Hoping to capitalize on a rebound in business travel, Wells Fargo & Co. is beefing up mobile options for its corporate card users with features designed to improve on-the-go travel-and-expense reporting and streamline card-administration, the bank announced April 6.
A key enhancement to the CEO Mobile service, available with WellsOne commercial cards employees typically use for T&E and supply purchases, includes the integration of Wells’ commercial card expense-reporting platform with smartphones.
The feature enables cardholders to more easily keep track of tips, cab fares and other miscellaneous expenditures by immediately entering such purchases into the expense-management application on their smartphones for future reconciliation, Mary Mazzochi, Wells senior vice president and manager for commercial cards, tells PaymentsSource.
“Business travelers often struggle to keep track of all the little expenses paid when passing through airports and hotels, but with the expense-management system linked to a purchasing card right on their phone, it’s much easier to stay on top of these things,” Mazzochi says.
Cardholders enter the expense and whether it was paid with cash or a personal card into the commercial card expense application on their mobile phone, where it automatically is sorted for future approval and reimbursement, she says.
Wells also integrated the CEO Mobile service with its treasury and cash-management operations so cardholders may track and manage expense reimbursements through the automated clearinghouse system, Mazzochi says.
Commercial card administrators also have the ability to use smartphones to view and edit cardholders’ credit limits and review declined transactions for more effective program management, she says.
Cardholders may access the CEO Mobile service from any Internet-enabled smartphone, according to Wells.
Wells developed the new features because improving the accuracy of on-the-go expense tracking and enabling commercial card administrators to track employees’ card use from an office computer, a laptop or a mobile device is “critical” for customers who travel or who are frequently away from their desks, Mazzochi says.
The issuer began piloting its commercial card integration with its treasury portal last year before rolling the service out nationally this year. Demand for mobile commercial card services is “very strong” as business travel continues to increase following a lull in 2009, Mazzochi notes.
Various commercial card issuers began to offer mobile commercial card applications as far back as 2007, but few enable program administrators to adjust cardholder controls from a mobile device.
American Express Co., for example, offers mobile account management for individual corporate cardholders in various markets globally, and in the U.S. it offers the services via apps developed for iPhone and Google Inc. Android smartphone users.
But AmEx commercial card managers have not demanded mobile access to control employees’ card use, an AmEx spokesperson tells PaymentsSource. “Program administrators are typically in the office; they are not frequent travelers,” the spokesperson says.
