Card-based spend management technology: Benefits for SMBs and CPA firms

This article first appeared in the CPA Practice Advisor’s Special Report: Spend Management Advisory: A Growing Opportunity for Accounting Firms in January 2025.

Here’s a common expectation in today’s business world: An employee must front all the costs for an upcoming business trip and then spend up to a month waiting to be reimbursed. On the other hand, the controller or accounting manager recognizes this employee is one of many who will probably require multiple reminders to submit their expense report. Until these reports are turned in and approved, this business won’t be able to close that month’s books and see if the month’s spending stayed within budget, nor will it be able to forecast for next month.

If this company had been using a spend management process, the employee in this example would have received a physical or virtual corporate card before the business trip with a pre-approved spend limit. Instead of submitting a pile of receipts—along with an expense report—each transaction will appear on a spend management dashboard, which shows the amount, date, and status of each transaction and where the card was used. Upon using the card, the employee is prompted to immediately upload the receipt—no traditional expense report needed.

Of the more than 760 SMB owners surveyed by CPA.com, the business and technology arm of the AICPA, 97% who outsource expense management say modern card-based spend management technology ensures they control spend and stay within budget, compared to 71% of those who outsource and use traditional expense management software. In addition, 51% of SMB owners who outsource expense management to their accounting firm say that implementing card-based spend management technology has been a game changer for their organization. “Accountants should be positioning themselves arm in arm with their clients to help them find opportunities to relieve stress and friction in managing the business,” said Megan Bronson, a partner in the technology and business advisory department at accounting firm Squire & Company. “Spend management is a huge opportunity to add value to the client relationship and to their bottom line.”

Upside for SMBs: The advisory insights your clients are looking for

More control and insights into business spend consistently: According to the CPA.com survey, SMBs are shifting to a more comprehensive approach to budgeting and controlling spend, likely due to rising interest rates and recession fears. One option their trusted advisor can suggest is an integrated financial operations platform with a spend management solution.

“Spend management technology enables timely insights into company expenses, unlocking the ability for organizations to identify spending trends, capital inefficiencies, and seek potential cost-saving opportunities,” said Matt Gardner, co-founder and CEO of Hiline, a firm that provides tech-enabled accounting services to startups and growing businesses.

Holistic view in one centralized location: Many businesses face the challenge of not being able to effectively manage their accounts payable and expenses that come in and out daily because multiple systems are used to track their cash flow and spend. Utilizing one system as an integrated solution allows all spend to sync together.

Gain efficiencies: Manual processes are cumbersome and can make traditional expense management extremely time-consuming. With a spend management solution, expenses are measured against specific budgets so accounting teams get timely insights into spend. Employees do not have to worry about being reimbursed as they are using a corporate card with a pre-approved budget for all transactions.

Fraud protection: Spend management technology takes a proactive approach to minimize fraud through enforceable budgets, cards with pre-approved spend caps, and dispute resolution.

One of the best ways to avoid fraud is with a virtual card—a digital version of a physical corporate card. Creating a different virtual card for individual uses or for specific merchants allows SMBs to track spending accurately, slow vendor creep, and spot fraudulent transactions sooner. If a virtual card is compromised, the business can quickly freeze or delete that card—and its spending—and other day-to-day activities can continue uninterrupted.

Virtual cards can also eliminate employee card sharing. The more a card changes hands, the higher chance out-of-budget spend can occur.

Opportunities for accounting firms

New opportunities for revenue growth: According to the CPA.com survey, 74% of the nearly 370 accounting firms polled said providing expense management services to clients has opened a new revenue stream, with 63% of those firms reporting innovations offered by a card-based spend management solution made them more efficient and profitable.

“We are finding that our average growth is at least double, if not triple, the median on our client advisory services. Spend management is what our clients need the most,” Bronson said about the benefits spend management advisory has brought to Squire & Company.

Enhance the “advisory” in client advisory services: With timely visibility into spend, accounting firms have more data at their fingertips to advise SMB clients on the financial health of the business. Firms can now take a hands-off approach, knowing the expense information will automatically flow into the accounting software and focus client communications on budget alignment. Taken a step further, integrated financial operations platforms are creating the capabilities for better insights and forecasting.

“We want our customers to physically see their financial story on a day-by-day basis, and spend management technology does that,” said Dan Luthi, a partner at Ignite Spot Accounting Services, a firm that provides a variety of outsourced business management services to clients. “The technology makes a massive change in that customer’s experience. It takes that historical way of thinking or processing for clients and helps them evolve into this more advanced, more developed experience.”

Increase your client retention and referrals: The combination of accounting firm expertise and spend management technology can positively affect client satisfaction and retention.

According to the CPA.com survey, nearly three out of four SMB owners who outsource expense management and use spend management software say they’re interested in exploring additional services with their accounting firms. Of that same group, 71% say they are actively referring their accounting firms to other companies and colleagues.

Offering modern spend and expense management as a service drives additional value to the client relationship and builds trust to strengthen long-standing partnerships.

“Our subscription-based model involving spend management encourages our clients to stay with us. Our current retention rate is 92%,” said Jody Grunden, partner and virtual CFO practice leader at Anders CPAs + Advisors.

Achieve greater efficiencies—and improve team morale: Imagine having to use a courier service to collect documents from clients. This happened at Chaney & Associates, a CPA firm specializing in outsourced accounting services. Chaney & Associates was mired in manual processes, with credit card tracking being one of the biggest pain points for team members. Clients were using corporate or personal credit cards, which meant the firm had to follow a tedious manual process to track expenses, and it also meant a slow month-end close.

However, after implementing a spend management technology solution, Chaney & Associates turned into a fully automated organization, which in turn, increased client happiness and team satisfaction. Team members now have access to an organized, timely dashboard where all their clients are listed, credit cards are managed, and reconciliations are kept current.

“It’s amazing the amount of efficiencies we’ve gained in just credit card tracking and spend management, and there’s so many features there that make our work so much easier,” said Steve Chaney, the firm’s CEO and owner.

The CPA.com survey also revealed that 24% of accounting firms that do not currently advise clients on expense management are interested in doing so. Perhaps they do not know how to integrate expense management services into their CAS practice, including advocating for spend management technology? ]

“Efficiencies gained by eliminating the manual process of downloading and coding expenses from traditional credit cards become even more valuable when you look at the friction it reduces. Your CAS team can start providing advisory-level services sooner, including your more junior staff,” said Kim Blascoe, senior director of CAS professional services at CPA.com and a former CAS leader for a top 100 firm. “So, the elimination of manual work, happier staff, and a faster monthly close—it’s an easy win.”

There’s more on this topic. Learn how modern and spend expense management fits into a CAS practice in the article “How CPA firms can price, position, and productize spend management.”

About the author: Kimberly K. Blascoe, CPA, leads CPA.com’s CAS 2.0 practice transformation programs, focusing on helping firms establish and grow optimized CAS practices through consulting, practice development and training offerings. Prior to joining CPA.com, Kim spent more than 30 years in public accounting, which included leading the CAS practice for a Top 20 firm.