Tech News: Expensify launches charitable corporate card, and more

Expensify, an expense management app maker, has introduced a corporate card philanthropic initiative called Karma Points. Every time an Expensify cardholder makes a payment, Expensify donates 10 percent of the revenue to humanitarian causes. The charitable donation points are in lieu of traditional rewards points. All funds raised will be donated through a newly created charity, Expensify.org. The causes chosen by Expensify focus on three main societal issues: homelessness, hunger and climate change. Donations will be routed automatically to one of five funds most relevant to any given purchase. Cardholders will also receive a push notification on their phone letting them know which fund their purchase supported. For instance, a flight purchase will trigger a donation toward tree planting to help offset carbon emissions; and an employee taking a client to lunch will direct funds to provide a meal to a hungry child.

Note, the Expensify card has no association with the survey rewards app CashKarma, which also issues “karma points” to users.

Priority Software, which provides enterprise resource planning solutions, now offers Avalara’s AvaTax solution for tax automation inside its ERP software. The software partnership allows Priority customers in the U.S. (or those trading with U.S.-based customers) to choose Avalara’s AvaTax to automatically calculate sales tax within their Priority application, generating quotes, orders and checkout or billing. Customers can calculate sales tax at every stage in the sales process, including downloading tax groups and exemptions from Avalara via the Priority platform. Priority customers also now have access to Avalara’s address validation capabilities from within the Priority application.

Tax software and services provider Vertex’s SuiteTax Connector SuiteApp has achieved “Built for NetSuite” status. The new SuiteApp, built using the Oracle NetSuite SuiteCloud Platform, enables SuiteTax customers to manage complex tax requirements for sales and procurement transactions. Built for NetSuite is a program for NetSuite SuiteCloud Developer Network partners that provides them with the information, resources and methodology needed to verify that their applications and integrations meet NetSuite standards and best practices. The Built for NetSuite program is designed to give NetSuite customers additional confidence that SuiteApps have been built to meet these standards.