See the Payoff of Better Expense Controls

On their web app main dashboard, our customers can see exactly how much money they are saving from Bento’s expense controls. This is money that goes straight to their bottom lines, all thanks to Bento’s smarter card controls that prevent unauthorized or unintended purchases. Bento is better than other corporate cards because it helps you run your business better.

Here’s how it works:

• An employee is out shopping on Saturday afternoon and pulls out the Bento card by mistake. The expense controls are set for use on Monday through Friday, so the $50 transaction is declined. You save the time and stress of meeting with your employee and arranging for reimbursement. Bento saved you: $50.
• Your social media marketing staffer boosts a post and accidentally sets the spending limit as a maximum of $1000 per day rather than per month. The Bento virtual card for this social account has a maximum daily charge of $200. The additional charges are declined. Bento saved you: $800.
• A company car is broken into and the vehicle’s Bento utility card is stolen. The thief tries to buy a $1000 smartphone, but the card expense controls are set for fuel pumps only. You not only save the hassle of dealing with a fraudulent charge, but you also use the transaction decline alert as a sign to turn the card off right away. Bento saved you: $1000.

That’s $1850 in savings from your use of day, amount, and merchant controls. And that doesn’t count the savings in time and energy involved in fixing mistakes, having difficult discussions with employees, and dealing with fraudulent charges.

Power—and empowerment—from expense controls

Bento’s card controls serve as guardrails for the business. You can empower employees to do their jobs without extending more spending power than they need. You can give employees cards knowing that they can only use them for work, and you can limit the damage caused if an unauthorized person gets a hold of a card.

Think about the social media example. Setting the ad budget for $1000 a day instead of $1000 a month is an honest mistake. And yet, it’s a mistake that could be ruinous if your company has thin margins. You could fire your social media person, but that seems petty. Plus, the next person could do the same thing. Another response might be to set up a new expense control procedure so that someone has to review every ad buy and paid post before it goes live. That might prevent another mistake, but it would also slow your business down. Your social media person might view it as babysitting, and the designated reviewer might see it as one more chore in an already busy day. 

That’s the beauty of Bento

It adds controls so that your business is protected while letting employees do the work they need to do. And, it creates data you can use to run your business better. (Who knows, maybe an analysis of your social media marketing will show that you really should be spending $1000 a day.)

You can change these expense management controls at any time, too. A normal setting might allow for use only on Monday through Friday, but if an employee needs to travel over the weekend, you can change it with a click. A vehicle utility card might normally allow for fuel purchases only, but if an employee has a breakdown, the card can be reset to cover the cost of repairs, a tow, and a lift back to the office. 

Bento’s controls can save you money, and you can actually see the benefits

Your controls operate in the background while you focus on your business. The data about your spending can help you run your business better, and it all syncs with QuickBooks and other accounting systems. 

We’re excited about this information and hope you are, too. 

Find out more:

• Learn how we use controls here at Bento.
• Are you a customer? Contact Customer Success for ideas on how to use Bento controls.
• Not a customer? Sign up for a customized demo.