Merchantrade Money Biz tackles cash flow & expense management issues in interview

 

1. Can you please tell us about yourselves and your roles at Merchantrade? 

 

Mike: Okay, hi, a very good morning to you. Thank you for having us here today. It’s an honour to be here. I’m Mikaeel Abdullah. People call me Mike. I’m the SVP with Enterprise Sales. Basically, I oversee enterprise sales across diverse company sectors or industries.  

Atiqah: Okay, hi. My name is Atiqah Nameera. I’m an Executive in Enterprise Sales. For corporate clients interested in Merchantrade Money Biz for digital expense management, I assist with registration and portal briefing. 

 

2. Good to have both of you with us today. Can you share with us what inspired the development of MM Biz for business owners?  

 

Mike: All right. As you know, we pioneered Merchantrade Money with its Visa Prepaid Card in 2018, right. Over the years, we noticed that many companies were using the card to pay invoices. The same card would be used to pay for workers’ claims and such.  

On top of that, we received regular client queries for a solution that could help them manage their claims more efficiently. So then our team sat and looked into it, went to the drawing board and said, “Oh yeah, why not? We can come up with something better to help businesses.” And that’s where we are today. 

Interviewer: Yeah, I think it’s great that you incorporate actual client feedback into coming up with another innovative solution to help their businesses.  

Mike: That’s what we do, actually. We get feedback when we go to ground. We listen to what people want us to improve, whether it is for product or service.  So, it is an evolving thing. There’s always something new at Merchantrade. You see MM Biz today, tomorrow, you never know. Something new is coming up.  

 

3. I’m sure you both get FAQs from the businesses you meet, about cost-cutting, corporate cards and expense management. Can you share some of those questions with us? 

 

Mike: I do get a lot, but I think it’ll be interesting to get Atiqah’s customer insights on this. 

Atiqah: From my experience dealing with clients, many of them were using different corporate cards while surveying the market for options. One common question from employers is how to digitize expense management. Then when they realise how user-friendly it is for both end-users – HR & Finance, and cardholders – they choose to adopt MM Biz instead.  

Bosses also liked how MM Biz can save loads of time for them by automating and churning reports straight from the expense management portal. 

 

4. So how does MM Biz improve cash flow particularly in these local economic conditions?  

Mike: MM Biz improves cash flow by replacing the need for risky cash handling, especially in remote office locations. A good example is of the estate plantations. Each estate manager uses MM Biz cards preloaded by finance teams, ensuring safe and seamless payments for medical emergencies. This cashless solution is especially useful where higher hospital deposits are needed for migrant workers. 

With MM Biz, all the manager has to do is pay with the card. By going cashless, it assures the safety of the worker and the manager who will have to travel from the estate for medical attention.  

Interviewer: It helps with the budget planning. 

Mike: It helps the budget planning, and naturally, the economy.  

 

5. So tell me more about how MM Biz cards can be customized for certain spending. If the estate manager in this case uses his card for his worker’s medical treatment, is it restricted to medical purposes? 

 

Mike: Yes, in a manner of speaking. That’s the beauty of MM Biz. Every company can decide how the card is going to be used. For example, if my company decides to give me an MM Biz card, they will enable the Entertainment category where I can use it. 

I will be able to use the card at any Coffee Bean or Starbucks. I can even treat a client to dinner with it. However, I won’t be able to use that card to withdraw cash or buy a flight ticket to go on holiday. This is one of the USPs from MM Biz. 

 

6. Can you share any use cases where businesses have benefited from using MM Biz? 

 

Atiqah: I can add an example from the travel segment. Most of our clients use the MM Biz card to buy flight tickets, or to make payment to visa. For this, they need to make payment in the native foreign currency. The beauty of that is MM Biz has the multi-currency e-wallet. So clients simply lock the rate, and make payments using that foreign currency. 

 

7. When you say lock the rate, do you mean that clients buy the foreign currency ahead of time? 

 

Atiqah: Yes, correct. Locking the rate means buying foreign currency at the presented rate. Clients do appreciate that they are able to save costs by avoiding rate fluctuations. 

 

8. Can you share another use case for the multi-currency e-wallet? 

 

Mike: Yeah, the travel sector is one of the bigger industries, and MM Biz is an advantageous solution for them. Especially with the multi-currency wallet, right, which we refer to as MCW.  

Another good example is how the MCW is used by travel agents in our clients’ agencies. Traditionally, they carry a lot of cash when bringing travellers on Umrah or Hajj pilgrimages to Saudi. Upon arrival, the agents use the cash to purchase Saudi Riyal for use.  

Now with MM Biz, what happens is the agency buys Saudi Riyal in the app and transfers X amount to the agent’s card for cashless use. That really helps ease their problems.  

 

9. Okay, can you share another example from an entirely different industry? 

 

Mike: We have one or two F&B clients that use us primarily for the day-to-day expenses at their outlets. Previously, staff used to take up X amount from their Point of Sale (POS) systems for petty cash to buy raw materials for the outlets. This amount comes from their day-to-day budget. So reimbursement solely relies on that receipt. If that receipt goes missing, it disrupts claims processing and throws off the daily budget, leaving the manager to cover the shortfall out of their own pocket. 

That’s one of the major disadvantages of handling cash, the process can get very messy. With digital expense management, once you use an MM Biz card its transactions are captured by the back end in real time. If finance needs to cross check an expense for RM100, they’ll just ask to take a picture of the receipt which you can do from your app. 

There’s no hassle for the roundabout claims processes where you’ll have to manually input numbers in Excel or combine files and such. That messiness is taken away from you.

 

“This solution minimizes paperwork and manages cash flow for F&B businesses.”

 

Interviewer: Okay, excellent. Seems like MM Biz takes a lot of time off their hands too. 

Mike: It takes a lot of time off, yes. Plus companies save on manpower too. There’s no need to allocate one staff member just to sit for hours and go through Excel sheets, piles of receipts, and try to tally them. The approving authority as well has different tiers.  

Interviewer: Yeah, I’m sure there’s a lot of waiting around for approvals and whatnot, questions. 

Mike: True. With time saved, your staff can focus  on something else that better use for something else, and since it’s digitized, right, so the room for error, I would say it’s like zero percent.  

 

10. Okay, so what would you say to companies who ask, “Why use prepaid cards when I can continue using traditional corporate credit cards?”

 

Mike: For these companies, please call us, we’ll sit down with you and walk you through how MM Biz can help you (laughs). Okay, let’s view this in context. Traditional corporate credit cards were especially popular in the 80s and 90s, right. Though there are a handful of banks that still offer this card segment, it’s actually more of an overdraft facility. This means you can spend more than you have in your account. Prepaid cards, however, set limits based on your spending habits, making it easier for finance teams to manage expenses. 

So, let’s say if my user spends $5,000 a month, I would probably give him $3,000 first. If he needs the additional $2,000 he’ll have to submit a request with reason. This will not be possible in the case of a credit card. It would be too easy to overspend, perhaps up to $5,000. The user’s request will be reviewed by multiple people prior to approval. This process can take a long time, sometimes up to three or four months, for a single request.    

 

11. Earlier you mentioned how affordable it is to use MM Biz. Can you share with us how cost-effective it is for Malaysian businesses? 

 

Atiqah: The starting price is RM5 a month. Customers can choose from three subscription packages: Black, Premium or Prestige, depending on the number of cards they want to use. 

For instance, companies who opt for the Black package get one portal and one to five cards.  So RM5 monthly, and RM60 yearly. 

 

“It is especially cost-effective for businesses that are SMIs and SMEs.”

 

Interviewer: And the sum is negligible, so it’s very easy to incorporate in. What about the second and third package?  

Atiqah: The second package is Premium at RM15 per month. It consists of a portal and 6 to 20 cards. This one is mostly for medium-sized companies. Prestige is the third package, with 21 cards and above. There is unlimited card issuance right now for this package at only RM50 per month. 

Mike: So if you have a big operation with a few hundred workers, I would strongly suggest the Prestige package.  

 

12. Can you give me a summary of what happens from the time a customer is interested in onboarding to the time that they get to run it by themselves? 

 

Mike: When a customer shows interest, we explain the product’s benefits, usage, and monitoring features, guiding them on managing expenses with spending controls. MM Biz can block cash withdrawals and manage spending categories. The ability to control usage often impresses customers. Once they confirm their interest to come aboard, we discuss costs, select a package and complete documentation. Then Atiqah takes over for the onboarding process. 

13. Does the onboarding process take place online or in person? 

 

Mike: Both ways are possible, however we prefer to physically be on hand to assist them.  

Atiqah makes sure the entire onboarding process is completed, has been approved. The third step is eKYC, a digital process where the user verifies their identity on their own. The cards are delivered to them for activation and then they start using them. 

Equally important is our after sales support to our customers. It’s especially important the first few months. We are always here to answer questions related to passwords, features, app and portal use. Or provide general support throughout their journey 

 

14. What can you tell readers about getting in touch with questions, or getting started with MM Biz right away? 

 

Mike: Please visit our website. There’s a very good read on it, on how MM Biz works and what value it brings to companies. And if you need more details, please feel free to drop us an email on our website and we will personally explain to you in more detail.  

Interviewer: Okay, great. So all they have to do is input their contact details on the form and send to you, right?  

Mike: Yes. We will need their contact name, company email address and mobile number. We can help them save the time by getting in touch with them right away. 

Interviewer: Great, that information is helpful. Thank you both for again for your time. 

Mike: You’re most welcome. Thank you for having us. 

Interviewer: You’re welcome. 

 

END

Tags: cash flow, corporate cards, Digitize expense management, Expense management, finance, malaysian businesses, manual processes, merchantrade money biz, pay and claims, save costs, save time, SMEs, SMIs, traditional corporate credit card