Meet Curve:
Xero’s new card trick for business spend Nobody has ever woken up and thought: “I’m looking forward to doing my expenses today”. It’s a boring, time-consuming job for everyone involved - hours wasted every month on receipt data entry and reconciliation admin. Wouldn’t it be great if the job was smarter and simpler for businesses as well as accountants and bookkeepers?
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ome new apps have come close. They’ve made it easier to scan receipts, generate expense reports, or spend on an extra top-up card that feeds back into accounting software. But none removed the job altogether - until now.
you may even have a separate app for sending money to friends. How many accounts, passwords and PINS do you have for them all - and could you access them all right now, in a couple of seconds, in one place? The answer is ‘no’. Curve is here to fix that.”
Enter Curve: the card built with small businesses and bookkeepers in mind. XU Magazine takes a look at why early customers have been raving about the award-winning card for business - and how its new partnership with Xero makes business expenses effortless for everyone.
The waiting list is stacking up, with over 75,000 sign-ups since launching a Beta version of the card last year. And the awards are, too - fresh from winning at WIRED Money and being named one of the world’s most disruptive brands by Marketing Week, Curve was just named ‘one to watch’ in the latest Sunday Times TechTrack rankings of the UK’s most exciting technology companies.
What is Curve? Curve CEO, Shachar Bialick, describes it as: “a simpler way for freelancers, micro businesses and small businesses to manage all their spending in one place.” He says it solves financial headaches and makes spending safer, by allowing cardholders to spend from all their accounts and cards through one smart Curve card - connected directly to Xero, through a mobile app. Bialick explains: “If you’re running a business right now you’ll have a number of different debit and credit cards; you’ll have a current account, a savings account, a business account and possibly a joint account with a partner, and 38 / Issue 12
How does it work? Download the Curve app, load up your existing cards into Curve’s secure app, and start spending on your new Curve card once it arrives in the post. It works just like a normal bank card, anywhere in the world that accepts Mastercard charging payments from whichever of your existing cards are set as the current spending card in the app. Beyond showing you all your spending across all of your accounts, in one app, the card has a few more tricks up its sleeve. Cardholders collect Curve Rewards points when they spend, cut out
hidden FX fees on business trips, and instantly make all their cards harder to hack - for added security, the Curve card never reveals your personal details during a transaction, and you can lock a lost or stolen card instantly in the app. There’s even a world-first ‘financial time travel’ feature, which makes it easier for businesses to manage cashflow by switching the card they’re charged on, up to two weeks after making a purchase. And best of all? Curve cards can now connect directly to Xero. Business owners, say hello to instant, accurate, effortless business expenses - at no cost. Bookkeepers, rejoice! A new way to speed up processes, eliminate client errors and earn some brownie points with clients in the process. I’m an accountant or bookkeeper for small businesses. How does Curve help me? Curve is perfect for bookkeepers who want to do their job more efficiently. Once a client has connected their card to a Xero account, it’ll do the job of expense claims for them - and mean you get the right data, every time. • Never worry again about connecting Xero to multiple bank feeds, debit cards and credit cards • Now, your clients can spend on
XU Magazine - the independent magazine for Xero users, by Xero users. Find us online at: xumagazine.com
