance
on how and when charges can be made. department better insight into company
spending with every transaction.

Virtual Card Guide | 6


When, where, and how to
use virtual cards
Virtual cards can be used just like regular cards for online, in-app, or on-file
transactions—and depending on the card issuer, they may be added to mobile wallets
for in-store purchases too.

The flexibility of virtual cards lends itself to many use cases—whenever you need to
charge an expense or equip someone with a card to use when they need it, virtual
cards can be created on demand and distributed instantly. Let’s take a look at a few
applications where this is useful.

Virtual Card Guide | 7


Empower your workforce
Equip everyone in your network with a secure payment method when they need one.
Because virtual cards are easy to manage, you can give employees, freelancers,
contractors, and interviewees the resources they need to support your business—no
more workflow interruptions and no more expense reports to deal with.

Pay vendors fast and easy


Using virtual cards for vendor payments and recurring expenses can safeguard against
fraud, misuse, or unexpected charges. Limits prevent overcharging and keeping a virtual
card on file is much safer than storing your real account number. Not to mention, you can
pay vendors instantly without making them wait for checks or ACH payments.

Manage client expenses


When managing multiple clients and their expenses, virtual cards provide the
organization to make bookkeeping much more efficient. Not only can you attach
reference codes to each virtual card and transaction to automate reconciliation, but
card limits can help ensure you never go over a client’s budget.

Instant aid funds


Virtual cards can be an extremely efficient way to distribute funds instantly during a
time of need. Organizations can empower volunteers, relief workers, or even victims
with a means of payment so no one has to worry about how supplies will be covered.
Plus, better oversight over spending can help nonprofits track and report on their
budgets and grants.

Virtual Card Guide | 8


The possibilities are
virtually endless
Exploring the potential applications for virtual cards has only
just begun and already they’re proving to be a monumental
innovation for businesses payments. If you haven’t yet
considered how virtual cards may help your organization,
it might be time to try them out.

Consult with the experts


If you’d like to learn more about how virtual cards could
benefit your business, we’re here to help you assess
the options.

paywithextend.com

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