The Six Leading Corporate Cards for Employee Expense Tracking

Back in the day, if you gave your employees business cards to make purchases with, you might not get to see a full picture of their spending until the bank statement would arrive at the end of the month. It could be pretty stressful to let your team members roam the outside world holding cards with no spending limits. Throughout the last ten years, corporate cards and expense management solutions have been developed to fix that.

The advent of modern corporate cards means employees don’t have to collect receipts and report purchases in order for finance teams to get an up-to-date look at company spending. Many card platforms can capture purchase data as it’s created, route approvals automatically, integrate with other pieces of software, and even flag suspicious-looking transactions.

Between different features, reward structures, and drawbacks, researching and choosing a corporate card for expense tracking can be a tall order. That’s why we put this guide together. In this article, we’ll cover what to look for in a corporate card, how they can help with expense management, and a breakdown of the top options available today. If you’re hoping to find a corporate card that enables more than expense tracking, the Slash Visa® Platinum Card may be your answer.¹ With a connection to an all-in-one business banking platform, purchases made with the Slash Card can sync with your accounting system and be monitored and analyzed by an agentic AI assistant.

Corporate cards built for control

Cashback, automation, and insights, simplified.

Get Started

Key Features of Effective Corporate Cards

A corporate card is a payment card issued by a company to employees for exclusive business use. While purchases made with an employee’s personal card would need to be reimbursed, corporate cards connect directly to the company's account. This system makes team expenses a lot easier to manage, as data can be centralized no matter how many employees are given spending privileges. You can skip the reimbursement process and get live access into the way money moves out of your account.

For the most part, corporate cards come alongside a financial platform that allows a clear look at current and past purchases. As you shop for a card, you’ll have to be mindful of the features that come with the whole package, and whether they match your business’s needs or fall short. The best corporate card solutions come with some combination of the following perks:

Integration with accounting software: Some cards sync directly with accounting platforms like Xero and NetSuite. If they do, your finance team doesn’t have to carefully copy and paste transactions from one system to the next.
Spending limits and controls: Per-card spend limits, category restrictions, and the ability to pause or cancel cards instantly give business owners the power to handle problems as they appear rather than when they’re too late to fix.
Virtual cards: With virtual cards, you have the ability to generate unique card numbers for specific vendors, subscriptions, or projects. This can make it especially simple to track your business’s spending by source and cancel compromised cards without affecting any other payments.
Real-time transaction visibility: It’s helpful to use a financial dashboard that gives you real time updates and alerts regarding corporate card transactions. Platforms like Slash gather a lot more on that dashboard than card spend, including analytics, a Treasury account, and invoicing tools.⁶
Rewards and cash back: Whether it comes in the form of points or cash back, rewards can give you extra value on the purchases your business makes every day.
Receipt capture and matching: Your company’s expense policy may still require receipts for certain high-value or one-off purchases. For those situations, some solutions prompt employees to scan their receipts so they can be matched to transactions automatically.

Top 6 Corporate Cards for Expense Tracking

Some of the following corporate cards are credit cards that can carry a revolving balance, while others are charge cards that must be paid in full at the end of the period. Either way, these six cards each come with expense management features that can change the game for overworked business owners. Let’s dive in:

Slash Visa® Platinum Card

The Slash Visa® Platinum Card is a corporate charge card that comes alongside Slash’s full business banking platform, which offers checking and Treasury accounts, bill pay features, diverse payment rails, and much more. Any balances accrued with the Slash Card are automatically paid in full at the end of each business day, meaning high-interest debt can’t accrue. Administrators can issue unlimited virtual Slash Cards so remote employees can have the same spending privileges as those in-office.

Business purchases made with the Slash Visa® Platinum Card can earn up to 2% cash back, which is among the highest rates you’ll find in your search. As you earn that extra capital, you can store it in Slash’s Treasury account, which earns up to 3.82% annualized yield on idle cash.

Strengths:

Intelligent expense categorization
Unlimited virtual and physical cards with granular spend controls and category restrictions
Two-way sync with QuickBooks, Xero, Sage Intacct, and NetSuite for automatic expense categorization and easier reconciliation
The ability to set customizable spending controls and issue unlimited virtual cards for handling team expenses, vendor payments, subscriptions, and more.
Deposits are FDIC-insured up to the hundreds of millions through Column N.A.'s cash sweep network²

Best for: Businesses interested in high rewards that also want to manage their card spend under the same login they use to work with their banking, payments, and accounting.

Brex Card

Brex is another finance solution that serves startups, mid-size companies, and enterprises across different industries. Its card program is part of a platform that centers around bill pay, banking, and automated expense management. In fact, according to Brex themselves, 71% of all expenses made through the platform are handled without human input.

The Brex Card is a charge card that offers points-based rewards rather than flat rate cash back. When spending primarily on travel, these points rewards can come in handy, but they might not be as valuable for teams with a wide range of expenses. Another downside is the fact that you’re typically required to hold $50,000 in cash reserves to qualify for Brex, meaning new founders and small business owners may have a tough time getting in the door.

Strengths:

Card can be used in 120+ countries, about half of which come without FX fees
Up to 7x points in select spending categories like rideshare
Solid accounting automation tools with deep ERP integrations

Best for: Startups and mid-size companies that often travel internationally and value access to automation tools.

Rho Corporate Card

Rho’s corporate cards connect to a broader platform with checking accounts, bill pay, invoicing, and access to working capital. Their Treasury solution offers an impressive 4.44% annualized yield, and their 24/7 customer support team is considered one of the most helpful among its competitors. However, its 1.5% cash back is average, and its expense management features are less fleshed out than an alternative like Slash that comes with deep automations.

Strengths:

A treasury yield of up to 4.44%, which is among the highest rates available in this category
Free to use, with $0 fees on ACH and bill payments
Fast implementation with dedicated 24/7 support

Best for: Venture-backed startups and mid-sized businesses that want corporate cards integrated with high-yield treasury.

U.S. Bank Triple Cash Rewards Visa® Business Card

This U.S. Bank card is a no-annual-fee business credit card that earns 3% cash back at places like gas stations, office supply stores, and restaurants. It's backed by U.S. Bank's broader business banking suite, with an expense monitoring platform, free employee cards, and a $100 annual software subscription credit.

The Triple Cash Rewards card also gives users 5% cash back on prepaid hotels and car rentals booked through U.S. Bank’s portal. Ultimately, the card itself is a solid product, but U.S. Bank’s spend management platform falls a bit short of its rivals. With accounting integrations and receipt capture tools, it comes with more than your average traditional bank, but fewer automation tools than standard fintechs. Additionally, the card requires both a personal guarantee and a personal credit check.

Strengths:

3% cash back on common business spending categories and 5% back on some rentals
$0 annual fee with free employee cards and no cap on total rewards earned
$100 annual statement credit for recurring software subscriptions
0% introductory APR for 12 billing cycles on purchases and balance transfers

Best for: Small businesses that routinely spend money on U.S. Bank’s reward categories and want to work with an established bank without an annual fee.

BILL Divvy Corporate Card

BILL.com, otherwise known as BILL, was named Divvy until 2023. Today, their charge card is called the BILL Divvy Corporate Card. In spite of its confusing branding, this card can be quite helpful for teams that need to manage employee spending across multiple departments or locations.

The BILL Divvy card’s spending is mainly framed around budgets. Administrators can assign funds to departments or employees, create spending ceilings, issue virtual cards for specific vendors or uses, and require approvals before purchases are made. There’s a lot to juggle when it comes to their rewards system, however. Not only are their rewards category-specific and points-based, but the exact multiplier depends on the billing cycle you work with. Weekly billing cycles can earn you up to 7x points on restaurants, while monthly billing cycles may only earn you 1x points on most purchases.

Strengths:

Budget-first design that enforces spending limits before a purchase is made
Virtual cards for individual vendors or recurring subscriptions
$0 annual fee
Approval workflows suited to multi-department or multi-location teams

Best for: Established businesses that want to manage employee spending and enforce budgets across different locations.

American Express Business Gold Card

The American Express (Amex) Business Gold Card offers 4X Membership Rewards points on the two categories your business spends the most on each month, meaning you can get consistent value without having to aim your budget in certain directions. Additionally, you can earn up to 200,000 Rewards points after spending $15,000 in your first three months.

However, the Business Gold Card comes with more up-front costs than most of its competitors. The first five cards you issue cost a combined total of $95, then you’ll pay $95 for each singular card after that. The program also comes with a $375 annual fee. While Amex’s accounting integrations and detailed transaction reporting are decent for a non-fintech, the prices may be too steep for some small business owners.

Strengths:

4X points on your top two spending categories each month
Wide global acceptance with strong fraud protection and cardholder benefits
Statement credits on certain purchases like office supply stores and Grubhub

Best for: High-earning businesses that value rewards and only need to issue cards to a handful of employees.

Corporate cards for smarter spend

Up to 2% high cashback and full control in one place.

Get Started

Best Practices for Managing Employee Expenses with Corporate Cards

While you can often set limits and restrictions with a corporate card, it can’t manage your employee’s expenses for you. Whether you’re a business owner or a finance team lead, actively monitoring your company card spend and establishing guidelines up front is just as important as adopting a card program that supplies expense tracking tools. Here are a few best practices:

Setting a clear corporate card policy

Before issuing cards, it’s smart to put your spending rules in writing. A clear policy should cover which expense categories are and aren’t approved, what the limits are for each role, how employees should handle their receipts, what approval processes look like above certain amounts, and the consequences of violating the policy. If you set these expectations upfront, you can (hopefully) spend less time dealing with unauthorized purchases down the road. Platforms like Slash let you encode these rules directly into card controls, so the policy basically enforces itself.

Training employees on effective card use

To make sure your card policy didn’t go in one ear and out the other, it can be helpful to train your team on effective card use as you roll the program out. Employees who understand the importance of receipt submission, the approval workflows, and the consequences of exceeding their limit often make fewer mistakes than those who get handed a card with no context. Any time policies change, you may also want to hold a quick refresher meeting.

Monitoring and controlling spending

Real-time visibility is the main advantage corporate cards have over reimbursement systems. To get the most out of that visibility, set up transaction alerts for large purchases, assign separate virtual cards to different vendors or projects, and review the dashboard regularly so you can spot trends.

It’s also wise to perform larger-scale audits every couple of months. Look for duplicate subscriptions, dormant cards still open from former employees, and accounts that consistently hit their limits. As you go through these audits, you can review whether your card configuration and expense policy still matches how things work on a day-to-day basis.

Manage Your Expenses and Earn High Rewards With the Slash Card

A corporate card and the platform it’s connected to are like the yin and yang of employee expense management. It’s tough to monitor card spend without an integrated platform, and you won’t be able to support widespread spending privileges without issuing cards. Some of the solutions we’ve discussed offer stronger features on the card side, while others come with a more in-depth financial platform. If you’re looking for a solution that succeeds on both fronts, you might want to give Slash a try.

Slash is a business banking platform that brings corporate cards, banking, payments, and accounting integrations together in one spot. The Slash Visa® Platinum Card earns up to 2% cash back with unlimited virtual and physical cards, per-card spend limits, category controls, and built-in fraud detection tools. Each purchase made with a Slash Card can sync with QuickBooks, Xero, Sage Intacct, and NetSuite so spending can automatically be categorized and directed to the right expense accounts without manual entry.

As helpful as this visibility can be, it can still be hard to parse trends and issues when you’re looking at spending from dozens of employees. If you need an extra hand, try asking Twin. Twin is an agentic AI assistant that can be prompted to look through your team’s expense history and call out unusual trends that might need a second look. It can also be directed to forecast your future cash flow, freeze and cancel cards, and much more.

Along with these expense management tools, Slash also comes with:

Working capital financing: Access short-term financing with flexible 30-, 60-, or 90-day repayment terms to help bridge cash flow gaps.⁵
High-yield treasury: Earn up to 3.82% annualized yield on idle funds with money market investments from BlackRock and Morgan Stanley, managed directly within your Slash account.
Native cryptocurrency support: Send and receive USD-pegged stablecoins USDC and USDT across eight supported blockchains for faster, lower-cost global payments.⁴
Diverse payment methods: Slash supports a wide range of payments, including card spend, global ACH, international wire transfers to over 180 countries via SWIFT, and real-time domestic payments through RTP and FedNow.
Global USD: The Slash Global USD Account is designed as an alternative for foreign founders who want access to USD without forming a US entity.³ Balances are backed by Slash’s USDSL stablecoin, which is designed to maintain a one-to-one value with the US dollar.

The Slash Visa® Platinum Card can change both the way your team spends money and the way you manage it. If you want to earn up to 2% cash back on business purchases at the same time, reach out to Slash today.

Apply in less than 10 minutes today

Join the 10,000+ businesses already using Slash.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do corporate cards for expense tracking require a personal guarantee?

Not always. Traditional bank-issued business cards typically require a personal guarantee, tying the owner's personal credit to the company's debt. Meanwhile, providers like Slash don’t require one because they underwrite credit limits primarily based on business financials rather than the founder’s personal credit.

How do corporate cards integrate with accounting software?

Most modern corporate card platforms offer direct integrations with accounting software like QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, and Sage. When enabled, card transactions can sync automatically to your chart of accounts, with merchant category codes helping to pre-categorize each transaction. If your integration is a “two-way” sync, changes made in the accounting software also reflect in your other platform.

What’s the difference between a corporate credit card and a corporate charge card?

A credit card allows you to carry a balance from month to month and make minimum payments while accruing interest. A charge card requires you to pay your statement balance in full every period. Some charge card periods are a month, like standard credit cards, while the Slash Visa® Platinum Card require daily repayments.