Don’t just process spend. Make it work harder.
How finance teams can unlock more value from payments already happening.
Spend is often seen as money leaving the business. But, in my conversations with CFOs and finance leaders, that view feels too narrow.
Every supplier payment, subscription and operational purchase carries more than a cost. It carries timing. It carries control. It carries risk. And, in some cases, it carries untapped value.
How those payments are structured can either create friction for finance teams or improve visibility, strengthen liquidity, and generate value from spend that is already happening. That distinction matters now.
Finance leaders are under pressure to protect cash, build resilience and create measurable value, often without the time, budget or appetite for another large-scale transformation programmes.
Recent EY research captures that tension well. While 60% of CFOs say they should define and shape how the business creates value, and 55% agree that finance should accelerate value-creation initiatives, only 26% lead discussions on which value drivers matter most and how they are evolving.
Too often, payment methods are selected based on existing processes rather than the value they could create. Finance teams may have limited visibility into where different payment approaches could improve liquidity, strengthen controls or create additional value from spend already happening.
That is a gap I see many finance teams trying to close. The challenge is knowing where to begin.
For me, supplier spend is one of the most practical starting points.
Every organisation has supplier payments moving through the business. Some are predictable and recurring. Some are ad hoc. Some sit inside formal procurement routes. Others appear in the long tail of operational spend, including software, subscriptions, one-off supplier services, online purchases and everyday business costs.
Together, those payments touch cash flow, supplier relationships, operational control and financial visibility. They can also be difficult to manage. They may be approved in one place, executed in another and reconciled somewhere else, creating fragmented data and making it harder to maintain consistent visibility and control throughout the payment journey.
Corpay’s own research with 300 UK CFOs illustrates the scale of this operational burden: 83% of CFOs said spend processes are still more manual than they should be, 84% said their organisation has been slow to modernise, and 86% reported that finance teams spend six or more hours per person, per week on expense, invoice and supplier payment administration.
That’s why the question for finance is changing: not simply, how do we process spend more efficiently, but how do we create more value from spend already happening.
Why the structure of payments matters more now
The way supplier payments are structured has become more strategically important because it shapes how finance manages timing, visibility and control.
In an uncertain environment, CFOs are under pressure to protect liquidity, improve cash discipline and keep the business resilient. McKinsey’s latest CFO Pulse Survey found that nearly two-thirds of CFO respondents are responding to geopolitical uncertainty by increasing cash and liquidity buffers.
Corpay’s own research reinforces the importance of this flexibility. 81% of CFOs said 30 to 44 days of additional working capital flexibility would be very valuable or essential.
That context changes how finance should think about supplier payments.
If cash and liquidity are high on the agenda, payments are not just transactions to be processed. They are part of how finance manages timing, flexibility and financial resilience.
In that context, supplier spend becomes more than an operational workflow. It can become a lever to support better visibility, working capital flexibility and measurable financial value, with additional opportunities to apply controls where they matter most.
The practical opportunity inside everyday supplier spend
Spend modernisation can feel complex. ERP upgrades, accounts payable redesign and large-scale transformation programmes all take time, budget and change capacity. Many organisations recognise the need to modernise but can’t pause operations while they plan and deliver major programmes.
This is where corporate card-led payments can help create value.
Corporate card-led payments can provide a practical way to help improve visibility, support liquidity objectives and create financial value from eligible spend. Rather than replacing existing finance infrastructure, these card payments can introduce structured spend data at the point of payment, helping reduce administrative workload while improving visibility and governance.
Corpay’s research suggests finance leaders are increasingly seeing cards as a practical starting point for spend modernisation. 67% expect to shift more than 20% of spend onto corporate cards in the coming year, and 81% say card-led payments have become a competitive advantage.
For eligible supplier spend, corporate and virtual cards can help finance teams extend payment terms, support working capital flexibility and unlock rebates on qualifying spend. They can also add controls at the point of payment, including card limits, usage rules, and supplier-specific controls, helping finance teams manage eligible spend more proactively.
That matters because supplier spend is leaving the business anyway. The opportunity is to structure this spend so it delivers more value before it does.
The value comes from a combination of benefits: helping reduce manual effort through improved reconciliation and reporting, adding spend-control options, supporting working capital flexibility through credit terms, and creating value back through rebates on qualifying card payments.
The opportunity in repeat supplier spend
Virtual cards add another important layer to this story.
In supplier payments, some of the greatest friction sits in categories where spend is repeated, distributed across the business, or hard to manage through traditional processes. Our research with 300 UK CFOs identified software and cloud tools, supplier payments and subscriptions as categories that finance leaders are already prioritising for card-led migration.
Virtual cards can help bring these categories under more structured control.
They allow finance teams to create card credentials for specific suppliers, transactions, or categories, with controls such as limits, usage rules, expiry conditions, and merchant locking. Merchant locking allows a card to be restricted to approved suppliers when it is created, adding another layer of security and reducing the risk of spend happening outside intended supplier relationships.
This helps finance teams apply control before a payment is made, reducing the need to rely solely on checks and reconciliation processes to identify issues after the transaction has taken place.
That flexibility can also extend to repeat or ongoing payments.
Virtual cards can support different payment needs, from single-use transactions to repeat or ongoing spend, giving customers flexibility in how they choose to manage each payment. Combined with controls such as merchant locking, they can help finance teams tighten control over how cards are used while retaining the speed and flexibility of a virtual payment method.
For finance teams, the benefits are faster access to card-based payments, less friction waiting for plastic to be produced, and more flexibility and control in how eligible repeat supplier payments and ongoing business spend are managed.
Make spend work harder
Finance leaders do not need more abstract transformation promises. They need practical steps that help them improve control, protect liquidity and create value now, while building towards a more connected finance model over time.
Supplier payments are a strong place to start because they are already part of the business's everyday rhythm. The question is whether they are simply being processed or structured to create more value.
For eligible spend, card-led payments can help finance teams make that shift. They can support working capital flexibility, unlock rebates on qualifying spend, improve supplier spend visibility and introduce additional controls at the point of payment.
That is why card-led payments are becoming more than a payment method. They are becoming a practical lever for spend modernisation, helping finance teams turn everyday supplier spend into something controlled, visible and more valuable.
Multi-use virtual cards extend that opportunity, giving customers a faster, more flexible way to manage repeat business payments when a physical card is not required. It is measurable, practical and rooted in spend that is already happening across the organisation.
That’s time well spent.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which types of supplier spend are most suitable for corporate and virtual cards?
Cards can be particularly useful for eligible supplier payments, including software and cloud tools, subscriptions, supplier services, online purchases and everyday operational costs. They are a practical way to bring more structure, visibility and control to spend that is already happening.
How can card-led payments support working capital?
For eligible spend, corporate and virtual cards can help finance teams extend payment terms and support working capital flexibility. They can also unlock rebates on qualifying card spend, helping create additional value from payments the business already needs to make.
How do virtual cards improve control over supplier payments?
Virtual cards allow finance teams to create card credentials for specific suppliers, transactions or categories. Controls can include spend limits, usage rules, expiry conditions and merchant locking, which restricts a card to approved suppliers and helps reduce the risk of spend outside intended supplier relationships.
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