Volopay

If you're running a business, Volopay gives you a way to manage key financial transactions and tasks in one place. This fintech company was founded in Singapore 2019 and is backed by investors from brands including Google, Airbnb, Facebook and wework.

In Australia, you can choose from 3 Volopay plans, with features including unlimited virtual Visa cards for your teams, domestic and international money transfers and even cashback as you spend.

What is Volopay?

Volopay is a subscription service that gives businesses a way to manage corporate cards, employee expense claims, money transfers and accounting tasks in one place.

It's particularly useful for businesses that want a lot of cards for their employees, as it offers virtual cards you can set up quickly and manage from a central dashboard. Unlike business credit cards, with Volopay you use business funds for transactions – but there is the option of a credit facility that is similar to a charge card.

Pros and cons

Volopay plans

Each of Volopay's plans has a yearly or monthly fee structure, with slightly different features depending on which one you choose.

Volopay Premium Cards plan

Designed for businesses that want to manage spending and expenses, the key features for this plan include:

• Unlimited virtual cards.You can create as many virtual cards as you want for your business and teams. Volopay also lets you set up unique virtual cards for every online vendor that you need to pay, which can help with management and protection against fraud.
• Physical cards.This plan gives you 1 physical card for each account user. If you're the account admin, you can also invite and manage members straight through your account.
  Cashback. You'll get 3% back on card transactions with an annual plan and 1% back with a monthly plan.
• Integration with accounting software.If you use Xero or Quickbooks, you can link your Volopay account to streamline reporting.
• Expense claims.For expenses that aren't put on a Volopay card, employees can easily upload a receipt and fill in a short claim form through Volopay. When you're reviewing expenses, you'll see details of how your budgets are tracking and can add bank account details to reimburse employees.
• Auto approval.If there are payments you want to be made without review, you can set an approval policy for reimbursements that will automatically approve them. You can also set who approves reimbursements and manage other key details based on your business needs.
• Optical character recognition (OCR).If you have uploaded receipts or documents, this technology will automatically extract the key details, helping save time on admin.

All-in-one

If your business needs to make transfers and manage overseas transactions, this plan gives you all the same features as Premium Cards with the addition of the following:

• Money transfers.You can transfer money from Volopay to Australian accounts and supported international accounts, including:
  • • British pounds (GBP)
    • Canadian dollars (CAD)
    • Chinese Yuan (CNY)
    • Euros (EUR)
    • Hong Kong dollars (HKD)
    • New Zealand dollars (NZD)
    • US dollars (USD)
    • Singapore dollars (SGD)
• $0 payment fees on transfers. There are no additional fees for money transfers made from your Volopay account. Just remember to factor in currency conversion for international transfers between currencies, as currency values can change daily.
• Multi-currency wallet. You can set up a wallet and hold multiple currencies, making it easier to lock in an exchange rate and budget for international transfers and transactions.
• Enforceable budgets. This account lets you set up recurring budgets for regular monthly amounts, or one-off budgets that could be useful for short-term projects.
• Custom workflows.Link your Volopay account to Xero or Quickbooks and you can set different customisations for expense tracking and approval, so that it fits in with your existing processes.
• Complex approval policies.Options to customise approval for different budgets and transactions.

Enterprise

This custom account is designed for larger organisations with more complex financial processes. It includes the key features of All-in-one, plus:

• Custom card designs. This plan lets you put your business logo or unique design printed on the plastic Visa cards linked to your account.
• Cashback. Volopay card transactions made through this plan will earn cashback, with the amount starting from 1% based on the individual account.
• NetSuite integration. If your business uses NetSuite, you'll be able to connect your Volopay account for easier management across each platform.
• Custom software integration. Volopay can arrange to connect your account to HR tech and other software as part of this plan. This could be handy when you're onboarding staff to the finance team or anyone else who is involved in spending or expenses.
• Additional bookkeeping services. The Volopay website does not have details of what extra services you can get but, as this is a customised plan you'll be able to discuss what bookkeeping services you need.

Other features you'll get with a Volopay account

Volopay also gives you access to the following account features and benefits:

• Security

Volopay has bank-grade encryption and access protocols and gives you a way to set up different virtual card numbers for different payments to reduce the risk of fraud. Your funds are also stored in a Big 4 Bank account and covered by ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) protections.

• Expense management

Offers a simple way to track, review and manage expenses based on department or organisation-wide budgets, without having to switch between accounts or platforms.

• Subscription management

Pay subscriptions with your Volopay virtual card and take advantage of savings through the cashback feature. Plus, you'll get insights on your spending across subscriptions and recurring payments, as well as added security by using a different virtual card for each one.

• Invoice management

Submit invoices from anywhere and use the dashboard to manage them. This gives you and other administrators oversight on vendor payments and keeps processes to one platform (Volopay), even if you need to make payments to vendors overseas.

• Multi-currency accounts

Send and load money in different currencies so you can manage your budgets, spending and payments all around the world.

• Business credit facility

If you want to extend your cashflow, you have the option of setting up a credit facility, with a maximum credit limit of $100,000. Keep in mind the limit can be lower than this, depending on lending criteria and assessment. You will be charged a fixed monthly fee of $50 for every $5,000 used, meaning if you used the full $100,000, you'd be charged a monthly fee of $1,000.

Adding a credit facility gives you a way to make payments when you need to, then settle your account balance each time you get a statement. So it is more similar to a business charge card than a credit card (because it does not attract interest).

• Corporate travel bookings

Volopay offers a corporate travel booking platform that gives you a way to manage travel bookings, expenses and reconciliation in one place.

How to sign up for Volopay

To get a Volopay plan for your business, you need to go through a 30-minute demonstration, as well as an onboarding process. Make sure you schedule time for this when you're ready to sign up.

Volopay demonstrations

Each demonstration is personalised to your business, with some key topics including:

• Different Volopay features and how the platform works
• How to use Volopay to manage budgets, expenses and people-related tasks
• Virtual and physical card management, including how to create virtual cards and load funds

Eligibility

To get a Volopay account, your business will also have to meet the following requirements:

• Business details. This includes your Australian Business Number (ABN) or Australian Company Number (ACN), the registered business name and an estimate of how much your business typically spends each month.
• Identification. You need to provide a copy of your driver's licence or passport to verify your ID. If there is more than one director of the company, you'll be asked for ID for all of them.
• Corporate travel bookings. Your business must have at least 5 employees.

What happens next

After you have gone through the 30-minute demo and been onboarded, you'll be able to start using Volopay for your business.

The Volopay platform has a detailed support section with lots of how-to guides to help you get set-up. You can also contact Volopay through its online chat or email support.