The pandemic has driven many working people home. Turning your home into your office takes a few important items, and making those business expenses takes more flexibility than before. Here are AirPlus’ top 10 tips on what you need to succeed from home – and how your company can best cover the costs.
Many of us were used to making the trip into the office to work every day before the pandemic. The work-from-home (WFH) phenomenon has come as a shock, for better or worse. Some of us celebrated the sudden flexibility and freedom from commuting while others of us (parents of kids in school?) prayed for a quick return to business as usual. As weeks became months and 2020 stretched into 2021, those of us working from home (and that’s a lot of us) stopped holding our breath for a return to the way things were. Now we’re making the most of a new normal.
A big part of the new work normal consists of outfitting our home-based offices. Many companies have now had ample time to witness their business continuity maintained by a workforce in diaspora, and some – often depending on industry – have pivoted to a remote-first culture. For those of us dragging our feet to finally convert the guest room to our work corner, the time has come.
So what does it take to make a home-based workspace both efficiently professional and sustainably comfortable? Without further ado, here are our top 10 things you need to work from home…
1. A mouseWith two more items left on our list, you’re probably already wondering where to find these things and how to pay for them. For a growing number of us, the answer to “where” is global ecommerce companies like Amazon. The answer to “how”? That’s trickier. Lucky for you, we have two more spots in our list.
9. Amazon BusinessOne of the biggest challenges of so many employees around the world suddenly working from home has been that some important office policies have gone out the window. There’s no more costly example than the procurement process.
If your company has a hundred employees and each one orders just one of the items in our list, your expense report management could be overrun. Receipts would pile up from all corners of the internet and allocation would be a nightmare. Most of our current procurement systems weren’t built for large remote workforces.
AirPlus Virtual Cards are in the Mastercard network, so they’re accepted worldwide. They gather diverse and widespread transactions into single, easy-to-understand statements and invoices, saving you time by decreasing admin hassle, and saving you money by increasing visibility and compliance. They are a game changer in online corporate payment.
Virtual cards return the element of payment control to your remote work life. From the moment you create the card, you determine everything about it: set a spend limit, define the currency, make it valid for only so long, and restrict the type of purchases that can be made.
Virtual cards also enhance your payment data. Each transaction comes with more information, such as invoice number, cost center, employee number, or who generated the card. The richer your data, the more informed your purchase decisions can be.
The kicker? AirPlus Virtual Cards Procurement, our dedicated procurement solution, can be easily integrated into your existing platforms and systems. Why should something meant to save you time and money cost you any?
When it comes to the perfect WFH setup, you’re now fully prepared for what to get, where to get it, and how. No one knows what the future will hold, and if those of us working from home will ever return to the office. Take our tips to heart, though, and you’ll soon make home the best office you’ve ever had.
Our team can advice you on how you and your company can best cover these costs and increase efficiency through optimizing your procurement payment solutions. Sign up here for a free personal consultation. Our experts will be in touch to schedule a call at your earliest convenience.