Flexible startup cash management with Tidely and pliant
Startup life is rarely routine. Every day is different from the last and usually quite different from what was planned. Decisions must be made quickly, alternative strategies developed, and flexible action enabled. To ensure this, employees often take on high levels of responsibility and decision-making power. A large portion of the decisions to be made during a startup's growth phase involves expenses—whether it's subscriptions for essential services, office furniture and tech for new colleagues, or simply a team brunch at the office. In the past, you had to go to the boss or an assistant every time, explain your request, and borrow the only available credit card along with the linked phone to receive the TAN. That cost time and nerves—something that is inherently scarce in a startup.
Ideally, expenses should therefore not be debated for long, but decided flexibly and agilely within individual teams. But how do you manage to delegate responsibility without losing the overview? And how do you foster the right approach to budgets internally?
3 tips for the proper use of company credit cards:
- Set clear boundaries: Is it okay to book a 1st-class train ticket, or should it be 2nd class for the next appointment? How much of a tip is appropriate at a client dinner? Establish a clear expense policy based on your company values. This allows employees to make informed decisions they feel comfortable with.
- Demand diligence: Credit card receipts must be conscientiously collected and, if possible, filed by date so that accounting can do its job. You should also ensure secure storage and sensitive handling of credit card data. Therefore, set clear rules for diligence when handling credit cards.
- Define budgets and approvals: Should employees be able to make payments up to a certain amount without approval? Then communicate that clearly to your team. Does it make sense to set budgets for specific projects or monthly budgets for employees? In this discussion, it is important to find the right balance between flexibility and control.
The digital business credit card solution from pliant enables such clear, flexible, and digital card management. Physical and virtual cards can be assigned to employees at the push of a button, and monthly and transaction limits can be set individually. pliant defines the request and approval processes for employees for you, so you have more time for other things. Through real-time reporting and digital receipt management, you always have an overview of your credit card transactions. Receipts can be attached directly to the corresponding transaction. This way, nothing stands in the way of the proper use of company credit cards.
However, a startup's cash management includes not only credit card-based transactions but also other expenses and the entire revenue side. Tidely allows you to consolidate all these movements centrally, analyze your cash flow, and plan your liquidity. You can see all business inflows and outflows at a glance, whether budget planning has been adhered to, and how your liquidity is developing. The data export is clearly structured and can easily serve as reporting for your investors. Thanks to the partnership between pliant and Tidely, it is now possible to quickly and easily include the transaction data from your pliant credit cards in your liquidity planning for startups. The perfect addition for companies that want to manage transactions flexibly and smartly while always keeping an overview.
This article was created in collaboration with pliant. We are proud to offer our customers another useful extension to Tidely with pliant. The import of pliant data is done via a simple CSV import; starting in Q2 2022, the import will be automated. Learn more about pliant and Tidely and see for yourself the benefits of our partnership.
