No matter how well-established your business is, readily available and unsecured capital is integral to its success and longevity. Even with a positive cashflow, why not look at other means to quickly access funds? With 2 out of 3 business owners using credit cards, here’s a business owner’s guide to credit cards and how they can be the ideal financial buffer.

 When to go cashless

With so many different types of cards on the market, choosing the most suitable credit card can be a real headache for business owners. This is especially true in the early stages of starting a business. However, as your business grows, so will your expenses – which may mean leaning on a credit card from time to time, or using a credit card to take advantage of lucrative rewards schemes.

When it’s time to start thinking about using a credit card for business expenses, firstly look at the current stage of your business and purchasing patterns.

Here are some questions you may want to consider:

• What are your monthly business expenses? (Rent, office supplies, utilities)
• Do you need to set aside a budget for significant investments or costs? (Office equipment and technology, marketing and advertising, tax bills, insurance)
• Do you or your employees frequently travel for business purposes?
• Are employees often required to make business purchases?

Advantages of using a Credit Card

Credit cards not only offer short term access to funds, they also offer long term benefits for your business. These benefits can include:

• Ability to manage monthly variable costs, improving and controlling cash flow.
• Boost credit rating and purchasing power.
• Credit can be unsecured (secured without a deposit)
• Ability to separate personal and business expenses – making it easier to distinguish what is tax deductible.
• Easier bookkeeping – especially when it comes to tax time!
• Gain credit card rewards – Using a credit card to pay business expenses can offer rewards and loyalty points programs that are not only incentivize but help your business grow.

Use B2Bpay and maximize Credit Card rewards

Whilst credit cards may offer credit reward points on business expenses, there are still billers who will not accept credit card payments.

B2Bpay is a centralised online portal that allows you to pay business expenses – including one-off, scheduled and future dated payments – with your existing credit card. Regardless of whether the biller actually accepts credit cards, through B2Bpay billers receive payment by EFT or BPAY. Billers receive payment within 3 days and there is no extra cost to them.

With B2Bpay, you can earn Qantas points as well as credit card reward points on all business expenses. Even when paying tax, government, insurance, telcos and insurance bills through B2Bpay, business owners will earn full card points.

Beyond the simplicity and reliability using B2Bpay, the unique advantage for business owners is profitability through payments.

The Deloitte ‘SME Digital Payments – New opportunities to optimise’ White Paper 2018 featured B2Bpay as a case study, stating that “by utilising the B2Bpay platform, SMEs could attract significant value, potentially at a level of approximately 7% of expense paid”

Furthermore, the White Paper confirmed that alongside efficient and accurate cash flow management, B2Bpay’s features are:

• Improved visibility and reporting
• Automatic bill reminder alerts
• Alerts through SMS and email (for successful and failed payments)
• Low cost processing fee (which is also tax deductible)
• Secure payment mechanism through tokenisation (and no storage of card numbers)
• Reporting capabilities and centralised expense management

While credit cards can guarantee working capital for your business, B2Bpay can ensure your business payments count in profitability., making you miles ahead of your competitors.

To set up a B2Bpay account, click here.