Upgrade your ad spend from Brex to Opal
Brex is built for company-wide spend management. Opal is built for agencies running client ad spend.
Opal gives agencies dedicated ad spend cards, credit limits up to $10M, 1% uncapped cashback on ad spend, and reconciliation workflows built around clients, platforms, and campaigns.
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Brex is a strong corporate card and spend management platform for startups, growing companies, and finance teams managing company-wide expenses.
Opal is different. Opal is purpose-built for agencies managing client ad spend across Google, Meta, TikTok, and other ad platforms.
The difference comes down to focus.
Brex helps companies manage broad operating expenses like software, travel, dining, procurement, and employee spend. Opal helps agencies scale paid media spend without tying growth to traditional card workflows, shared cards, or manual reconciliation.
With Opal, agencies can access credit limits up to $10M based on managed spend, cash flow, and underwriting. No personal guarantee or hard credit check required. Apply online in minutes.
Brex offers a powerful rewards program across common business categories. Opal focuses on what matters most for agencies: 1% uncapped cashback on ad spend. For agencies running hundreds of thousands in monthly media spend, that turns client ad budgets into a recurring revenue stream while keeping spend organized by client and platform.
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Your ad spend capacity should scale with your client portfolio.
Brex evaluates a company’s financial profile to determine spend capacity. That can work well for startups and finance teams managing company-wide expenses.
But agencies have a different problem.
An agency might manage $300K, $500K, or $1M+ in monthly client ad spend across multiple accounts. That spend is not the same as internal company expenses. It needs to be separated by client, platform, and campaign. It also needs enough capacity to support new client wins without creating operational bottlenecks.
Opal is built around that agency model.
Opal can extend credit limits up to $10M based on managed spend, cash flow, and underwriting. That means your ability to scale client ad spend is tied to your book of business, not a generic corporate card structure.
If you win a new client with an $80K monthly media budget, your card program should help you launch faster, not slow you down.
The capacity to grow should come from your managed spend. Not from forcing agency workflows into a general-purpose corporate card.
Brex rewards are broad. Opal rewards the spend agencies run every day.
Brex offers a strong points program for business categories like travel, dining, software, rideshare, and general company expenses.
That is useful for companies managing internal spend.
But agencies running client media budgets usually care about a different category: ad spend.
Opal offers 1% uncapped cashback on ad spend. No category gymnastics. No points math. No trying to turn software or travel rewards into agency margin.
At $200k per month in managed spend:
Brex can be a strong option for broad business rewards. Opal is built for agencies that want ad spend itself to generate cashback.
For agencies managing large client budgets, that matters. A $500K monthly ad spend operation can turn into $5,000 per month in cashback through Opal, before adding any operational savings from cleaner reconciliation.
Outsmart Labs used Opal to recover 15 hours per week in reconciliation time, reduce the need to front client spend, and add a 1% cashback revenue stream on ad spend they were already running.
General virtual cards are not the same as agency ad spend cards.
Brex supports virtual cards for teams, vendors, procurement, and expense controls. That is useful for finance teams managing company-wide spend.
Agencies need a more specific structure.
When one agency manages multiple clients across Google, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, and other ad platforms, shared cards can create messy statements, unclear attribution, and more manual cleanup at month end.
Opal lets agencies issue dedicated virtual cards by client and/or by platform.
That means one client’s Google spend can live separately from another client’s Meta spend. A card issue on one account is less likely to disrupt unrelated campaigns. Spend is easier to track, easier to reconcile, and easier to explain to clients.
The structure mirrors how agencies actually operate.
Instead of adapting a general corporate card to agency workflows, Opal gives you a card system built around client ad spend from the start.
Expense management is not the same as ad spend reconciliation.
Brex has strong expense management, receipt capture, approval workflows, and accounting integrations. For general company spend, that is valuable.
But agency reconciliation is different.
Agency teams need to map transactions to clients, campaigns, platforms, and sometimes billing arrangements. A single monthly statement can include spend across multiple ad accounts, client budgets, platforms, and payment methods.
That creates work that generic expense tools do not fully solve.
Opal is built for ad spend reconciliation. Transactions can be organized around the way agencies manage paid media: by client, by platform, and by campaign.
Opal also integrates with QuickBooks, helping agencies reduce manual month-end work and keep client ad spend easier to track.
Outsmart Labs recovered 15 hours per week after moving ad spend workflows into Opal.
That is the difference between managing expenses and managing client media operations.
Where Brex may still be the better fit
Brex is a strong choice for companies that want a broad corporate card and spend management platform.
Business Banking
Company-wide spend management Brex can be a good fit for managing employee expenses, approvals, vendor spend, software, travel, and procurement.
Startup Finance Stack
Startup finance teams Brex is well-suited for startups and scaling companies that want corporate cards, expense management, bill pay, travel, and finance workflows in one platform.
General Expenses
Broad business rewards Brex can make sense for companies that want points across categories like travel, dining, rideshare, software, and general business purchases.
Who Opal is for
Opal is the right fit if you are:
Outsmart Labs faced these same challenges. After switching to Opal, they recovered 15 hours per week in reconciliation time and added a recurring cashback revenue stream on client spend they were already running.
Use an agency-built card for agency ad spend.
Apply online in minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Opal is the better fit for agencies managing client ad spend. Brex is a strong corporate card and spend management platform for startups and finance teams, while Opal is purpose-built for agency workflows like client-level cards, ad platform reconciliation, scalable credit, and 1% uncapped cashback on ad spend.
The main difference is focus. Brex is built for broad company-wide spend management, including employee expenses, vendors, travel, software, procurement, and finance workflows. Opal is built specifically for agencies managing client ad spend across platforms like Google, Meta, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
Yes. Opal offers 1% uncapped cashback on ad spend. Agencies can earn cashback on the client media spend they are already managing, creating a recurring revenue stream from paid media budgets.
Brex offers a points-based rewards program across multiple business categories. Opal is more direct for agencies because it offers 1% uncapped cashback specifically on ad spend.
Yes. Many agencies can use Brex for internal company expenses and Opal for client ad spend. Brex can support broader finance operations, while Opal handles agency-specific ad spend workflows like client cards, scalable credit, cashback, and reconciliation.
Brex determines spend capacity based on a company’s financial profile. Opal can support credit limits up to $10M based on managed spend, cash flow, and underwriting. For agencies, that means credit capacity can be aligned with client ad spend volume.
No. Opal does not require a personal guarantee or hard credit check. Eligibility and credit limits are based on factors like managed ad spend, cash flow, and underwriting.
Agencies manage spend differently than most companies. Client ad spend needs to be separated by client, platform, and campaign. Opal is built around those workflows, helping agencies reduce manual reconciliation, access scalable credit, and earn cashback on ad spend.