What is a petty cash card and how does it streamline expenses?

Managing business expenses efficiently is crucial for financial stability. Traditional petty cash systems often lead to inefficiencies, manual tracking errors, and increased risk of fraud. A petty cash card is a modern solution that simplifies employee expenses, providing real-time tracking, control over spending, and seamless integration with accounting software. Businesses worldwide are adopting this system to manage corporate expenses better, ensuring financial transparency, reducing reimbursement processes, and eliminating manual tracking errors.

What is a petty cash card?

A petty cash card is a prepaid business card designed to manage minor expenses. Unlike traditional petty cash systems that involve cash withdrawals, manual record-keeping, and reconciliation, a petty cash card allows businesses to allocate funds to employees in a controlled manner. These prepaid debit cards eliminate the need for employees to use personal funds for business purchases, making expense management more convenient for both employees and finance teams.

Petty cash card vs. traditional petty cash systems

• Traditional petty cash systems: Require physical cash, involve manual tracking, and are prone to loss and fraud. Employees often face delays in expense reimbursements, creating unnecessary friction in the reimbursement process.
• Petty cash cards: Offer real-time tracking, automated reconciliation, and better security with spending limits. By providing finance teams with instant visibility into company expenses, these cards help mitigate the risk of fraud and unauthorised spending.

By eliminating manual input errors and reducing the risk of mismanagement, petty cash cards improve the petty cash process and provide finance teams with better control over company spending. Whether for business travel, office supplies, online subscriptions management, or other minor expenses, these prepaid business cards offer a centralised, secure, and transparent way to manage corporate expenditures.

Why choose a petty cash card for your business?

Thousands of businesses are switching to prepaid business cards due to their numerous benefits:

• Real-time tracking: Gain instant insights into employee expenses, eliminating the need for manual record-keeping.
• Pre-approved and allocated budget: Set limits for different departments and employees to ensure accountability and control over business spending.
• Automated reconciliation: Sync transactions with major accounting software, saving finance teams hours of manual petty cash reconciliation.
• Control over expenses: Eliminate unauthorised spending with built-in restrictions and expense policies.
• Enhanced security: Reduce the risk of fraud, missing receipts, and human error with automated tracking and verification.
• Convenience & accessibility: Employees can use cards for business trips, office supplies, and online subscriptions without using personal funds.
• Compliance with company policies: Ensure all expenditures comply with corporate guidelines by enforcing custom rules and spending limits.

Features of Weel’s petty cash card

Weel’s expense management platform provides businesses with the tools they need to manage company spending efficiently. Key features include:

• Virtual company cards & physical cards: Issue cards with custom spending limits to employees based on their roles and responsibilities.
• Real-time tracking: Monitor expenses through a single platform, ensuring instant visibility into every transaction.
• Prepaid debit cards: Avoid credit checks while managing employee expenses, making it a more accessible financial tool.
• Advanced controls: Auto-lock the cards if they remain unused for a limited period to prevent unauthorised transactions.
• Seamless accounting integration: Connect with major accounting systems like Xero, MYOB, and QuickBooks for accurate spend reporting.
• Comprehensive solution: Reduce finance teams' hours spent on manual tracking and reconciliation, improving overall financial efficiency.

How does Weel’s petty cash card work?

Weel makes it easy to allocate, track, and control company money with a simple process:

1. Issue a petty cash card – Provide a prepaid card to employees for business expenses, ensuring they have access to company funds without using their personal credit cards.
2. Set spending limits – Define budgets and custom rules to prevent overspending and unauthorised transactions.
3. Use for business expenses – Employees can pay for business travel, office supplies, vendor payments, and other minor expenses.
4. Capture receipts digitally – Employees upload receipts via Weel’s mobile app, reducing paperwork and streamlining audits.
5. Track in real time – Gain instant visibility into transactions via the dashboard, eliminating the risk of missing receipts or manual errors.
6. Automated expense reconciliation – Transactions are auto-tagged, categorised, and integrated with accounting software for faster reconciliation.

Why switch to Weel’s petty cash card?

Full control over expenditures

With Weel, finance teams can set granular spending limits, establish custom rules, and track expenses in real time. The ability to set detailed reports and enforce budgetary control ensures that funds are allocated wisely and used only for authorised business expenses. This level of control prevents overspending and simplifies financial planning.

Funds to cards instantly

Business needs can change rapidly, and Weel ensures that employees always have access to the funds they need. Whether it’s for a last-minute business trip, an urgent vendor payment, or an unexpected office supply purchase, additional funds can be loaded onto cards instantly. This ensures smooth operations without financial disruptions, eliminating the traditional waiting period for approvals and reimbursements.

Prevent unauthorised spending

Weel’s built-in compliance features ensure that company money is only spent on approved expenses. Customisable transaction restrictions allow businesses to define where and how their cards can be used, helping prevent unauthorised purchases and mitigating financial risk. Additionally, real-time alerts notify managers of suspicious activity, providing an extra layer of security.

Save hours on finance processes

Manual expense tracking and reimbursement requests create unnecessary administrative burdens for finance teams. Weel automates key financial processes by integrating with accounting software, auto-classifying transactions, and providing detailed, real-time reports. This not only saves finance teams hours of work but also reduces the risk of manual input errors and improves overall accuracy.

Centralised spend control

Weel’s all-in-one expense management platform provides businesses with a holistic view of their financial transactions. With a centralised dashboard, companies can monitor employee expenses across departments, ensuring complete visibility and accountability. This eliminates fragmented financial tracking and helps businesses make data-driven spending decisions based on real-time insights.

With Weel, businesses can streamline their petty cash management, optimise their corporate spending, and gain valuable financial insights—all while eliminating the risks associated with traditional cash handling and outdated reimbursement systems.

Ready to take control of your company spending today with Weel’s all-in-one spend management platform? Explore our product tour or book a demo today!

Success stories: how Michael Hill streamlined their expenses with Weel

For over 8 years, Sarah Jennings (Banking and AR Manager) had been looking for a new way to manage store expenditure. Cheques were closer and closer to being obsolete, fraud wasn’t being uncovered for months - sometimes even years - down the track, and each store manager was spending 4 hours per month on expense reporting.

With Weel's card controls, detailed expense reporting and the ability to instantly issue and cancel employee cards, it was the perfect solution.

“With the support of Weel's implementation team, we rolled out 200 virtual Mastercards in the first day and Weel support handled all questions as they arose”

Read their full success story by clicking here.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How is a petty cash card different from a credit card?

A petty cash card is a prepaid business card, meaning funds are preloaded onto the card. A credit card, on the other hand, involves borrowing money with interest, leading to financial liabilities.

Can I set individual spending limits for employees?

Yes! Weel’s corporate debit cards allow businesses to set custom spending limits for employees, ensuring accountability for business expenditures.

How secure is Weel’s petty cash card?

Weel’s cards feature encrypted transactions, contactless payments, and built-in fraud protection in-line with Visa, Apple Pay and Google pay's policies, ensuring secure transactions for every employee.

How do I reconcile expenses with the petty cash card?

Weel integrates with accounting automation tools, enabling businesses to streamline the reconciliation process. Read our petty cash reconciliation blog.

Where can the card be used?

Weel’s cards can be used for office supplies, business travel, vendor payments, fuel expenses, and more. Explore our fuel card and travel card options.