Optimize Cash Flow with a Modern Card Program
Optimize Cash Flow with a Modern Card Program
Cash flow challenges can affect even the most profitable business. The problem isn’t just how much revenue you make, but when that cash is available.
A modern card program helps solve this problem by extending payment terms, freeing up working capital, and turning expenses into revenue.
Corpay’s commercial card solutions — including corporate cards, purchasing cards, and virtual cards—help businesses improve financial flexibility and control spending.
Four Ways a Card Program Improves Cash Flow
1. Extend Payment Terms and Keep Cash Longer
Managing cash flow goes beyond tracking revenue and expenses. Improving Days Payable Outstanding (DPO) is a proven strategy for maintaining liquidity. It measures how long a company takes to pay suppliers. This process helps keep cash flow healthy.
A business card program extends DPO by delaying payments until the statement due date. Instead of paying invoices immediately, businesses hold onto cash longer for operational needs. Many commercial cards also offer an interest-free grace period.
Extending DPO without straining supplier relationships improves working capital. Businesses can better manage payments. This helps them cover payroll, invest in growth, or deal with unexpected costs. At the same time, vendors get paid on time.
2. Earn Rebates on Payments
Paying bills is unavoidable, but it doesn’t have to be just an expense. Some commercial card programs give cash back or rebates. This helps businesses earn money on eligible purchases.
Over time, these rebates add up, improving margins without changing spending habits.
How Corpay Helps Businesses Turn Payments Into Revenue
Earn Rebates on Spend: Higher card usage leads to greater returns
No Annual Fees: Corpay’s World Elite Mastercard® offers 1.5% cash back on all purchases
Exclusive Travel and Business Savings: Cardholders save an extra 4% at over 16,000 hotels and restaurants nationwide
A real-world example? CBC Companies, a U.S.-based credit bureau, streamlined vendor payments and extended payment terms with Corpay’s commercial card program. Their rebates increased by 3,000%, generating enough savings to cover their entire accounting department’s payroll.
3. Automate Payments and Reduce Costs
Manual payment processing is expensive and inefficient. Traditional methods, such as checks and wire transfers, need approvals and tracking. This adds to the Cost of Processing Payments (CPP) and makes reconciliation harder.
CPP includes labor, transaction fees, and administrative work. According to Nacha, issuing a paper check costs $2 to $4, sometimes more due to errors and exceptions.
A commercial card program eliminates these inefficiencies by automating payments, allowing businesses to:
Reduce manual workloads and free up staff for higher-value tasks
Lower administrative costs by eliminating check processing
Improve security by reducing fraud risks tied to paper-based payments
Automating payments reduces costs, improves efficiency, and gives finance teams real-time visibility into cash flow.
4. Improve Vendor Relationships and Payment Flexibility
Paying vendors on time builds trust. Reliable payments can lead to better pricing or flexible terms.
A commercial card program speeds up and secures payments. It also enables dynamic discounting, where suppliers offer discounts for early payments. Dynamic discounting is different from fixed early payment terms. It allows businesses to pick when to pay, depending on their cash flow.
For businesses with strong liquidity, dynamic discounting lowers procurement costs. Combined with a card program, it enhances payment control while strengthening supplier relationships.
Wrap-Up
A card program is more than a payment method. It helps businesses improve cash flow, cut costs, and boost financial flexibility.
At Corpay, our commercial card solutions simplify payments and optimize spending. Want to learn how your company can benefit?