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Check out how organisations large and small use their prepaid Mastercard and Visa payments solution. B4B Payments provides smart and flexible payment processing solutions, which enable any size organisation to manage expenses, simplify payroll and offer employee rewards and incentives.

Powering through the Covid-19 crisis

“When the wind of change blows, some build walls, others build windmills.” Chinese proverb.

Do you know who’s powering along during the Covid-19 ‘crisis’? Fintech company B4B Payments is, and here’s how:

Thursday evening; a dreaded text

B4B CEO Paul Swinton was notified that one of his team had been exposed to the Coronavirus. Fortunately, the company had a Crisis Plan in place. One they’d wisely updated when Covid-19 first hit the headlines. Advance preparations included making sure all the team had access to well-configured technology designed for remote working. Including securely held systems on the Cloud. An email had already been sent to clients and other contacts saying B4B Payments was ready and well prepared to keep operational if the worst did happen. So, B4B was already equipped to offer ‘Business as Usual’ when the virus got too close.

Thursday evening part 2; so it begins

With a click, Paul activated well-considered protocols. All staff were told to start working from home with immediate effect. The Tech team responded by setting up a Whatsapp group to provide them with support and advice, and a way to ask for help.

Friday; getting things into perspective

By 9 am the whole company was self-isolated at home, ready for action and online. They were also displaying their strong sense of unity and community in this challenging time. Paul Swinton, B4B Payments CEO said: “Most importantly, robust steps had been taken to control the potential spread of the virus and to protect our valued staff members and their families. Our second priority that day was to underpin services offered to clients.”

One week later; windmills all working

The team, using a selection of tools including Slack, Trello, internal VOIP telephony, and Signal encrypted chat software is now a true ‘digital workplace’, connected online and powering along as efficiently and effectively as ever. That’s been achieved without compromising any of the comradery and team spirit that makes B4B Payments a first-class employer. Instead of banter around the coffee machine, the team now communicate, collaborate and just ‘chat’ in the virtual realm. Clearly, fully adhering to the self-isolation and social distancing advice from the Government and NHS. All proving the power of preparation, positive thinking and being agile.

Which brings us to another insightful quote: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Charles Darwin

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Tags B4B News, COVID-19

Newsroom Tools & Guides Uncategorised

Simple alternative to cash for tour guides

Cash causes so many problems for tour guides out in the field from security issues to admin issues and fraud. It can become extremely complex and troublesome when tour guides are a part of your business model and are out in the field or are working remotely.

Due to this increased demand and opportunity, travel and tour guide companies are now looking at alternatives to streamline their processes, reduce stress and improve business administration, as cash is often a headache to administer and audit. It is also open to fraud and expensive to manage. Cash is a complication that shouldn’t exist in the travel and tour guide sector.

Businesses in the sector are starting to turn to prepaid cards to eliminate cash-based problems and to provide an expenses solution that makes operations smoother.

Solving payroll and funding issues

Prepaid cards allow travel companies to send funds electronically to tour guides or guests, instantly anywhere in the world 24/7. It can also remove any delays caused be traditional banking processes or cash distribution. Eliminating any potential payroll and funding issues can increase employee motivation and as a result, have a positive effect on your business’s customer service.

Increase security and protect your employees

Cash is outdated. Instantly eliminate the burden and risk of carrying or storing cash when travelling is involved, for both tour guides and guests, by using a secure prepaid card. Moreover, prepaid cards are reloadable 24/7 so your employees will only need one card at a time saving your business time and money.

No need for any pesky administration

Prepaid cards can replace petty cash completely. Once combined with expense systems and powerful receipt management tools, companies can manage all of their expenses, payroll, funding and much more on one system. Furthermore, you are able to monitor spending in real-time and integrate with any existing accounting or ERP systems in your business, giving you full peace of mind.

Other benefits

Prepaid cards have obvious cost-based benefits however removing the hassle and headaches associated with inefficient cash-based systems can lead to happier employees. Moreover, this can free up time for your employees and tour guides so that they can focus on their job to create entertaining experiences for tourists and not on their finances. This can lead to higher retention rate with higher performing tour guides who are often difficult to source.

How to choose a prepaid card solution for your travel company

The prepaid solution from B4B Payments offers a Mastercard prepaid card that can be used in the millions of locations globally that accepts payment by Mastercard. Funds can be spent in-store or online, meeting the needs of tour guides, travel companies and other travel stakeholders.

The B4B solution is currently enabling travel companies, tour guides and tourism establishments to replace inefficient cash-based systems for the past 5 years. It was named winner of the Best Prepaid Card Programme category of the Card & Payments Awards 2019. To find out more about how we work with travel companies and tour guides, and how we can help you, call us on 020 3137 3420 or email us at sales@b4bpayments.com.

Tags Advice, Expenses, Payouts

Insights Newsroom Tools & Guides Uncategorised

Eliminate payroll pain for Christmas events

According to the 2018 Pulse Report, the UK events industry is estimated to be worth £42.3bn and much of that figure is likely to be spent on corporate Christmas events. Not only is organising festive events a significant expense but it also can be an organisational headache, especially payroll for temporary or seasonal staff.

With December rapidly approaching, now is the ideal time to look for new ways to make your Christmas party planning simpler and more efficient for this and coming years.

Eliminate the inefficiencies of cash

The security risks, painful administration and accounting complexities have made paying people in cash unviable with company credit cards being even more frustrating. Prepaid cards are the first choice for companies looking for new and more versatile ways to manage corporate expenses, payroll and incentives.

The ideal tool for event organisers

Give your event organiser a prepaid card loaded with an amount you decide and keep track of their spending in real-time. It also means that you are not putting your team in the position where they have to fund expenses out of their own pocket and go through a time-consuming and frustrating manual expense claim process.

Also, you might need to enable multiple people or departments to pay for different aspects of the event such as travel, venue management or sourcing gifts. In that case, it would be impractical and undesirable to issue more company credit cards for a short-term project. With prepaid, you can instantly issue additional cards with different amounts loaded to other team members. This allows you to make completely bespoke employee incentive programmes instantly.

If you are arranging an event abroad where card payments aren’t always accepted, your team can always withdraw cash using their prepaid card from a local ATM, usually incurring lower fees than if withdrawals were made using credit cards.

Stay on budget

While everyone wants their event to be a great experience, nobody wants to find they have gone over budget to achieve it. One of the many drawbacks of paying with cash is that you’ll find it almost impossible to tell if you are nearing or exceeding your staffing budget. Using prepaid cards from B4B Payments would enable you to see exactly how much is being spent in real-time.

Pay a few or a few thousand staff

Whether you’re hosting a Christmas party, impressing your clients or putting on an awards evening, prepaid cards can help you manage events where you are employing a few to a few thousand temporary staff. As you can re-load cards remotely, you can pay staff via a prepaid card once or multiple times using the same card.

Another important advantage is that prepaid cards don’t have to be physical plastic. Today, you could issue virtual prepaid cards that can be issued instantly to anyone in the world. It’s the ideal solution for when you need to set up a method of payment fast for workers in other geographies.

Maximum spending appeal

Some prepaid cards, such as the ones you can issue to staff via B4B Payments, can be used to pay for goods and services anywhere that accepts payment by Mastercard online or offline. That means that you are well positioned to attract temporary staff for your event, especially those who don’t have bank accounts. Your seasonal workers will enjoy the benefit of being able to spend their pay immediately, virtually anywhere.

Expenses for staff

In addition to payroll for seasonal staff, you might also need to cover their expenses incurred such as travelling to your venue or meal allowance. The process of claiming staff expenses is quick and simple for both you and your employees with the ability to upload receipts electronically. No more inefficient manual processes or paper receipts to process and file.

Celebrate your brand

An event is a great opportunity to show off your brand. If you are looking for some extra visual impact, your cards can be branded with your logo as part of a production run from just a few hundred units.

Prepaid cards – not just for Christmas

Mastercard published details of how more companies than ever are finding they can benefit from financial services from suppliers other than traditional banks. The Mastercard Prepaid Consumer Experience Index stated that prepaid use is predicted to grow by 133% in the next five years globally. The figures state that using prepaid cards to manage expenses is likely to be the number one reason why more companies will begin using prepaid cards.

B4B Payments is a multi-award-winning provider of Mastercard prepaid cards to companies, government departments and other types of organisation for uses such as expense management, gifting and payroll. To hear more about B4B Payment product updates, the latest Fintech news or how clients use our products get in touch with us on Linkedin, Twitter or via our website.

Tags Advice, Payouts, Payroll

Company News Newsroom Uncategorised

B4B Payments shortlisted for two PayTech Awards 2019

B4B Payments is delighted to have been shortlisted for the PayTech Awards 2019 in two categories. The nominations are in the Best Corporate Payments Initiative and Best Prepaid Initiative categories. Both awards present the very best in the use of B2B prepaid technology and highlight B4B’s expertise in corporate expense management.

‘We are proud to have been shortlisted for these two awards, which really signifies the strides we have made over this past year as a company,’ said Paul Swinton, CEO. ‘It also demonstrates that the hard work the team has put into our solution and technology, through continuous innovation and improvement, is not only paying off but also leading the industry.’ Winners will be announced at a ceremony on 5th July 2019 at the HAC, London.

Tags Awards, B4B News

Company News Newsroom Uncategorised

CEO Featured as special guest on FinTech podcast

B4B Payments CEO & PIF Chairman, Paul Swinton, recently featured on Fintech Unplugged, a leading podcast for the fintech industry.

Paul joined hosts Robert Courtneidge from Moorwand and Suresh Vaghjiani from Tribe Payments, where he discussed what makes B4B Payments an award-winning business, how he got involved with industry-body PIF and his rise to the position of its Chairman. Paul also offers his opinions on the perception of prepaid cards in the market and his views on the current fintech scene.

Listen to the full podcast here.

Tags B4B News, Events

Insights Newsroom Tools & Guides Uncategorised

A GUIDE TO THE NEW GIFT VOUCHER VAT CHANGES

Is this the end of vouchers for your business?

Does your company give gift vouchers as part of its employee recognition or incentive schemes? If so, you need to be aware that UK VAT rules have changed and your company can no longer claim back the VAT on gift cards purchased.

This 20% increase in the cost of gift cards is likely to come as a surprise to many companies as the demand for gift cards has continued to increase in recent years. Annual sales for gift cards and vouchers had been on the rise. According to Mercator, sales stood at £6 billion in 2017 with projections of that figure reaching £7.4 billion.

New VAT rules on gift vouchers were introduced on 1st January 2019. Unfortunately, every company using vouchers will have to learn some new and quite complicated rules and definitions as well as suffering a hike in the cost of their vouchers.

Why the change?

Last year, HMRC explained that previous VAT rules on gift vouchers resulted in vouchers being taxed double or not taxed at all. The new rules now define how vouchers with a single and/or multi-purpose should be treated and crucially, when VAT should be applied.

New definitions

You may be already be familiar with the current definitions of Single Purpose Vouchers (SPVs) and Multi-Purpose Vouchers (MPVs). The new legislation will change the current definitions. SPVs are vouchers where the place of supply of the goods and services, and the vat liability on the supply are all known at time of issue. This will mean that many MPVs will now be considered as SPVs.

VAT will be due when it is issued and not when the goods or services are actually provided, VAT will always be due even if it is never used. As a result, potential business cost has increased.

The new VAT gift voucher changes, implemented at the start of the new year, will cause many businesses to re-evaluate whether vouchers are worth the extra cost and complication for what is quite a dated concept. B4B have created a simple infographic that breaks down the changes using an example.

Download the Infographic

Is there an alternative to vouchers?

The introduction of the new VAT laws will prompt many companies to re-evaluate whether vouchers are worth the extra cost and complication for what is quite a dated concept. Gift vouchers have several drawbacks that your employees or other recipients will find irritating.

Gift vouchers can usually be used at only one retailer which limits their choice. Also, expiry dates on gift vouchers can lead to frustration and disappointment if your recipients don’t use it in time.

B4B are the alternative

The changes to the VAT rules mean that gift vouchers are now treated the same as prepaid cards yet prepaid cards offer a number of advantages. Prepaid cards such as those offered by B4B Payments are accepted worldwide anywhere that accepts Mastercard payments.

Now is the ideal time to take a fresh look at how your company uses cards and the most effective way to reward employees and partners. To find out more about how prepaid cards can be a much simpler alternative to vouchers, contact us at 020 3137 3420 or info@b4bpayments.com.

Tags Advice, Infographic, Regulation, Rewards & Incentives

Insights Newsroom Uncategorised

Tax laws help you eliminate avoidable mistakes

The decision to adopt new digital technology is usually one that companies make for themselves – but next year a change to UK law will force many business owners to update their processes.

What is changing?

On April 1st 2019, the way business owners file their VAT returns is changing. Making Tax Digital will have an impact on the Tax system, transforming the administration process into a simple and more efficient process, ensuring that tax payments are as accurate as possible. VAT-registered businesses above the VAT threshold will be required to keep their records digitally and use software to help submit their tax returns digitally. More specific information can be found at gov.uk.

Why the change?

Not surprisingly, the main reason for the new Making Tax Digital law is that the UK Government believes it is missing out on a big chunk of VAT revenue.

According to Government figures, there is a shortfall of up to £9 billion in VAT revenues collected every year. Ultimately, HMRC wants to ‘become one of the most digitally advanced tax administrations in the world.’ While few of us relish the prospect of paying more in tax, most of us would want to fix a leak in our business finances of that magnitude ASAP.

Eliminating ‘avoidable mistakes’

According to the Government, the main reason for the VAT accounting problems are ‘avoidable mistakes’ by those submitting financial paperwork. This problem is not confined to submitting figures for government use.

Companies who are still using paper-based systems and cash are creating huge potential for avoidable mistakes, scope for fraud and the need for expensive manual administration. For example, companies that ask employees to keep paper receipts for expense management purposes. On a global scale, companies are potentially losing out on $20 billion dollars of unclaimed VAT every year. At the same time, their employees are left frustrated and irritated at having to spend so much time on irritating manual processes.

Many companies have already cut out the margin for avoidable mistakes such as eliminating paper processes and cash in favour of digital technology. For others, it may be a painful transition, but it is likely to be those same companies who benefit most from the new rules in the long-term. Now is a great time to think about how Making Tax Digital could be your opportunity to take control of your financial processes and increase efficiency of your business.

The warning signs for a tough transition

Here are just a few signs that may indicate that the introduction of Making Tax Digital will be difficult for your business:

Cash is still being used for expense management
Your finance department is over-worked, spends too much time chasing paperwork and seems to lack control
Your employees are frustrated by having to keep and submit paper receipts in order to claim expenses

These are just a few legacy issues that are likely to make the transition to digital tax returns difficult, impact efficiency and increase administrative costs.

How can businesses prepare for Digital?

Start by eliminating cash processes from your business. For example, more companies are issuing prepaid cards to their employees for expense purposes. The entire process is digital, enables strict spending control and can be monitored in real-time. This helps to build efficient and accurate finance processes that eliminate any costly errors, whilst reporting in real time.

Also, look for ways to automate systems and processes such as through integration with packages such as Sage, Concur and Xero. Implementing an efficient and integrated digital finance system, frees up time for employees to focus on more critical and value-driven work, whilst enabling you to access previously unclaimed tax.

If Making Tax Digital looks like a major challenge to your business, start planning for it now. It could be your ideal opportunity to kick start a discussion within your business about shedding old processes and taking real control of your finances. Contact B4B for more information on how prepaid cards can be used to increase the efficiency and accuracy of your corporate expenses.

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Tags Advice, Regulation

Insights Newsroom Tools & Guides Uncategorised

Three tech tools every CEO should know

By Paul Williams, CFO, CloudCall Group plc

CloudCall enables its clients to communicate with their contacts directly from their CRM, maximising the effectiveness of sales and customer services teams.

Let’s be honest – sometimes Chief Financial Officers have a reputation for not being tech-savvy. But with so many examples of innovation, especially in financial services, we need to know more about tech than just how to work MS Excel.

As a CFO of a successful software company, I have a keen interest in how technology can enhance business performance. After having evaluated and implemented a number of innovations, I thought my list of the top three solutions currently in use here at CloudCall might be useful to other Finance professionals.

1. Customer behaviour + revenue = accurate forecasting

I’ve been looking for a way to improve the accuracy of my financial forecasting. As a cloud-based software company, our clients essentially rent our software so it’s a SaaS (software as a service) model. We have high levels of predictability of income from software subscriptions but the accuracy of our financial forecasting is heavily influenced by customer behaviour such as how fast they on-board users and ramp up usage.

Having reached the limits of what Excel can achieve, I have been looking for a more effective way to model this customer behavioural information together with sales and billing data to achieve more accurate financial forecasts.

We evaluated several solutions and trialled Microsoft Power BI. We found it stronger in its back-end connectivity to our systems than other solutions but its user interface was not so intuitive. That is likely to mean we need to spend more time and money on training and probably incur more operator mistakes.

We are currently piloting Salesforce and trialling its Wave Analytics solution. Like most Salesforce products, the user interface is very intuitive and visually effective, and early results show it to be very effective in marrying financial information with customer data to achieve the kind of powerful insights I need to better support the business.

2. Prepaid cards = expenditure control

Cash-based expenditure management really should be a thing of the past. The expense of handling cash, the unclaimed VAT due to lost receipts and risk exposure goes against virtually every principle that finance professionals hold sacred.

We assign credit cards for use by our executive team but we are a growing company and nurturing talent at junior levels. As part of their development, we foster a culture of financial accountability and trust – within certain boundaries.

We use the expenditure management solution of B4B Payments that enables us to issue Mastercard prepaid cards to our junior team members. We can stipulate when and where the cards can be used and drip-feed funds into those accounts. I remember several junior members of the team saying that they couldn’t travel for business if they had to initially fund it themselves as they didn’t have the spare cash. It’s an important courtesy to our staff that we don’t make our people fund company expenditure and then go through a tortuous expense claim process which may delay funds back to their own pockets to reimburse them. We can also give staff prepaid cards as gifts as rewards or for anniversaries, which keeps things simple and is very much appreciated by all those that have received them so far.

3. Customer view = opportunities for improvement

You’d be surprised at how many ways you can improve your business if you look in the right places. Technology can give you a unique view of your business and allow you to see it exactly as a customer does. Most of the time it’s good but sometimes it’s not – and that’s your opportunity to improve things.

I regularly listen in on sales and customer service calls (it’s ok, we have one of those messages that say calls may be monitored). I can easily do this through our CRM system, which is integrated with a great solution called CloudCall. Yes, it’s a key feature of our own software but it really offers a huge opportunity when agents are routinely presented with real examples of what they do well, and what they don’t do well to learn from. I really do use it myself. CloudCall technology will also help us with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) compliance as we will be routinely asking customers and prospects for permission to hold their data and record their verbal permission. I suspect we’ll get a much higher opt in rate over the phone than via email, and the CloudCall technology will help us to keep the permissions up to date.

The pace of innovation has reached unprecedented levels in recent years and I’m sure my list of top tech tips will be entirely different in a year from now. But the point is that we must not be intimidated by new technology or else we – and the companies we serve, will quickly fall behind.

Tags CFO Advice