A new end-to-end expense management tool that gives full transparency over employee spend, including fuel and other on-the-road purchases, has launched from J.R. Rix & Sons.

Harry Rix with the new Expensemate card

The Hull-based family group, which also includes Rix Petroleum, has developed the Expensemate solution to end the need for paper receipts and expense reports, and save businesses countless hours of administration time.

The product consists of a pre-paid Mastercard coupled with an online dashboard and mobile app which enables users to capture digital receipts, business owners to approve expenses on the go, and financial directors to instantly analyse spend.

The tool integrates with existing accountancy software to enable a seamless transaction-to-reconciliation process, meaning expense spend can be evaluated as part of the company’s wider expenditure more easily.

The new solution was conceived in part by Andy Smith, director of sister company Fuelmate, who came up with the idea for a fuel card that could be used at all forecourts across the UK.

This provided Harry Rix – son of Rix Group chief executive Tim and sixth-generation family member to work at the company – with the inspiration for Expensemate after he realised there was potential for a card to be extended to a broader range of employee spend.

Harry said: “With Expensemate, we’ve designed a solution that enables expense spend data to be fully transparent and available in real time, and one that removes hours of inefficient admin,” he said.

“The card can be used everywhere Mastercard is accepted, but directors can tailor restrictions to the needs of individual employees, ensuring they maintain control while simultaneously empowering their staff.”

The product is available in both pre-paid and credit accounts, so businesses eligible for credit can access all the benefits of a company credit card but with the enhanced functionality of Expensemate.