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Receipt Bank credit card
Receipt Bank

Receipt Bank launches small business credit card

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Pre-accounting platform Receipt Bank has released its own credit card, providing a new expense solution for small businesses.

12th Nov 2019
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Digital bookkeeping platform Receipt Bank has partnered with lender and commercial card company Capital on Tap to release a credit card aimed at streamlining and automating the expense management process for small businesses.

A credit card?

Receipt Bank’s director of user adoption Ben Martin explained that fulfilling customer demand was the driving force behind the new expense tool, and that the card reflects the changing reality of how users are reconciling their money.

“We assessed ways to develop integrated services and sweeten everyone's lives in pre-accounting. Looking at card payments and how they integrate into general ledgers seemed like a natural area to delve,” Martin told AccountingWEB.

How does it work?

The card’s mechanics are very similar to any credit card provided by a bank or building society. However, according to Receipt Bank the main attraction is that within 6-12 hours the spend data goes to the general ledger which, with the client's authorisation, is used by Receipt Bank to optimise its products.

The credit card has direct integration with Xero, meaning all transactions used via the card will be automatically updated within the company account. 

Director of cloud accounting at UHY Stuart Hurst told AccountingWEB that from an accountant’s perspective, the card makes life easier. “Because we've got live and accurate data, we're not chasing the client for receipts and missing invoices,” said Hurst. 

Hurst confirmed that the process “will never fail as the link between Xero and Receipt Bank is set in stone”. Xero’s open API assures that the connection is both secure and reliable. “The process is completely automated, and 12 hours is the quickest in the business,” added Hurst.

After paying with the card and taking a photo of the receipt the expense process is complete for the employee, as the receipt matches with the transaction the following day, meaning the receipt can then be disposed of. With the inbuilt match functionality, the software can identify each card by matching the receipt number. “70-80% of the time is completely taken away. The software is working it out itself, so it's very powerful in that sense,” said Hurst. 

Accountants are then able to “effortlessly match up” all the transactions with photographed receipts in the Receipt Bank app. 

Perks for small businesses 

According to Receipt Bank's Martin, a major benefit for clients is the 0% foreign exchange commission fees. Removing these fees “in this day and age is of paramount importance because transparency is key and people are being ripped off by some of the cards out there”.

The card also offers free cash withdrawal, up to 56 days interest-free credit and instant credit approval of up to £50,000 to ensure businesses have immediate access to funding.

The basic Receipt Bank card does not charge for additional user cards as “their drive is obviously to get as many people on board and get the data in”, Hurst explained. 

Application for the new expense tool involves a two-minute card approval that does not affect the applicant’s credit rating, according to the website.

Cost

The basic package is free with unlimited additional cards, through to a £99 annual fee for the Capital Club and £249 for the Capital on Tap Club, both generating increasing amounts of Avios points, cashback and bonus points.

The credit card was officially released earlier this year and can be used anywhere that Visa is accepted.

One important point to note is that the card is only available within the UK and to limited companies and partnerships. Receipt Bank would have to be a credit broker to offer it to consumers, and a sole trader is considered in the FCA's eyes as a consumer.

Currently, the card is only integrated with Xero, as many of the big players “don’t want to integrate with many new cards at the moment,” according to Martin, but Receipt Bank will be “striving to integrate with all card providers so that the Receipt Bank way is irrespective of how you spend your money”.

"I foresee a future not too far away, where we will get that spend data in to provide almost real-time bookkeeping for our partners and their clients,” the director of user adoption added.

Replies (3)

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By rmillaree
14th Nov 2019 12:27

This is a bit of a dream product pay - link pic of invoice to that payment at time of payment and end up with pdf and transaction details in Xero automatically linked- great stuff.

cheeky question though - is there anything similar where the client doesn't have to pay £15-£20 per month to Receipt bank or a n other before they are eligible for a similar card provider.

I know starling are half way there linking the bank transaction to xero and you can add picture into starling app but rather annoyingly that pdf can feed through to xero.

anything that avoids opening two apps - or waiting for items to pull through or parking somewhere to match later really is the missing link - hopefully not more than 12 months to wait before one of the card or bank providers sorts this.

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Replying to rmillaree:
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By Aclarkesocial
06th Mar 2020 08:23

It sounds like what you need is Expend. I work there, so I'm naturally bias but from reading you dream product comment, we do all that already. Feel free to give our free trial a look.

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By Tim Robinson
17th Nov 2019 11:03

This is a good step forward, but surely the dream situation would be where the supplier provides the receipt/invoice direct to RB so that the punter doesn't even have to take a photo of it? I hope that won't be far away.

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