Card provider Center on Tuesday became the latest company to offer a combined corporate payment card and expense system under one roof. Center's new platform features the Visa-branded CenterCard corporate debit card along with the companion Center Expense tool. The two components are designed to work together, with purchases made on the card flowing directly into the expense tool.
Like the increasing number of providers that offer an all-in-one corporate card and expense service, Center touts as advantages of that model simplified card issuing, more accurate data capture, tighter spending controls and real-time reporting and reconciliation.
The company's services are designed for small and midsize companies, which often don't have a centralized purchasing process, according to Center CEO Naveen Singh.
"Purchase decisions are more distributed in companies of this size, with employees using personal or company cards to sign up for software subscriptions or book travel online," said Singh. "That card spend, combined with the typical amount of manual expense review and reconciliation, creates a huge operational burden for finance teams, who need a simplified system for managing all expenses."
About 15 to 20 Center customers, including manufacturing and professional services companies as well as nonprofits, beta-tested the system, said Singh, who is the son of former Concur CEO Steve Singh. The elder Singh currently serves as Center's executive chairman.
Center launched in 2017 with a corporate credit card that featured a built-in touchscreen and battery before pivoting a year-and-a-half ago to put more focus on its artificial intelligence-powered software that automates much of the expense reporting process.
The new card and companion expense tool is a "totally new product based on that pivot," a Center spokesperson said.
During the past several months, corporate expense providers including Emburse and Expensify have rolled out companion spending cards, while cloud-based specialist Fyle began enabling corporate cards to be directly linked to its expense service via application programming interface.