Interest in sustainable investing is exploding. In 2022, 65% of all investment in European exchange-traded funds (the most popular type of investment among retail investors) went into “ESG-compliant” products.

Businesses are under growing pressure to present themselves as ethical, and environmentally and socially responsible.

ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) has become one of the most commonly bandied-about terms in business circles. And ESG ratings and data have grown into a $1.3 billion (around £1.08 billion) industry.

But is ESG actually an effective way to evaluate organisations’ impact on the planet? Or is the term close to becoming — if not already — a meaningless buzzword?

What is ESG?

Essentially, ESG is a framework to help with sustainable investing. It measures the overall impact of a particular business on our planet. The assessment is carried out by evaluating performance under three key pillars:

Your effect on the environment (Environmental)

These include considerations such as:

• Your carbon footprint
• How much energy you uses to make your products or deliver your services
• How you source raw materials
• Waste management practices.

Your Impact on the communities you operate in (Social)

• How do you engage with consumers, suppliers, and other stakeholders?
• What are your employment practices like?
• And what kind of approach do you take to product safety and protecting the locals’ quality of life?

How your business is managed (Governance)

• Are there checks and balances in place to ensure management behaves ethically and responsibly?
• Do you have a diverse leadership team?
• Is there a culture of inclusion?
• Do you engage in government lobbying or other political activities?

Sustainable investing: not a new thing

Sustainable investing might seem like a new-fangled invention. But letting ethics drive investment decisions isn’t a new concept.

When the Methodist Church and the Quakers began investing on the stock market in the 19th century, they intentionally avoided companies involved in alcohol production, gambling, and other activities they considered morally questionable.

The idea caught on, and the first ethical investment fund — a mutual fund, called the Pax Fund, set up in protest at the Vietnam War — launched in 1971.

ESG takes things further. It provides, in theory, a set of criteria that lets investors assess how ethical and sustainable any business is.

The idea is that businesses with high ESG scores are bringing about positive change. And, so, are more likely to keep thriving. While those with poor scores are harming the planet, putting their long-term future at risk in the process.

The benefits of ESG and sustainable investing

Mainstream thinking around ESG is that it’s critically important. For two reasons.

First, at a time when people are increasingly worried about climate change and actively seeking out sustainable businesses, ESG offers a set of objective criteria to judge businesses.

There are those businesses striving to improve the planet – and those that, despite billing themselves as sustainable, have questionable credentials. Or, as the ICAEW puts it, ESG is “a mechanism to hold institutions accountable for their operations…”

Second, and more to the point, ESG’s proponents argue it offers compelling financial benefits. Studies suggest that investments with high ESG scores deliver above-market returns. This is typically attributed to the fact that ESG-compliant, sustainable investing is better in the long term.

ESG also makes it possible to identify opportunities and risks that wouldn’t turn up in a traditional financial analysis. Such as the benefits of creating clean, renewable energy, or avoiding the harms of child labour.

Most significantly, ESG is sometimes boiled down to a question of supply and demand. More and more, the argument goes, investors want to put their money into sustainable businesses. So, to remain competitive, investment products need to be sustainable. And ESG offers a way to ensure this is the case.

Beyond the hype: what if Emperor ESG has no clothes?

While, at first glance, it’s hard to disagree with the idea behind ESG, its detractors believe the arguments in its favour are fundamentally flawed.

According to Stuart Kirk, HSBC’s former global head of responsible investments, there are two key problems with ESG in its current form.

First, he says, the financial risks from climate change are being blown out of proportion.

“A common argument,” he says, “is that [climate change is] going to hit GDP in year number, whatever, 2100? They reckon it’s going to lop off 2.5%. Their worst case model lops off 5%.

“What they fail to tell everybody is that between now and 2100 the world is going to be between 500% and 1,000% richer. Lop 5% off that in 2100, who cares? You’ll never notice.”

Second, he says, humans have a track record of adaptation which climate risk models fail to take into account.

He explains:

“Imagine you’re in 1920 or 1930  and somebody said, ‘Stuart, what do you think the effect on growth will be of carbon emissions over the next 100 years?’ And I’d get out my model and go okay, well, there’s a lot of gas guzzling cars, there are a lot of ships, there’s a lot of industry that doesn’t look very good. And we would put together a really, really nasty outlook for today from what we knew.

“We would never have understood deindustrialization. Or the rise of the service economy. We would never understand how machinery is getting more efficient. Likewise, we have no idea what the next 50, 100 years are going to bring.”

The ‘perverse’ incentives of ESG

Kirk’s presentation was roundly condemned for “making light” of the climate crisis and ultimately cost him his job. But even some of his biggest detractors acknowledge that, from a purely financial perspective, he’s talking sense.

PGGM’s head of responsible investment Piet Klop, for instance, observed that: “It’s hard to deny that the ecosystem is going down the tubes [but] within the financial system as we currently know it [Kirk is] probably right…”

Similarly, in an article that ostensibly defends ESG, Peter Krull says bluntly that “many of the ESG funds that retail investors expect to be green are far from that.”

Echoing Kirk, Professor Hans Taparia, of the New York University Stern School of Business, believes the biggest issue with ESG is that it does things backwards.

Instead of scoring businesses on how ethical and environmentally and socially responsible they are, it measures how much carbon emissions, dodgy labour practices, and other ESG factors could harm financial performance.

This, he says, produces perverse results.

“McDonald’s, for instance, was given an upgrade of its ESG rating [in 2021] which cited reduced risks to the company’s bottom line as a result of changes that the company made concerning packaging material and waste.

“But greenhouse gas emissions from the operations and supply chain of McDonald’s, which is one of the world’s largest buyers of beef, grew by 16 percent from 2015 to 2020. Those emissions are a direct cause of climate change, but because [they weren’t seen] as posing a financial risk for McDonald’s, they didn’t negatively affect the rating.”

ESG: right idea, wrong approach?

With scientists issuing increasingly stark warnings about catastrophic climate change and the United Nations observing rising inequality across the globe, it’s clear that the way we do business needs to change. For both ourselves and the generations that will come after us.

From this perspective, ESG is perhaps a step in the right direction. In the sense that it embeds the impacts bad business practices have on society and our planet into our collective consciousness.

As McKinsey’s Sara Bernow notes: “ESG puts the spotlight on sustainability not only in those companies where it is obvious from a value-creation perspective but also where it has been less obvious yet the value-creation potential is still there.

“For example, a company’s ability to reduce its energy consumption is a huge value-creation opportunity.”

Is ESG fit for purpose?

But if intentions are to become action and, in turn, create real, lasting change, the way businesses’ ESG rankings are assessed may need to be rethought.

“One of the tragedies of this whole debate,” says Stuart Kirk, “is that we obsess about mitigation and not enough on adaption financing.

“There are 1000s of opportunities out there. We have a trillion dollar car company that nobody predicted five years ago, including myself, and they’re the sort of opportunities we need to invest in.”

Hans Taparia is even more scathing.

“The current system,” he concludes, “works well for Wall Street. It keeps the raters in business because it ensures that their customers, the investment firms, have lots of stocks with which to construct portfolios.

It enables financial institutions to present themselves as contributing to the well-being of society and the planet. And it allows them to charge higher fees to investors, because ESG funds are seen as different from conventional index funds, in part because they tap into investors’ consciences.

“But this system isn’t good for the world. Just regular capitalism at its slickest: ingenious marketing in the service of profits. The best approach would be to measure the costs to society and the environment that are not directly borne by companies.”

Visit our blog for more articles like this one or subscribe to get them direct to your inbox. Find out more about Soldo here.

In his book For Profit, the law professor William Magnuson sketches a surprising history of the corporation. Throughout history, he shows that corporations were purpose-built to solve societal problems or tackle grand projects.

Corporations built Ancient Rome’s roads and aqueducts, helped the arts flourish during the Renaissance and facilitated the blossoming of the 20th-century middle class.

Things are different now. In many ways better – but, in some ways, not so much. Enterprise is more dynamic and more open to everyone. And the ways companies serve consumers are more diverse and specialised.

But perhaps, as Magnuson’s book illustrates, a more cooperative or social bent to commerce has somewhat diminished. Companies used to have a much more acute appreciation of society (both society at large and the society in miniature that exists in the company’s workforce).

Cuts and worker morale

We only need to look around us to get a barometer reading on worker morale. The UK is gearing up for its largest strike wave in three decades. General morale is dipping (particularly in sectors like care).

Household consumption is set to shrink by 2.3% in 2023. Business investment is set to contract by 3%. Even small creature comforts like Netflix are being eschewed. The streaming giant will shed 700,000 UK users over the next two years, analysts predict.

These are tough economic times. Cuts are a fact of life. Spending needs to be reined in, costs cut. And, perhaps most unfortunately, workers may lose their jobs. It’s easy for these cuts and changes to be adversarial. But that needn’t be inevitable.

Of course, you can’t please everyone when reducing business costs. There are no cost-cutting options available that don’t bring some collateral damage. And the impacts last: A Dutch longitudinal study of employee morale post-cuts, found reduced job satisfaction and less loyalty toward the organisation for at least two years after the cost-cutting event.

Reducing business costs (while minimising damage to morale)

There is no easy option when reducing business costs – but some are better than others. Let’s look at some choices available to company leaders.

Reduce executive compensation:

‘We’re all in this together’ is a common sentiment during an economic downturn. And employees often greet it with suspicion. To paraphrase Animal Farm, it seems that some are more ‘in this’ than others.

That’s why reducing executive compensation (and being open about it) is a powerful tool. By how much? Well, that’s an open question. But certainly enough to signal to employees that management is feeling the same pain. Especially in the case of layoffs.

Reduce expenses:

You need to look at expenses. And not just the costs – but also how you’re managing them. If your expense management system is rudimental and doesn’t allow granular analysis of costs, then investing in a new system is step one.

‘Investing’ doesn’t have to mean a high cost. Many expense management solutions are now in the cloud. Implementation is quick and it’s based on a monthly subscription.

The old saying in business that you have to ‘spend money to make money’ is also true with saving. Sometimes you have to spend money to save it. An expense management solution will make minimising T&E much simpler and also more humane.

When cutting costs, be very wary of items that are high-value but low-cost. Sure, getting in cheaper coffee might save a few pennies – but is that really what’s weighing down the company’s finances? Apply a weighting to these sorts of costs. The harm to morale could outweigh any money saved.

And don’t be afraid to open the floor when it comes to cuts. Get what’s known as functional leaders involved. These are people who aren’t necessarily formal management, but widely respected for their work and influence. Their buy-in when cutting costs is invaluable.

Manage out poor performers:

This should be standard operating procedure, even during easier economic times. Accelerate this process during a downturn. Especially when cuts must be made.

Psychologically, employees will view this as different to workforce cuts. A job loss tied to performance is different to an across-the-board downsizing. It can be a powerful shield for employee morale.

Pushing through the downturn

The downturn is temporary. At some point, it will abate and you can loosen your grip on costs and investment. For now, though, a defensive mindset is what’s needed.

No one is enthusiastic about cuts. But damage to morale can be managed. By making cuts more strategic, you can lower your costs and improve resilience without harming worker (or, indeed, your own) morale.

Fleet Managers and Operation Managers are increasingly convincing their CFOs themselves that cash and fuel cards no longer work, as they experience on a daily basis the immense frustrations among themselves and drivers. The current economic situation and fuel crisis call for new solutions in a transport sector where mutual trust is traditionally low.

Three trends for transport companies

Drivers as well as their Finance and Operations departments experience a lot of frustration around expenses and claims. And those frustrations are increasing, as a result of three key trends for transport companies.

One is that drivers are increasingly having to fill up at other places because of the current fuel crisis. This also occurs at filling stations where the driver does not have a fuel card, while due to high inflation and economic recession, nobody wants to advance costs out of their own pocket anymore. Meanwhile, the huge staff shortage is forcing transport companies to make things easier for drivers with innovative solutions.

1. Drivers sometimes need to refuel in other places
   The current fuel crisis is making it difficult for drivers to invariably fill up at their regular locations. In other cases, the crisis makes it difficult for drivers to fill up at least at the petrol station chain for which they have a payment card. In practice, it means that drivers must swerve on the road, for instance if fuel is not available at certain locations.The war in Ukraine, current economic developments and the high price of diesel and other fuels make it attractive to fill up across the border in more advantageous countries. In other cases, it is necessary, for instance, because certain petrol stations do not have sufficient supplies. If no payment card is available for the alternative filling station, drivers and the transport companies look for alternatives. A payment card from a particular filling station then no longer offers a solution.
2. No one wants to advance out of pocket anymore
   The same economic situation and soaring prices, combined with massive inflation, are creating an additional challenge for drivers. Whereas in the past they were willing to advance unforeseen costs out of their own pockets, this is now much less common. Many drivers do not want to advance the cost, and others simply cannot advance it.They call the transport company they work for to make extra money available. Or they use an emergency envelope with cash money, which in turn the company has no control over. It leads to solutions that both drivers and the transport companies do not like, so for which they would like to find an alternative.
3. Transport companies should make it easier for drivers
   Finally, there is a lot of pressure on transport companies. The current staff shortage in several markets in Europe is leading to great difficulty in finding new drivers. Companies must try harder to attract staff, and then cannot use frustrations over expenses and allowances. It increases the urgency to act now.
   

Much frustration for drivers as well as Fleet and Operations Managers

It is mostly Fleet Managers and Operations Managers at transport companies who experience this frustration. They are often called even in the evening hours and on weekends, by drivers who need extra money on the road. This is true, for example, when they need to divert to another filling station, just as when they suddenly have to spend the night elsewhere, when they need to have a repair done or when they incur other expenses.

And even at the time when a driver only has to incur the regular costs, it leads to a lot of administration, and frustration. Drivers must keep perfectly accurate records of expenses, and then submit a claim in Excel. Or they can use a fuel card, but then it is the Operations Manager who then has to check whether transactions are all correct.

Transport companies have traditionally been reluctant to issue credit cards to drivers. Many of the drivers only work for a relatively short time with the same employer, or even do seasonal work, and therefore do not build strong and loyal bonds. Mutual trust is too fragile to give a credit card in the company’s name, which would allow the driver to pay all expenses. The fuel card is an exception to this, but it does not allow for paying for repairs, overnight stays, and fuel at non-affiliated filling stations.

Solution for (large) transport companies

At Soldo, we offer a solution that works for both (large) transport companies and drivers. Our payment solution allows drivers to settle at the transport company’s expense. That applies to fuel, as well as overnight stays, lunches, repairs, and other expenses. That is, if authorised by the company.
Thanks to restrictions on specific spending categories, certain geographical areas and in other areas, it is possible to set exactly what a driver can spend. Then the transactions are immediately visible, from one clear dashboard.

Good practices at Titans and Sendsio

These advantages is the reason why many large transport companies we work for are happy to benefit from. A good example is Titans Group. They were not looking for a fuel card because it would make them dependent on a specific fuel supplier. On the other hand, they did suffer from high expenses and temporary workers in the peak season. With Soldo, they offer their drivers a simple payment solution, combined with a smart app. This gives Titans Group full control and all the necessary insight into transactions. Drivers, on the other hand, do not have to advance anything, even if they suddenly must swerve and fill up in an unusual place.

Sendsio also chose Soldo. This makes the monthly closing a lot less time-consuming, and day-to-day management is much less burdensome for Fleet Managers and Operations Managers. For them, a declaration now takes 30 minutes, whereas previously employees spent an average of half a day on it. There are no more advances and recoveries for fuel, overnight stays, and lunches. Moreover, the company has interfaced with their SAP software. As a result, even the organisation’s CEO and COO have real-time insight into costs and keep an overview more easily

Faster and with real-time insight and overview: Soldo

At Soldo, we offer a complete, user-friendly, and convenient payment solution. Transport companies use a payment card for drivers, which they can set up themselves. This prevents drivers from having to advance costs themselves or becoming dependent on specific suppliers for fuel, for example. It is no longer necessary to provide a credit card, while drivers can still pay anywhere with credit card is accepted.

Thanks to real-time visibility, overview, and possible links to, for example, SAP software and ERP systems, all data are always easily available. Links with the existing accounting software, for example, ensure that transactions are immediately entered correctly in the administration.

Would you like to know more about how Titans Group and Sendsio use our payment solutions? Or are you curious how your company can benefit from this? Together with my colleagues, I will be happy to explain it to you, even if, as a Fleet Manager or Operations Manager, you would like to do the talking yourself to convince your organisation’s CFO.

Check out Soldo.com or book a free, no-obligation demo to experience it for yourself straight away.

How do you control fuel costs made by drivers when they are on the road, across borders, or even in different time zones? It is a challenge many transport companies face. Asking drivers to pay out of their own pocket leads to frustration, and corporate credit cards require a lot of paperwork. There’s an easier, more efficient way to manage these expenses. 

Sometimes, transport companies can resemble administration offices. Operations and finance departments work overtime to process and check all (fuel) payments. Meanwhile, drivers must pay large sums of money out of pocket to do their jobs, save receipts, fill out forms, and wait to be reimbursed.

To add to these challenges, diesel prices have become a huge issue for transport companies. And according to current fuel monitors, there’s not much hope of improvement.

Paying in cash or with prepaid fuel cards

Fuel payments and other business expenses are often disregarded in favour of operation and logistic improvements.

As a result, too many companies with fleets of over 100 vehicles still allow drivers to pay for fuel themselves or with prepaid fuel cards. However, these debit cards are often restricted and come with a lot of limitations, causing dissatisfaction among drivers. These restrictions also make it difficult to cover overnight stays, road repairs, or parking fees.

This solution doesn’t benefit fleet managers and financial controllers either, and may even put the company at risk. Cash payments can encourage fraud, corporate credit cards are often misused, receipts get lost, and there’s no way to track spending in real time.

Admin hassles

For transport companies, accounting can be complex – even if it’s just about fuel costs. It causes a great deal of frustration among drivers, accountants, fleet managers, and eventually CFOs.

Drivers have trouble managing expenses without having to work overtime on a daily basis. Especially when they’re on the road and have to fill up their vehicles – often across borders and sometimes in other time zones. This admin work involves processing payments, managing cash expenses, and processing claims in the company’s accounting system.

Accountants, fleet managers, operations managers, and even drivers waste too much time on these tasks, all at the expense of productivity. These unproductive hours cost money, and can’t be spent on their ultimate goal: getting from point A to point B.

Drivers must also prove what they have spent in cash, which adds to the hassle. Cash payments are hard to verify, but they keep them going and relieve the administrative burden. Checks may prevent business fraud, but they undermine the trust of those making the payments.

Top 5 benefits of using Soldo

Transport companies such as Titans, Girteka, Gruber Logistics, and Wallenborn all chose Soldo because it offered them at least one of these five advantages:

1. Easy payments for fuel and more

With a smart payment card which drivers can use for fuel as well as other expenses, there’s no need to go out of pocket while on the road. They don’t have to use a business credit card and provide guarantees or collateral in exchange. They charge just as easily for overnight accommodation, repairs and parking costs – even in different geographical locations.

2. Real-time view of costs

Soldo gives accountants, fleet managers and operations managers real-time insight into drivers’ costs while they’re on the road. They get a notification whenever a transaction happens, and can instantly top up drivers with only a few clicks.

3. Flexible spending and limits

Smart payment cards make it possible to set what drivers are allowed to spend in a way that works for you. You can choose what type of expenses employees can make, and where (such as specific merchants of geo-locations). This gives you total control over fuel costs and other business expenses while drivers are in transit, even in different countries.

4. All expenses in one place

You can track and manage all fuel and business expenses at once with the Soldo platform. It shows you all incurred costs in detail, whether costs are rising and where savings opportunities exist. And thanks to our auto-tagging feature, payments will be automatically sorted by category.

5. Increased security

Replacing cash with smart payment cards for expenses greatly reduces the risk of false claims and fraud. Moreover, should employees fail to comply with rules and regulations, you can easily lock their cards to disable spending and switch off cash withdrawals.

Smart payment cards with flexible options

Looking for a way to combine all the benefits of a business credit card with a system that saves you a tonne of admin headaches? Give drivers and other employees a physical card as well as a virtual alternative. Virtual cards are great for ad-hoc and online payments, for instance.

Soldo is the all-in-one management platform your transport company needs. Stay on top of every penny while saving time, and boost employee satisfaction.

Buying digital media on behalf of your clients creates a huge amount of admin and budgeting issues. A proper spend management solution can change this.

For media agencies, virtual cards are the ideal alternative to company credit cards. You can create them when you need them, with a set amount of money, and use them immediately. They’re also much easier to manage.

Read on to learn more about how virtual cards can help you manage your clients’ spending (and yours).

The trouble with tracking ad campaigns

Handling different clients, projects, and accounts is even tougher if you’re using a company credit card. It can result in overspending, hours on the telephone with the bank, inaccurate data – and headaches for your team.

Credit cards may also put your company at risk, and are notably inflexible:

• Credit cards get blocked when there’s suspicion of fraud. When this happens, you need to change the card number assigned to each ad account manually.
• Setting firm budgets for each ad programme is challenging when you use the same card for everything – and credit card limits are famously hard to change.
• Using one credit card for each ad account will put you at a higher risk of theft – and the volume of charges on the card make it harder to spot fraud.

For your finance team, credit cards are a reconciliation nightmare. They mean matching a mountain of invoices and statements, and combing through ad platforms to track spend activity.

Agencies can lose days every month to this, and still not know what they’re spending or where. It’s bad for business and bad for morale. All this time spent on admin chores only distracts staff from more fulfilling, valuable work.

Most agencies see these challenges as part of the job. They need to buy media for clients, so they also have to accept the vast, inconvenient admin.

For growing digital media agencies, another factor comes into play – using a credit card abroad often means extra charges, and multi-currency payments are tricky to manage.

But no matter how big your team is, how many clients you’ve got, and how many campaigns you’re running at once – managing spend doesn’t have to hold you back.

Switching to virtual cards

Virtual cards, combined with a digital platform, simplify paying for ads on different channels. From search engines to social media networks, paying and tracking ads is much easier:

Reduce the number of emails between finance and teams about receipts, reports, and requests
Get thorough, accurate spending data from marketing channels without having to match statements
Attribute different cards to campaigns so you always know how much you’ve spent on it

This approach works better for your people, your business, and your clients.

How do virtual cards work?

Imagine you’ve got a client with ads on Facebook and Google. You can create two different virtual cards and define a budget for each one. When the cards run out of funds, you can top them up again. For longer campaigns, just set up a monthly or annual budget.

You can also assign the cards to specific people on your team and make each user responsible for managing their card.

With the Soldo web platform, your team can manage their cards online, automate reports, and turn campaigns off once they end. This prevents your company from paying for extra ads or going over budget.

There’s more to virtual cards:

• Increased flexibility (instead of coming up against your credit limit and having your card blocked)
• Simple campaign management (each campaign has a virtual card assigned to a person)
• Customisable cards (only load the budgeted amount to each card and issue them with a customer or campaign name)
• Business protection (keep projects from going overbudget; clients see each transaction clearly)
• Automated payments (streamlined approval process so employees feel trusted and empowered)

At Soldo we also have virtual cards for one-off or ad-hoc purchases, which can be used for 7 days. You can set the purchase limit between one and 10 transactions, decide the amount, and issue cards in that moment.

This method is even safer – only the requester and approver have access to the card details, which are securely kept on the web platform, so no one has to share card details. They won’t fall into the wrong hands and cause you trouble.

What flexible spend management gives you

Real-time, in-depth tracking

When you don’t know which campaign a transaction relates to, your team has to sort it out manually – and only after the monthly statement.

Company cards connected to a spend management platform end the need to match transactions.

With Soldo, you can create separate cards for each client, campaign, or media type, and see what each transaction relates to in real time.

Spend limits you can control

It’s up to you to set the limits on your virtual cards, unlike credit cards. You can use your clients’ budgets as a guide, instead of letting third-party providers decide how much you can spend.

The ability to adjust your limits according to your needs will keep you going. Your team doesn’t get cut off in the middle of a campaign, and you stay in control of the situation.

Easy process, happier team

Repetitive, tedious admin is no help to any business. It cuts into important work time and can lead to inaccurate data. On the other hand, smart company cards:

• Speed up the expense process (you can invoice clients faster)
• Keep spending organised automatically
• Improve employee satisfaction

More business without the admin chores

Brands are spending more and more on ad budgets, pay-per-click ads and other paid media. So, for digital agencies, staying on top of this spend is conducive to growth. With virtual cards, you can have company cards for different projects, and delegate responsibility over them – no matter where your client is.

And because digital platforms such as Soldo are so remote-friendly – supporting multiple currencies, and accessible from anywhere – you can attract more clients from other countries.

Contact us to learn more about how we help media agencies.

Buying digital media on behalf of your clients creates a huge amount of admin and budgeting issues. A proper spend management solution can change this.

For media agencies, virtual cards are the ideal alternative to company credit cards. You can create them when you need them, with a set amount of money, and use them immediately. They’re also much easier to manage.

Read on to learn more about how virtual cards can help you manage your clients’ spending (and yours).

The trouble with tracking ad campaigns

Handling different clients, projects, and accounts is even tougher if you’re using a company credit card. It can result in overspending, hours on the telephone with the bank, inaccurate data – and headaches for your team.

Credit cards may also put your company at risk, and are notably inflexible:

• Credit cards get blocked when there’s suspicion of fraud. When this happens, you need to change the card number assigned to each ad account manually.
• Setting firm budgets for each ad programme is challenging when you use the same card for everything – and credit card limits are famously hard to change.
• Using one credit card for each ad account will put you at a higher risk of theft – and the volume of charges on the card make it harder to spot fraud.

For your finance team, credit cards are a reconciliation nightmare. They mean matching a mountain of invoices and statements, and combing through ad platforms to track spend activity.

Agencies can lose days every month to this, and still not know what they’re spending or where. It’s bad for business and bad for morale. All this time spent on admin chores only distracts staff from more fulfilling, valuable work.

Most agencies see these challenges as part of the job. They need to buy media for clients, so they also have to accept the vast, inconvenient admin.

For growing digital media agencies, another factor comes into play – using a credit card abroad often means extra charges, and multi-currency payments are tricky to manage.

But no matter how big your team is, how many clients you’ve got, and how many campaigns you’re running at once – managing spend doesn’t have to hold you back.

Switching to virtual cards

Virtual cards, combined with a digital platform, simplify paying for ads on different channels. From search engines to social media networks, paying and tracking ads is much easier:

Reduce the number of emails between finance and teams about receipts, reports, and requests
Get thorough, accurate spending data from marketing channels without having to match statements
Attribute different cards to campaigns so you always know how much you’ve spent on it

This approach works better for your people, your business, and your clients.

How do virtual cards work?

Imagine you’ve got a client with ads on Facebook and Google. You can create two different virtual cards and define a budget for each one. When the cards run out of funds, you can top them up again. For longer campaigns, just set up a monthly or annual budget.

You can also assign the cards to specific people on your team and make each user responsible for managing their card.

With the Soldo web platform, your team can manage their cards online, automate reports, and turn campaigns off once they end. This prevents your company from paying for extra ads or going over budget.

There’s more to virtual cards:

• Increased flexibility (instead of coming up against your credit limit and having your card blocked)
• Simple campaign management (each campaign has a virtual card assigned to a person)
• Customisable cards (only load the budgeted amount to each card and issue them with a customer or campaign name)
• Business protection (keep projects from going overbudget; clients see each transaction clearly)
• Automated payments (streamlined approval process so employees feel trusted and empowered)

At Soldo we also have virtual cards for one-off or ad-hoc purchases, which can be used for 7 days. You can set the purchase limit between one and 10 transactions, decide the amount, and issue cards in that moment.

This method is even safer – only the requester and approver have access to the card details, which are securely kept on the web platform, so no one has to share card details. They won’t fall into the wrong hands and cause you trouble.

What flexible spend management gives you

Real-time, in-depth tracking

When you don’t know which campaign a transaction relates to, your team has to sort it out manually – and only after the monthly statement.

Company cards connected to a spend management platform end the need to match transactions.

With Soldo, you can create separate cards for each client, campaign, or media type, and see what each transaction relates to in real time.

Spend limits you can control

It’s up to you to set the limits on your virtual cards, unlike credit cards. You can use your clients’ budgets as a guide, instead of letting third-party providers decide how much you can spend.

The ability to adjust your limits according to your needs will keep you going. Your team doesn’t get cut off in the middle of a campaign, and you stay in control of the situation.

Easy process, happier team

Repetitive, tedious admin is no help to any business. It cuts into important work time and can lead to inaccurate data. On the other hand, smart company cards:

• Speed up the expense process (you can invoice clients faster)
• Keep spending organised automatically
• Improve employee satisfaction

More business without the admin chores

Brands are spending more and more on ad budgets, pay-per-click ads and other paid media. So, for digital agencies, staying on top of this spend is conducive to growth. With virtual cards, you can have company cards for different projects, and delegate responsibility over them – no matter where your client is.

And because digital platforms such as Soldo are so remote-friendly – supporting multiple currencies, and accessible from anywhere – you can attract more clients from other countries.

Contact us to learn more about how we help media agencies.

Are you doing a spend analysis at least once a quarter? Have you ever done a spend analysis before?

Not to worry if you haven’t – it’s never too late to build a new healthy habit into your company spending strategy. And, as the cost of living crisis continues to put pressure on your pocket, a good company spending strategy has never been more important.

Doing a regular spend analysis is essential for making sure the rules you set out in your expense policy on paper, are actually being followed in practice. Some people find spend analysis easier than others – their eyes seem to find patterns in spreadsheets, and meaning in piles of crumpled receipts. Others find the range of numbers disorienting and stressful, which is why the task is so often neglected.

The good news is that there are three simple steps you can follow to find meaning – and savings – in your list of business of outgoings:

• Spend analysis step 1: see it
• Spend analysis step 2: sort it
• Spend analysis step 3: study it

Spend analysis step 1: see it

The first step of your spend analysis is all about visibility. If you can’t see it, you can’t analyse it. At this stage you’ll want to focus on unearthing everything you possibly can about the money your business is spending.

If you haven’t done this before, it can be quite overwhelming. Fortunately, your second spend analysis is almost never as gruelling as your first.

Round up the data

If you want to analyse your spend you have to know where to find the data.

Depending on how your business is structured, you may need to source information from a few different teams, so make sure you leave yourself enough time to do that during this first step.

For smaller businesses, rounding up the data might just mean opening a box of receipts in your desk drawer, or doing a search for invoices in your email inbox. Be thorough and always double check that you haven’t missed anything.

If you’re using Soldo, this step won’t take long at all. Just log in to the admin dashboard and download reports for the period you’re analysing.

Assess the round up process

Before moving on to the next step, take some time to reflect on how easy (or difficult) it was to round up the data. If it was difficult, this is a great opportunity to tweak your expense process so step one of your spend analysis runs smoothly next time.

If it was easy, don’t rest on your laurels – you should still look for other ways to make the process even better.

Spend analysis step 2: sort it

Now that you’ve sourced your data, you’ll need to sort it in a way that makes sense. That way your spend anaylsis won’t leave you feeling dizzy. The goal at this stage is to be systematic, so that like can be compared against like.

Say yes to tech

This is where technology comes in to your spend analysis (if you haven’t been using it already).

Excel is still the most widely used tool for expenses but spreadsheets can get messy pretty quickly and mistakes can slip in unnoticed. There are some great alternatives out there to help you manage and analyse company spend, including accounting software such as Sage, Quickbooks and Xero.

Although you might not consider yourself tech savvy, don’t underestimate how much you’re already doing on a normal day with your smartphone. From checking work emails or messages on the go to using your business banking app and maybe even tracking your morning run.

A spend management platform like Soldo brings these two kinds of technology together. You and your employees can use our mobile app to snap a picture of a receipt right at the point of purchase so you always know who spent what. And because our platform integrates with your accounting software, you’re never left with hours of month-end reconciliation or time wasted on tracking down missing receipts.

Sort purchases into spend categories

The best way to be systematic about your spend data is to organise it by category.

Your business will have specific categories depending on where you and your team need to spend money but here are some of the most common ones:

• Travel
• Food
• Accommodation
• Software
• Office supplies
• Marketing
• IT
• Telephony/internet

It’s really important to get the categorisation step of your spend analysis right. It’s even more important that you make categorisation a central part of your company spending strategy – if you haven’t already done so.

If you’re a Soldo user, you can create your own categories in the admin dashboard, and add the relevant category to every purchase – it only takes a couple of seconds. If you’re using accounting software such as Xero, you can add categories when you upload your expenses, or review and accept the software’s automatic suggestions.

Spend analysis step 3: study it

Ironically, analysis is the final step of the spend analysis process. Making your expenses visible, and then sorting them into categories, often takes longer than studying them for patterns and opportunities to save your business money. But if you’ve done the seeing and sorting steps properly, the studying step should be relatively straightforward.

Search for patterns

Start with one category, such as travel, then try to zoom out and look at your company spend with fresh eyes. You’re looking for patterns and trends in your company spending that you might not have noticed otherwise.

Finding patterns is not an end in itself. Instead, patterns are a means to spotting opportunities to cut costs or shift budget from one spend category to another. Patterns often highlight old habits that your business has taken for granted as ‘just the way things are.’ Challenge this. Why are you spending in this way? How could you do things differently?

Patterns can also show an over-reliance on a small range of suppliers. Challenge this, too – especially now as you’re faced with weathering an economic storm having just traded through a global pandemic.

Your suppliers may have had no choice but to increase their prices but, if you’re a loyal customer, could you negotiate a bulk discount? Is there a way you could organise your buying over the year to make better use of existing bulk discounts? Are you over-reliant on one supplier for a crucial regular item? What would happen if they folded or were unable to fulfil an order? Would it be safer to explore your options?

Study the outliers

The other reason to seek out patterns in your company spending is so that you can easily identify outliers.

• Are there any expenses that stand out? Why do they stand out?
• Has your business paid twice for something in error? Or have you overpaid?
• Has your company spend unexpectedly increased in certain categories?
• Should you adjust your budget to align with new needs, or adjust your spending to realign with your budget?
• Are all of your employees or teams adhering equally to your expense policy? What can you do to ensure that everyone is sticking to the rules?

Studying the outliers is not about being picky for the sake of it. It’s about checking that everything makes sense – that every expense can be tied to a relevant business need.

The bottom line

Once you’ve analysed your company spend, it’s worth dedicating some serious thought to the time it took you to make sense of all the outgoings. If you manage your company’s spend well, seeing it and sorting it will be condensed into just a few clicks. And, once everything is in order, studying it should be fast, accurate and stress-free.

Find out how Soldo can make your next spend analysis a breeze or subscribe for more articles like this one.

Buying digital media on behalf of your clients creates a huge amount of admin and budgeting issues. A proper spend management solution can change this.

For media agencies, virtual cards are the ideal alternative to company credit cards. You can create them when you need them, with a set amount of money, and use them immediately. They’re also much easier to manage.

Read on to learn more about how virtual cards can help you manage your clients’ spending (and yours).

The trouble with tracking ad campaigns

Handling different clients, projects, and accounts is even tougher if you’re using a company credit card. It can result in overspending, hours on the telephone with the bank, inaccurate data – and headaches for your team.

Credit cards may also put your company at risk, and are notably inflexible:

• Credit cards get blocked when there’s suspicion of fraud. When this happens, you need to change the card number assigned to each ad account manually.
• Setting firm budgets for each ad programme is challenging when you use the same card for everything – and credit card limits are famously hard to change.
• Using one credit card for each ad account will put you at a higher risk of theft – and the volume of charges on the card make it harder to spot fraud.

For your finance team, credit cards are a reconciliation nightmare. They mean matching a mountain of invoices and statements, and combing through ad platforms to track spend activity.

Agencies can lose days every month to this, and still not know what they’re spending or where. It’s bad for business and bad for morale. All this time spent on admin chores only distracts staff from more fulfilling, valuable work.

Most agencies see these challenges as part of the job. They need to buy media for clients, so they also have to accept the vast, inconvenient admin.

For growing digital media agencies, another factor comes into play – using a credit card abroad often means extra charges, and multi-currency payments are tricky to manage.

But no matter how big your team is, how many clients you’ve got, and how many campaigns you’re running at once – managing spend doesn’t have to hold you back.

Switching to virtual cards

Virtual cards, combined with a digital platform, simplify paying for ads on different channels. From search engines to social media networks, paying and tracking ads is much easier:

Reduce the number of emails between finance and teams about receipts, reports, and requests
Get thorough, accurate spending data from marketing channels without having to match statements
Attribute different cards to campaigns so you always know how much you’ve spent on it

This approach works better for your people, your business, and your clients.

How do virtual cards work?

Imagine you’ve got a client with ads on Facebook and Google. You can create two different virtual cards and define a budget for each one. When the cards run out of funds, you can top them up again. For longer campaigns, just set up a monthly or annual budget.

You can also assign the cards to specific people on your team and make each user responsible for managing their card.

With the Soldo web platform, your team can manage their cards online, automate reports, and turn campaigns off once they end. This prevents your company from paying for extra ads or going over budget.

There’s more to virtual cards:

• Increased flexibility (instead of coming up against your credit limit and having your card blocked)
• Simple campaign management (each campaign has a virtual card assigned to a person)
• Customisable cards (only load the budgeted amount to each card and issue them with a customer or campaign name)
• Business protection (keep projects from going overbudget; clients see each transaction clearly)
• Automated payments (streamlined approval process so employees feel trusted and empowered)

At Soldo we also have virtual cards for one-off or ad-hoc purchases, which can be used for 7 days. You can set the purchase limit between one and 10 transactions, decide the amount, and issue cards in that moment.

This method is even safer – only the requester and approver have access to the card details, which are securely kept on the web platform, so no one has to share card details. They won’t fall into the wrong hands and cause you trouble.

What flexible spend management gives you

Real-time, in-depth tracking

When you don’t know which campaign a transaction relates to, your team has to sort it out manually – and only after the monthly statement.

Company cards connected to a spend management platform end the need to match transactions.

With Soldo, you can create separate cards for each client, campaign, or media type, and see what each transaction relates to in real time.

Spend limits you can control

It’s up to you to set the limits on your virtual cards, unlike credit cards. You can use your clients’ budgets as a guide, instead of letting third-party providers decide how much you can spend.

The ability to adjust your limits according to your needs will keep you going. Your team doesn’t get cut off in the middle of a campaign, and you stay in control of the situation.

Easy process, happier team

Repetitive, tedious admin is no help to any business. It cuts into important work time and can lead to inaccurate data. On the other hand, smart company cards:

• Speed up the expense process (you can invoice clients faster)
• Keep spending organised automatically
• Improve employee satisfaction

More business without the admin chores

Brands are spending more and more on ad budgets, pay-per-click ads and other paid media. So, for digital agencies, staying on top of this spend is conducive to growth. With virtual cards, you can have company cards for different projects, and delegate responsibility over them – no matter where your client is.

And because digital platforms such as Soldo are so remote-friendly – supporting multiple currencies, and accessible from anywhere – you can attract more clients from other countries.

Contact us to learn more about how we help media agencies.

How do you control fuel costs made by drivers when they are on the road, across borders, or even in different time zones? It is a challenge many transport companies face. Asking drivers to pay out of their own pocket leads to frustration, and corporate credit cards require a lot of paperwork. There’s an easier, more efficient way to manage these expenses. 

Sometimes, transport companies can resemble administration offices. Operations and finance departments work overtime to process and check all (fuel) payments. Meanwhile, drivers must pay large sums of money out of pocket to do their jobs, save receipts, fill out forms, and wait to be reimbursed.

To add to these challenges, diesel prices have become a huge issue for transport companies. And according to current fuel monitors, there’s not much hope of improvement.

Paying in cash or with prepaid fuel cards

Fuel payments and other business expenses are often disregarded in favour of operation and logistic improvements.

As a result, too many companies with fleets of over 100 vehicles still allow drivers to pay for fuel themselves or with prepaid fuel cards. However, these debit cards are often restricted and come with a lot of limitations, causing dissatisfaction among drivers. These restrictions also make it difficult to cover overnight stays, road repairs, or parking fees.

This solution doesn’t benefit fleet managers and financial controllers either, and may even put the company at risk. Cash payments can encourage fraud, corporate credit cards are often misused, receipts get lost, and there’s no way to track spending in real time.

Admin hassles

For transport companies, accounting can be complex – even if it’s just about fuel costs. It causes a great deal of frustration among drivers, accountants, fleet managers, and eventually CFOs.

Drivers have trouble managing expenses without having to work overtime on a daily basis. Especially when they’re on the road and have to fill up their vehicles – often across borders and sometimes in other time zones. This admin work involves processing payments, managing cash expenses, and processing claims in the company’s accounting system.

Accountants, fleet managers, operations managers, and even drivers waste too much time on these tasks, all at the expense of productivity. These unproductive hours cost money, and can’t be spent on their ultimate goal: getting from point A to point B.

Drivers must also prove what they have spent in cash, which adds to the hassle. Cash payments are hard to verify, but they keep them going and relieve the administrative burden. Checks may prevent business fraud, but they undermine the trust of those making the payments.

Top 5 benefits of using Soldo

Transport companies such as Titans, Girteka, Gruber Logistics, and Wallenborn all chose Soldo because it offered them at least one of these five advantages:

1. Easy payments for fuel and more

With a smart payment card which drivers can use for fuel as well as other expenses, there’s no need to go out of pocket while on the road. They don’t have to use a business credit card and provide guarantees or collateral in exchange. They charge just as easily for overnight accommodation, repairs and parking costs – even in different geographical locations.

2. Real-time view of costs

Soldo gives accountants, fleet managers and operations managers real-time insight into drivers’ costs while they’re on the road. They get a notification whenever a transaction happens, and can instantly top up drivers with only a few clicks.

3. Flexible spending and limits

Smart payment cards make it possible to set what drivers are allowed to spend in a way that works for you. You can choose what type of expenses employees can make, and where (such as specific merchants of geo-locations). This gives you total control over fuel costs and other business expenses while drivers are in transit, even in different countries.

4. All expenses in one place

You can track and manage all fuel and business expenses at once with the Soldo platform. It shows you all incurred costs in detail, whether costs are rising and where savings opportunities exist. And thanks to our auto-tagging feature, payments will be automatically sorted by category.

5. Increased security

Replacing cash with smart payment cards for expenses greatly reduces the risk of false claims and fraud. Moreover, should employees fail to comply with rules and regulations, you can easily lock their cards to disable spending and switch off cash withdrawals.

Smart payment cards with flexible options

Looking for a way to combine all the benefits of a business credit card with a system that saves you a tonne of admin headaches? Give drivers and other employees a physical card as well as a virtual alternative. Virtual cards are great for ad-hoc and online payments, for instance.

Soldo is the all-in-one management platform your transport company needs. Stay on top of every penny while saving time, and boost employee satisfaction.

How do you control fuel costs made by drivers when they are on the road, across borders, or even in different time zones? It is a challenge many transport companies face. Asking drivers to pay out of their own pocket leads to frustration, and corporate credit cards require a lot of paperwork. There’s an easier, more efficient way to manage these expenses. 

Sometimes, transport companies can resemble administration offices. Operations and finance departments work overtime to process and check all (fuel) payments. Meanwhile, drivers must pay large sums of money out of pocket to do their jobs, save receipts, fill out forms, and wait to be reimbursed.

To add to these challenges, diesel prices have become a huge issue for transport companies. And according to current fuel monitors, there’s not much hope of improvement.

Paying in cash or with prepaid fuel cards

Fuel payments and other business expenses are often disregarded in favour of operation and logistic improvements.

As a result, too many companies with fleets of over 100 vehicles still allow drivers to pay for fuel themselves or with prepaid fuel cards. However, these debit cards are often restricted and come with a lot of limitations, causing dissatisfaction among drivers. These restrictions also make it difficult to cover overnight stays, road repairs, or parking fees.

This solution doesn’t benefit fleet managers and financial controllers either, and may even put the company at risk. Cash payments can encourage fraud, corporate credit cards are often misused, receipts get lost, and there’s no way to track spending in real time.

Admin hassles

For transport companies, accounting can be complex – even if it’s just about fuel costs. It causes a great deal of frustration among drivers, accountants, fleet managers, and eventually CFOs.

Drivers have trouble managing expenses without having to work overtime on a daily basis. Especially when they’re on the road and have to fill up their vehicles – often across borders and sometimes in other time zones. This admin work involves processing payments, managing cash expenses, and processing claims in the company’s accounting system.

Accountants, fleet managers, operations managers, and even drivers waste too much time on these tasks, all at the expense of productivity. These unproductive hours cost money, and can’t be spent on their ultimate goal: getting from point A to point B.

Drivers must also prove what they have spent in cash, which adds to the hassle. Cash payments are hard to verify, but they keep them going and relieve the administrative burden. Checks may prevent business fraud, but they undermine the trust of those making the payments.

Top 5 benefits of using Soldo

Transport companies such as Titans, Girteka, Gruber Logistics, and Wallenborn all chose Soldo because it offered them at least one of these five advantages:

1. Easy payments for fuel and more

With a smart payment card which drivers can use for fuel as well as other expenses, there’s no need to go out of pocket while on the road. They don’t have to use a business credit card and provide guarantees or collateral in exchange. They charge just as easily for overnight accommodation, repairs and parking costs – even in different geographical locations.

2. Real-time view of costs

Soldo gives accountants, fleet managers and operations managers real-time insight into drivers’ costs while they’re on the road. They get a notification whenever a transaction happens, and can instantly top up drivers with only a few clicks.

3. Flexible spending and limits

Smart payment cards make it possible to set what drivers are allowed to spend in a way that works for you. You can choose what type of expenses employees can make, and where (such as specific merchants of geo-locations). This gives you total control over fuel costs and other business expenses while drivers are in transit, even in different countries.

4. All expenses in one place

You can track and manage all fuel and business expenses at once with the Soldo platform. It shows you all incurred costs in detail, whether costs are rising and where savings opportunities exist. And thanks to our auto-tagging feature, payments will be automatically sorted by category.

5. Increased security

Replacing cash with smart payment cards for expenses greatly reduces the risk of false claims and fraud. Moreover, should employees fail to comply with rules and regulations, you can easily lock their cards to disable spending and switch off cash withdrawals.

Smart payment cards with flexible options

Looking for a way to combine all the benefits of a business credit card with a system that saves you a tonne of admin headaches? Give drivers and other employees a physical card as well as a virtual alternative. Virtual cards are great for ad-hoc and online payments, for instance.

Soldo is the all-in-one management platform your transport company needs. Stay on top of every penny while saving time, and boost employee satisfaction.