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Managing Card Spending
I recently took over as treasurer for a nonprofit athletic association for high schoolers. Each team in the association has it’s own bank account. They write checks to anyone they want and spend as they see fit. We are trying to reign in the spending, recordkeeping, etc. I want to transfer all of the funds to one account and keep up with the balances through Fund Accounting, but I need a way to allow them to spend while still allowing them some control.
With past nonprofits I have used Bill Spend & Expense (formerly Divvy), Ramp, Expensify, Zoho, and PEX Debit. My favorite is Bill S&E, but we cannot get approved for enough credit to budget across all teams. I am sure Ramp and Zoho will be the same. Expensify is too expensive.
I have looked at PEX prepaid cards but that would require transferring out of our account and losing the ability to have immediate access to those funds in our checking accounts. Sometimes the teams pay for an item and sometimes they may need a check for a large item.
What would be ideal is an expense management tool that allows us to set a budget and set restrictions on card use by teams (just like Bill S&E) but is tied to our checking account and will deduct straight from there.
Any thoughts or help for this?
Rachel
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3 Replies
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If you used Relay online banking, you could set up as many sub-bank accounts as needed for various programs and then create debit cards tied to those accounts with spending limits.
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Thank you, Alexa! I just checked it out and it seems exactly like what we need. However, it will require us moving banks. Have you heard of / know of any downsides to using this bank versus an in person local bank?
Thanks for the feedback!
Rachel
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There are a lot of good ways to manage spending for nonprofits. I recommend using a service that allows you to track spending categories and increase accountability. I just developed a training on how nonprofits can save and track expenses. Here are some of our recommended services to help:
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<font face=”inherit”>Rippling</font> – (email jodi@bigchange.llc to get elevated customer service.
I also recommend using a credit card that doesn’t require a personal guarantor. You can assign individual cards for each person who needs one with customized spending limits (IE $100). I can recommend options if you need.
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<font face=”arial, sans-serif”>Jodi Segal, Founder, Big Change Consulting</font>
<font face=”arial, sans-serif”>(614) 886-5556 | </font>Linkedin
