This piece appears in Cision PR Newswire and discusses a new approach to card spend management, this one coming from an India-based fintech named Fyle, which specializes in intelligent expense management. Many of the card spend management solutions in use today are more closely associated with mid-to-large market companies that have commercial credit card programs in place covering T&E as well as general indirect office expenses. The spend management programs in place will often be coupled with the issuing bank’s overall card offering. In this case, Fyle is targeting more of the small business use case (small business cards) by embedding the software within whatever the issuer’s network happens to be. Fyle is utilizing integration with the Visa network for starters. Another firm mentioned in the piece is Aprio LLP, an accounting services firm out of Atlanta, GA. that will collaborate with Fyle.
‘Focusing on tech-savvy and funded startups is a great acquisition strategy, but it addresses a tiny market. Card-led fintech accounts for less than 10% of the overall $1.5 trillion commercial card spend in the US, while more than 90% of this spend happens on cards issued by leading banks…
This is where Fyle differs. Instead of asking customers to switch to another business card, Fyle integrates with their existing business credit cards to give them a real-time spend management experience. The instantaneous data from card feeds and receipts are combined and made ready for accounting, vastly reducing manual work for spenders, Finance teams and accounting firms.’
We recently released survey-based member research on the card spend management space and findings indicate that these solutions require modernization in line with the generally accelerated digitization advancements. These capabilities include the desire for easier integration and reconciliation, use of AI to enhance end-to-end automation (including real-time data exchange), and the continuing movement towards mobile applications across the end user spectrum. The Fyle solution is starting in the small business apace, but these types of innovations are also welcome in the medium-sized business sector that represents large portions of developed markets’ economies.
‘The real-time feed reduces manual effort for employees and accountants alike. Employees can turn in receipts from everyday apps like text messages, Gmail, Outlook, MS Teams, and Slack, and on the go via Fyle’s iOS and Android mobile apps. Fyle’s AI-enabled engine instantly codes spend information, assigns it to the right projects & cost centers, and pushes the data to cloud-first ERP and accounting software like NetSuite, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks Online, or Xero…
“With this launch, we can offer all customers who have Visa business credit cards access to powerful, AI-driven software to track & manage their card spending. It also gives us the opportunity to collaborate with card issuers who are losing business to new-age corporate card products,” said Yashwanth Madhusudhan, CEO and Founder of Fyle. “For the first time ever, customers won’t have to switch their credit cards to get the best spend management experience.”’
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
