MINNEAPOLIS | U.S. Bank today released a white paper titled "T&E Expense Management: The Case for Mandating Your Card Program." The new white paper examines how mandating commercial card use for travel and entertainment (T&E) expenses can improve cash flow, enhance control and increase spend visibility across an organization.

In addition to exploring the benefits of commercial card mandates, the paper details how to overcome barriers and encourage use of the card. It includes specific action steps organizations can implement to enforce compliance with commercial card policies and support card payment for T&E purchases.

"As organizations look for solutions to help minimize the impact of rising costs and control spending wherever possible, it is clear that mandating and enforcing commercial card use is a key best practice. Through use of commercial cards, organizations can capture and analyze T&E spending, which is critical to managing and reducing costs, leading directly to bottom line savings," said Jeff Rankin, senior vice president, U.S. Bank Corporate Payment Systems.

"T&E Expense Management: The Case for Mandating Your Card Program" can be downloaded at www.usbcpssolutions.com.

A few of the key benefits to mandating commercial card use, which are detailed further in the white paper, include:

• Convenience | Increase employee satisfaction and productivity by simplifying travel procurement and expense reimbursement;
• Cost Reduction | Reduce transaction and processing costs when procuring travel;
• Control | Maintain control over organizational spending and eliminate rogue spending;
• Information | Consolidate T&E expense data for a holistic, enterprise-wide view of spending;
• Compliance | Reinforce compliance to travel policies and procedures; and
• Sourcing | Rationalize supplier base and negotiate discounts.