Corporate Card
A corporate card is a payment card issued by a company to its employees for business expenses, with limits, permissions, and reporting controlled centrally by the finance team. Liability generally sits with the company rather than the individual, and each card is governed by the company's expense policy. Modern corporate card programs add per-card limits, category and merchant rules, receipt capture, and accounting sync, so control and reporting happen at the card rather than through a reimbursement process.
Last updated: August 2026
Why corporate cards matter
Corporate cards replaced the reimbursement model for a good reason: employees stopped funding company spend from personal accounts and finance stopped chasing paperwork after the fact.
The model has a boundary, though, and it shows up clearly in advertising. A corporate card program assumes an employee spending company money on a company category, which is the wrong shape for an agency placing a client's budget on a platform. The controls translate. The underwriting, the rewards structure, and the reporting hierarchy do not.
Common Uses for Corporate Cards
- Employee expenses: travel, software, meals, equipment.
- Department budgets: a limit per team rather than per person.
- Vendor payments: dedicated cards for recurring suppliers.
- Policy enforcement: category and merchant rules applied at authorisation.
Business examples
A 40-person company issuing a card per employee with a $2,000 monthly limit. A marketing department with a shared card for tooling. A finance team using merchant locks to keep software spend on approved vendors.
Frequently asked questions
In common usage, a business card is issued to the business owner and often carries a personal guarantee, while a corporate card is issued by a larger company to employees with liability sitting at the company. The line is blurry in practice, and what matters more is whether a personal guarantee is required and how limits are underwritten.
They handle the control side well. They tend to handle the credit and rewards side badly for high-volume advertisers, because limits are underwritten on company financials and advertising is usually treated as a general spend category rather than a bonus one.
Some do and some do not, and it varies by issuer and by the size of the business. Every American Express business card requires one. Opal does not require a personal guarantee or a hard credit check.
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