Tuesday, March 5, 2024
American Express & American Express GBT unveil a game-changing integration for SMBs, streamlining expense management with virtual Cards and comprehensive spend control.
In a significant move aimed at transforming the landscape of business expense management, American Express, a global leader in business payments, alongside American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT), a frontrunner in B2B software and services for travel and expense, have announced a groundbreaking integration. This collaboration is set to empower small and mid-sized businesses by simplifying the management of their expenses and spendings.
The Integration at a Glance
American Express is introducing a novel feature that allows businesses to issue virtual Cards for their employees through Amex GBT Neo1, a comprehensive spend management platform. To avail of this feature, U.S. Card Members are required to enroll in Amex GBT Neo1, post which they can integrate eligible American Express® Business or Corporate Card accounts into the platform.
This integration facilitates a seamless expense management experience by amalgamating the functionalities of an expense system, procurement platform, online business travel booking tool, and virtual Card issuance into a unified, intelligent ecosystem.
Why This Matters
The collaboration between American Express and Amex GBT is poised to offer small and mid-sized businesses enhanced oversight and control over various employee expenditures, including budgeting, purchases via virtual Cards, business travel bookings, and streamlined expense processing. Traditional manual expense management processes are not only time-consuming and costly but are also susceptible to errors—a problem that becomes even more pronounced for businesses with limited resources.
According to Amex GBT, over a third (37%) of financial leaders consider expense report processing to be a significant drain on time. Digital payment solutions like virtual Cards present an effective remedy to these challenges by automating the expense management process and enabling employers to set precise spending controls and permissions.
How It Works
The integrated features in Amex GBT Neo1 allow businesses to establish budgets and issue American Express virtual Cards with specific controls tailored to their business needs. This integration offers an all-in-one platform for budget approval and management, connection to accounting systems, efficient payment submission, reconciliation, and approval, as well as customizable visual dashboards for a comprehensive view of company expenditures.
Key benefits of the new integration include access to Amex GBT’s extensive marketplace for travel services, the generation of American Express virtual Cards for controlled employee spending, near real-time transaction data visibility, built-in integrations with leading marketplaces and financial systems, and a mobile app for on-the-go receipt capture and travel booking.
Target Audience
This integration is designed for small to mid-sized U.S. businesses that hold eligible American Express® U.S. Business or Corporate Cards and are in search of a streamlined approach to managing, monitoring, purchasing, approving, and reconciling employees’ business spending.
Voices from American Express and Amex GBT
Dave Holmes, Vice President of Enterprise Strategic Partnerships at American Express, emphasizes the initiative’s aim to simplify spend management for small businesses, acknowledging the growing complexity in managing employee expenses. Fiona Hastings, Vice President of Neo1 at Amex GBT, highlights the challenges businesses face in managing growth, spending, and productivity, and expresses enthusiasm for extending Neo1’s capabilities to more small and mid-sized businesses through this partnership.
In conclusion, the integration between American Express and Amex GBT represents a significant leap forward in spend management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, promising a future of streamlined, efficient, and error-free expense management.
Tags: american express, Amex GBT, Virtual Cards
Saturday, April 27, 2024
