Managing your Budget with a Fleet Fuel Card
The main objective of any business is to be lucrative in its endeavors. And, while you may be quite successful at bringing in revenue, your business is still not profitable because of your high cost-of-doing-business. Can you change this? Can you start seeing profits and reducing your overall fuel expenses? Can you move your company from red into black?
As we know, high operating costs can be the downfall of any company. However, if fleet management is part of your business, there is a way to decrease costs and to create a budget that will account for and manage your variable expenses. If you sign up for a fleet card program, you’ll be able to control issues like security, accountability and reporting, which will only have positive effects on your bottom line.
Security
Fleet cards allow fleet owners and operators to place purchasing controls on the cards so they can limit and track fuel purchases of them. This can help protect against fraudulent practices, as it prevents drivers from making unauthorized purchases on their fleet card which had, without a fleet card program, previously ballooned operating expenses. It can also be used as a method of controlling purchases, and can be used to set limits on when, where and how much drivers can spend on their fleet card.
Balance Sheet
Accountability
When you have a fleet card program in place, you can say goodbye to the days of employees handing you crumpled up receipts with coffee stains on them, or sometimes, not even handing in any receipts at all. The users of your company fleet card are now completely accountable, because you can pull fuel and maintenance transaction reports real time and therefore reducing misplaced receipt or suspicious claims. Creating your complete balance sheet will be a much easier task, and eventually you’ll be able to determine a pattern and produce a reasonable estimate of each month’s operating expenses.
Reporting
When preparing a balance sheet and finalizing a budget, proper documentation is always needed. It’s not just about reconciling receipts, it’s about looking for trends in expenses, and managing costs efficiently in order to maximize profits. A fleet card program offers a wide variety of reporting options which can help with these fuel purchase expenses. For example, it’s possible to track the fuel efficiency for each of your fleet vehicles, by pulling fuel and maintenance transaction information, exception reports, employee management reports, vehicle management reports and some fleet management programs even offer customizable reports to fit your specific reporting needs. You can also use a fleet card to keep track of maintenance costs, and also use it to help determine the best time to do maintenance inspections.
A fleet card program can be very beneficial to managing your business’ operating expenses, and it could be the difference between seeing a profit or seeing a loss.