Fyle launches real-time spend management on Visa credit cards
By Edlyn Cardoza
Fyle Inc announced the launch of a real-time spend management solution for customers using corporate and small business cards in the US, starting with Visa. Fyle will be one of the first spend management platforms to offer direct and real-time transaction feeds to any Visa-powered credit card users, with direct secure enrollment from the cardholder.
Small businesses are the backbone of the US economy, with over 6 million small businesses in the US. They use business credit cards as a crucial tool in their cash management function. Yet, the experience of managing and accounting for card spending remains manual because of outdated technology from issuing banks.
To tackle this, new spend management startups are issuing their corporate cards, bypassing the banks. Benefits include real-time visibility, end-user notifications, and cash control. However, these FinTechs require minimum cash balances, ranging from 25000 to 250000 USD. These cards primarily charge cards that don’t support any balance rollover, shortening the credit period to a day or month.
Focusing on tech-savvy and funded startups is a great acquisition strategy, but it addresses a small market. Card-led FinTech accounts for less than 10% of the overall $1.5 trillion commercial card spend in the US, while more than 90% of this spend happens on cards issued by leading banks.
This is where Fyle differs. Instead of asking customers to switch to another business card, Fyle integrates with their existing business credit cards to give them a real-time spend management experience. The instantaneous data from card feeds and receipts are combined and made ready for accounting, vastly reducing manual work for spenders, Finance teams and accounting firms.
“Aprio is excited about the launch and our partnership with Fyle. Together, we will remove insufficiencies and manual work from expense management for businesses, enabling access to enhanced spending data and prompt closing of their books,” said Bruce Phillips, Partner & Managing Director of Aprio’s Outsourcing Practice, which is ranked 35th on Accounting Today’s Top 100 Firms.
The implications are significant. While SMBs get sophisticated AI-enabled spend management software and the freedom to choose their business credit card, Fyle can offer their product to any business credit card without depending on the bank’s tech stack. This offers unique collaboration opportunities to comarket the solution to banks’ business customers.
Fyle is initially launching this solution for the Visa network and will support other networks over the next few quarters.
“Fyle’s integration with Visa is very exciting as it offers their users the opportunity to utilize their own business cards in support of business spend management initiatives. Fyle’s ‘bring your own card’ approach has the potential to provide real-time insights, visibility and control to the millions of small businesses that use business and corporate cards as cash management tools,” said Kevin Permenter, Research Director for Financial Applications at IDC.
The real-time feed reduces the manual effort for employees and accountants alike. Employees can turn in receipts from everyday apps like text messages, Gmail, Outlook, MS Teams, and Slack, and on the go via Fyle’s iOS and Android mobile apps. Fyle’s AI-enabled engine instantly codes spend information, assigns it to the right projects & cost centres, and pushes the data to cloud-first ERP and accounting software like NetSuite, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks Online, or Xero.
“With this launch, we can offer all customers who have Visa business credit cards access to powerful, AI-driven software to track & manage their card spending. It also gives us the opportunity to collaborate with card issuers who are losing business to new-age corporate card products,” said Yashwanth Madhusudhan, CEO and Founder of Fyle. “For the first time ever, customers won’t have to switch their credit cards to get the best spend management experience.”
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