American Express and American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) have announced an integration that helps SMEs manage their spend and expenses. American Express is enabling businesses to issue a virtual card (a dynamic payment option that replaces a physical card number with a digital card number) for their employees via Amex GBT Neo1, a spend management platform.

US card members must enrol in Amex GBT Neo1. Once enrolled, card members can add eligible American Express business or corporate card accounts into the platform. The seamless integration of American Express virtual cards into the Amex GBT Neo1 spend management platform supports automated expense management processes by combining the capabilities of an expense system, procurement platform, online business travel booking tool, and virtual card issuance into a single smart ecosystem.

More transparency and control over business spending The new American Express and Amex GBT integration provides small and mid-sized businesses with better visibility and control over a range of employee spend including budgeting, purchasing with virtual cards, booking business travel, and streamlined expense processing. Manual employee expense management processes cost businesses significant time and money and are prone to human error - issues that are only magnified for small and mid-sized businesses with more finite resources. More than a third (37%) of financial leaders say processing expense reports is a drain on time, according to Amex GBT.

Digital payments like virtual cards can help address these issues, as they help automate the expense management process, including employee spend management, with the option for employers to set specific spending controls and permissions. Businesses are looking for a seamless management solution that minimises the traditional complexities of manual expense processes. How it works With the new integrated features in Amex GBT Neo1, businesses can set budgets, and issue American Express virtual cards as payment options with controls that support their business needs and help make better, faster purchasing decisions.

The new integration provides customers with: All-in-one platform: Businesses can approve and manage budgets, connect accounting systems, efficiently submit, reconcile, and approve payments in one place, and configure visual dashboards for greater visibility into company spend; Travel: Businesses can access Amex GBT’s marketplace, with comprehensive and competitive air, hotel, car and ground transportation services along with exceptional 24/7 traveller support; Virtual cards: Businesses can generate and assign American Express virtual Cards to specific users with flexible parameters to control employee spending, while also enabling individuals to spend online or at point-of-sale through their mobile wallet. .