How to streamline corporate expenses with lodge cards.
See how lodge cards help mitigate fraud and ease expense reporting headaches for corporate travel.
How to streamline corporate expenses with lodge cards.
See how lodge cards help mitigate fraud and ease expense reporting headaches for corporate travel.
What is a lodge card?
One corporate expense management tool on the rise today is the lodge card. Also known as a lodged card, corporate lodge card, or a travel lodge card, a lodge card is a type of credit card designed specifically for travel expenses. Unlike regular corporate cards, lodge cards are spending tools put on file with a travel management company (TMC) for the sole purpose of booking travel-related services like flights, hotels, and rental cars.
How do lodge cards work?
Lodge cards function similarly to regular corporate credit cards, but with additional features tailored for travel. Employees can use company lodge cards linked to a centralized account managed by their finance or travel department to make reservations and pay for associated travel costs.
Lodge cards are designed specifically for travel-related purchases, whereas corporate cards can be used for pretty much any type of business expense. Lodge cards allow companies to put tighter controls in place and gain robust reporting specifically for travel-related expenses.
How lodge cards differ from traditional corporate cards.
Unlike most traditional corporate cards, lodge cards have built-in restrictions — specific merchants, airfare class, dollar limits, etc. — based on a company's travel policies. This helps ensure employees use the cards only for pre-approved travel expenses, reducing the risk of misuse or fraud.
One key difference between lodge cards and traditional corporate cards is the enriched data lodge cards provide due to TMC and enterprise resource planning (ERP) integration. Lodge card transactions are automatically captured and categorized in these systems, providing a consolidated view of travel spend across the organization — and with a lot more detail.
This detail includes standard TMC data like the traveler’s email and ID, cost center, and project code, but also more granular details like flight numbers and airport codes, hotel check-in and check-out dates, and any rental car agreement numbers and pickup/dropoff times.
The benefits of lodge cards.
Lodge cards offer several advantages for companies looking to enhance their approach to travel expense management:
Improved travel budget visibility.
The primary benefit of a lodge card is detailed reporting and visibility. By automatically capturing and categorizing all travel-related transactions, finance teams get a comprehensive, real-time view of company-wide travel expenses. They can use this powerful visibility to better budget, forecast, and otherwise control costs.
Expense management automation.
Lodge cards also help simplify expense automation by streamlining often-tedious tasks like data entry, reconciliation, and policy compliance. TMC integration means lodge cards eliminate traditional expense reporting processes and reduce the administrative burden on employees and finance teams.
Reduced fraud risk.
Because they have built-in controls, lodge cards reduce the risk of fraud and misuse. Predefined spending limits, merchant category restrictions, and real-time monitoring capabilities enable organizations to enforce travel policies more effectively, preventing unauthorized or excessive spending.
Are lodge cards better than traditional cards?
While traditional corporate cards can be used for travel expenses, lodge cards are your best bet for travel due to several advantages:
Lodge cards are designed specifically for travel and ensure alignment with corporate travel policies.
Lodge card transactions are automatically integrated with travel management systems, streamlining and expediting the most tedious parts of expense management processes.
Lodge cards separate themselves from traditional cards with their customizable controls. Such controls proactively prevent misuse and non-compliant spending.
By consolidating all travel-related expenses into one central system, those using lodge cards get comprehensive reporting and analysis of a company’s overall travel spend.
Lodge cards simplify business travel.
Business travel is thriving, and companies recognize the importance of efficient travel management and expense control as part of their overall business strategy. Any chance an organization can optimize its travel-related spending will continue to increase the ROI on business travel.
One such mechanism is the transaction detail captured by lodge cards. Finance teams can leverage this data to gain deep insights into travel patterns, spending trends, and vendor preferences. This in turn can help them set travel policies, negotiate hotel and vendor contracts, and improve vendor partnerships. Ultimately, companies using lodge cards are better positioned to optimize their travel programs and reduce costs.
Lodge cards also streamline employees’ overall expense and booking experiences. Lodge cards eliminate out-of-pocket expenses and manual reporting. Employees are more focused and productive when they don’t have to worry about collecting receipts, writing memos, and filing expense reports.
With predefined spending limits, merchant and category restrictions, and real-time monitoring, lodge cards enable organizations to proactively enforce travel policies. This ensures that travel expenses align with company guidelines, reducing out-of-policy spending as well as compliance issues.
Does your company need lodge cards?
Lodge cards will help any organization with a TMC in place upgrade its approach to travel expense management. Want to control spend before it happens? Want to block gambling, alcohol, or other types of expenditures?
With travel-specific features, enhanced controls, and seamless integration with a TMC, lodge cards offer holistic visibility into travel spend, vastly simplify travel expense processes, and prevent overspending and misuse.
Simplify your global travel spend with Brex lodge cards. They work seamlessly with over 400 (TMCs) with enriched data streams, automatic GL coding, and direct integration to your ERP, making travel expenses a breeze, even if you have thousands of employees booking trips.
Like all Brex cards, our lodge cards are seamlessly integrated with Brex’s global payment rails, so you get richer data and local-currency cards, billing, and accounting — unlike with Amex and Citi — which avoids foreign exchange fees and further simplifies reconciliation.
See what Brex can do for you.
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