Skip to content

Business Expense Cards

Issue business expense cards to employees in seconds

Business expense cards are Visa cards issued to named employees and projects, powered by Pliant. Every transaction syncs to Capture Expense and is matched to its receipt.

Book a demo View product tour
Expense card
Capture Expense VIRTUAL
VISAPlatinum Business
Cardholder
Jonny Dowell
Transaction limit
£500.00
Categories
Travel, Accommodation
Wallet
Apple Pay, Google Pay
Transactions
  • 5 Feb Trainline £78.83
  • 5 Feb Ryman £29.17
  • 9 Feb Northern Rye £14.60
Northern Rye reminded on WhatsApp: receipt requested

Trusted by finance teams at

  • 4.9/5

Cards issued in seconds

Create a virtual, physical, or single-use Visa card and assign it to a named person or project.

Fully custom spend limits

Set limits by day, project, order or transaction and update them at any time with instant effect.

Every transaction matched to its receipt

AI and OCR match receipts to card transactions and chase any that are missing.

Issuing

Issue four types of business expense card from one platform

Create a card and set its currency, validity period, and assignment to an employee or project.

  • Virtual, physical, single-use, and premium cards
  • Virtual cards are live immediately and work with Apple Pay and Google Pay, with no card to post or lose
  • Create as many virtual cards as you need for teams, suppliers, or one-off purchases, each with its own limits and rules
  • Total Limit caps what a card can spend, like a prepaid card but with wider merchant acceptance and no manual preloading
  • Premium cards include access to more than 1,000 airport lounges worldwide

Spend controls and approvals

Spend limits you can change at any time

Card limits and rules update with instant effect whenever budgets change.

  • Limits by day, project, order, or transaction, plus category, merchant, and date-range rules

  • Built-in approval flows clear new cards and limit changes in seconds

  • Delegated authority routes smaller increases to one approver and larger ones to another, based on how you set the platform up

  • Low-balance notifications and a live view of available limit for every cardholder

Building the case for business expense cards?

Capture Expense covers you at every point of spend. From saving days reconciling your credit cards to getting customised insights in an instant with your finance copilot, here’s everything you need to know about Capture Expense.

Download the brochure

Reconciliation

Card transactions matched to receipts and coded with VAT

Cardholders capture receipts at the point of spend and Capture Expense matches, chases, and codes each one.

  • Receipts arrive through the Capture Expense app, WhatsApp, Teams, Slack, or desktop upload
  • AI and OCR match each receipt to the right card transaction
  • Missing receipts are spotted instantly, and optional automated reminders replace follow-up emails
  • Reconciled transactions post to the ledger coded with VAT and cost centre
  • Every update is logged, so the audit trail exists before anyone asks for it
Card transactions
  • Stationery Ryman £29.17
  • Travel Trainline £78.83
  • Restaurant Vending Machine £1.00
  • Groceries Tesco £6.00
  • Restaurant Northern Rye £14.60
Matched receipt

Tue 11 Oct 2024

VAT invoice

Lunch platter x3£300.00
VAT£0.00
Total GBP£300.00

Invoice INV-1964.pdf

Posting
  1. Imported
  2. Matched
  3. Coded
  4. Posted

Global spend

Spend anywhere Visa is accepted without conversion costs

Same-currency billing removes the conversion charge and the exposure to a poor exchange rate, and your current bank cards keep working alongside.

  • Keep your existing corporate bank account and cards; Capture Expense reconciles Pliant cards and existing cards at the same time
  • Existing cards connect through MoneyHub, Open Banking, or a secure file transfer (sFTP) transaction feed
  • Interest-free credit limits with flexible billing cycles, subject to Pliant's onboarding and credit assessment

Finance teams running employee expense cards through Capture Expense

“Before using Capture Expense and Pliant, expenses took up a good half of my job. Now I’m spending maybe 20 minutes every couple of days on approvals, and reconciliation takes minutes rather than a full day.”
Imogen Swart, Finance & Operations Administrator, Jimmy's Iced Coffee

  • 25 hours

    a month saved on approvals

  • 50x

    faster reconciliation

Set up business expense cards in three steps

  1. Step 1

    Complete Pliant's onboarding.

    This sets your interest-free credit limit and billing cycle. If you run existing corporate cards, connect them through MoneyHub, Open Banking, or an sFTP feed at the same time so both programmes reconcile together.

  2. Step 2

    Create cards and set controls.

    Choose the card type, currency, and validity period and assign each card to a person or project. Limits, approval flows, and delegated authority are set here too.

  3. Step 3

    Spend and track.

    Transactions sync as they happen, including subscriptions and supplier payments. Receipts sent by app or chat are matched automatically and coded lines post to your accounting system with VAT and cost centre.

One less system to reconcile

Connects directly to your finance, payroll, and banking systems, so nothing needs reconciling by hand.

  • Sage
  • QuickBooks
  • Cintra
  • SAP
  • Xero
  • iplicit
  • Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
  • NetSuite
  • Xledger
  • Pliant
Explore 50+ integrations

Business expense card FAQs

What are business expense cards and how do they work?
Business expense cards, also called company or corporate expense cards, are Visa cards issued to named employees or projects with limits set by your finance team. Capture Expense provides them through its partner Pliant. Every transaction syncs to Capture Expense as it happens and is matched to its receipt with AI and OCR. Coded lines post to your ledger with VAT and cost centre.

How can I issue cards for employees, and how quickly?
Set-up starts with Pliant's onboarding and credit assessment, which sets your credit limit and billing cycle. Once approved, you can issue a virtual card in seconds and connect existing corporate cards at the same time.

Are expense cards suitable for small businesses?
Capture Expense positions its cards for companies of all sizes. The mechanics stay identical at 20 staff or 2,000: one card, one set of limits, one receipt matched. Pliant's credit assessment decides the limit, and there is no stated minimum company size.

What credit limits are available on employee expense cards?
Pliant sets the overall credit limit through its own onboarding and credit assessment. The limit is interest-free with flexible billing cycles and payment terms. Inside it, you set per-card caps in Capture Expense, including a 'Total Limit' that behaves like a prepaid card without preloading. Cardholders request increases from the Pliant app, and delegated approvers clear them.

Do business expense cards integrate with accounting software?
Yes. Reconciled Pliant card transactions post to your accounting ledger, coded with VAT and cost centres. They follow the same flow as transactions from your existing corporate cards, which connect through MoneyHub, Open Banking, or an sFTP feed. Every update is logged for audit.

Can employees misuse a business card for personal spending?
No. Business expense cards are for work-related spend only. Built-in spending controls stop cardholders breaking policy through category, merchant, date-range, and transaction rules. Every transaction syncs in real time and unreceipted spend is flagged and chased automatically.

Can't find what you're looking for? Talk to us and we'll answer within a working day.

Explore more of the platform

Talk to us about business expense cards

Book a demo
Free trial Book a demo