Small business financial provider Bento for Business has introduced a new prepaid commercial MasterCard. The card is designed for businesses who empower employees to purchase supplies or services.
Unlike traditional banks, which typically strip down large-company offerings for small business clients, Bento said its financial technology solutions combine advanced features and security with an intuitive interface that makes it simple and affordable for small business owners to manage employee spending.
The Bento MasterCard is a prepaid commercial card solution built exclusively for small businesses, offering real-time spending controls. Benefits of the card include:
- Anyone can qualify for Bento, and it does not impact an owner’s personal credit; this is because Bento accounts are prepaid debit cards and not credit cards.
- Business owners can set up their Bento accounts and order cards with just a few clicks – the process takes only minutes and most applications are approved instantly.
- All balances are held in one centralized account, so business owners don’t need to keep updating amounts on each individual card. Limits and refill preferences only need to be set once.
- Business owners can set rules by employee, amount, time and category (i.e. gas card or supplies card, limited to weekday spending only) before anyone can spend a dime.
- Bento cards can be enabled and disabled with just one click, and can bear the employee’s name. Unauthorized transactions will be declined automatically according to the rules set by the business owner.
- Straightforward dashboards enable business owners to see everything in one place and quickly track expenses by place, employee, project, category and more. Simple invoices can be generated in seconds, and Bento eliminates the need for expense reports.
- Bento account data - accessible via any computer or mobile device - can be easily exported to QuickBooks or other accounting programs, making bookkeeping painless. By using tags, business and personal expenses can be separated easily at tax time.
Bento’s CEO and co-founder, Farhan Ahmad, is a longtime financial services industry veteran who has held executive-level positions at institutions such as Barclays, Discover, and JPMorgan Chase, as well as other startups.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, yet they continue to be very underserved financially,” said Ahmad. “We set out to create a commercial card that would eliminate the administrative and financial headaches small business owners face when trying to manage their spending, without putting their credit on the line. Larger commercial banks are not equipped to serve this market well, so Bento is ready to help small businesses get the attention and financial services solutions they need to make their operations run smoothly.”
