In this article
You might like
No items found.
Spending made smarter
Easy-to-use cards, spend limits, approval flows, vendor payments —plus an average savings of 5%.1
|
4.8 Rating 4.8 rating
Error Message
No personal credit checks or founder guarantee.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Get fresh finance insights, monthly
Time and money-saving tips,
straight to your inbox
|
4.8 Rating 4.8 rating
Thanks for signing up
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Table of contents

As a business owner or startup, it’s nice to know you can trust your employees to make wise spending decisions on your behalf. That may include spending petty cash on office supplies when necessary, booking a hotel for business travel, or expensing client dinners.

Although giving your employees the ability to spend on behalf of your business offers a level of convenience, it also opens the door to headaches. Employee reimbursement programs can be difficult to maintain, and spending in multiple areas without automated tracking is an accounting nightmare.

That’s one reason your business may want to transition to company credit cards for your employees. In this article, we review what these credit cards are, why they’re beneficial, and the best business credit card issuers to consider.

What is an employee credit card?

An employee credit card is a card that your employees can use to make business purchases. The card draws from your company’s bank account so that employees don’t need to use their personal credit cards for business expenses. This eliminates the need for reimbursements, and also allows you to track transactions.

Some business credit cards, like corporate cards, include other features like custom spending limits and vendor restrictions. These cards also come with expense management features that allow you to automate expense tracking and reporting.

How to choose the best company card for your employees

There are plenty of benefits of business credit cards. Here’s what you should look for when you choose a new company card:

  • Unlimited cards: Look for options that offer free unlimited physical and virtual cards for authorized users. Some providers will charge fees for each additional card.
  • Spending controls: Some cards allow you to create employee spending limits and vendor or purchase category restrictions. These limits can reduce your business expenses by guaranteeing that employees stick to your company’s spending policy.
  • Real-time tracking: Some providers let you track spending on employee credit cards in real-time. This means you’re in the know regarding your business spending at all times.
  • Additional perks: Many business credit cards come with extra perks, like cashback or software discounts. These perks help you get the most bang for your buck as you spend to grow your business.

6 best corporate credit cards for employees

‍How to qualify for a corporate credit card for your employees

To qualify for a corporate credit card, you’ll need to have a registered business with an EIN number. Your business credit score may not be considered, but you’ll need to be making substantial annual revenue. In some cases, you may have to put up a personal guarantee, making you as the business owner personally liable for any outstanding debts.

With Ramp, we don’t ask for a personal guarantee or check your credit score. Our requirements to apply are as follows:

  • Be a registered business in the United States
  • Be a corporation, limited liability company, or LP (including nonprofits). We’re not currently accepting individuals, sole proprietors, or unregistered businesses.
  • Have at least $75,000 in cash in any US business bank account attached to your application.
  • Have most of your operations and corporate spend in the US.

If you run an e-commerce business, you may also qualify for a higher credit limit with Ramp compared to other cards, with our sales-based underwriting.

Getting a business credit card as an employee

If you’re an employee and your company doesn’t have corporate cards, you may want to consider getting your own business credit card. Using a business credit card for work expenses lets you earn rewards on purchases that you’ll be reimbursed for by your company. If your work expenses are frequently in a certain category, like travel or dining, you might choose a card that has better rewards on those types of purchases.

Consider Ramp’s corporate cards

A small business credit card for employees should do far more than just let employees spend to a specific limit. That’s where Ramp comes in.

Ramp spending accounts give you the ability to streamline your cash flow and automate expense management with the following tools:

  • Automated receipt matching: With Ramp, the days of matching receipts to expense reports are behind you. Employees can submit receipts the moment they spend using their cell phones. Ramp’s technology matches those receipts to your expense reports for seamless accounting.
  • Pay bills in seconds: You can pay vendors via card, ACH, or check. When you’re done, let Ramp streamline your accounting process by automatically categorizing expenses and syncing them with your accounting software.
  • Close books 8 days faster: Ramp’s automatic categorization and integration with QuickBooks helps businesses close their books 8 days faster on average.
  • Real-time expense tracking: Track every expense you have in real-time. You can even analyze spending by department, location, merchant, and more.‍
Try Ramp for free
Error Message
No personal credit checks or founder guarantee.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Finance Writer, Ramp
Richard Moy has written extensively about procurement and vendor management topics for companies like BetterCloud, Stack Overflow, and Ramp. His writing has also appeared in The Muse, Business Insider, Fast Company, Mashable, Lifehacker, and more.
Ramp is dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes make informed decisions. We adhere to strict editorial guidelines to ensure that our content meets and maintains our high standards.

FAQs

How Rarebreed Veterinary Partners Prepared for Scale with Ramp

“I can look in Ramp and see my spend for the month immediately. I don’t have to go on 14 different platforms. It’s all right there.”
Eri Chabot, VP Accounting, Rarebreed Veterinary Partners

How Tomo drove efficiency and slashed time to close with Ramp

"Bringing our close timeline down by half has given us so much more time for projects and analysis.”
Eric Ho, SVP, Head of Finance, Tomo

How Crowdbotics streamlined, centralized, and saved with Ramp

“We switched from our legacy provider to Ramp in under a week and heard zero complaints."
Miles Lavin, VP of Strategic Finance, Crowdbotics

How Ramp Helped REVA Air Ambulance Save Time, Improve Visibility, and Gain Peace of Mind

“We were able to mold Ramp to our company to set it up as needed within departments. But the biggest selling feature to us was the automatic, real-time integration with Sage.”
Seth Miller, Controller, REVA

How Heyday Skincare gained control over 23+ entities with Ramp

“Ramp has been a saving grace by organizing and consolidating systems and giving us real time visibility across 23 entities.”
Shawn Gordon, Sr. Accounting Manager, Heyday Wellness

How Ramp helped Rustic Canyon Restaurant Group promote a culture of financial awareness and responsibility

"Ramp has helped promote a culture of awareness and accountability, there's no swipe your card and forget about it, people are more attuned to why and how they are spending."
Derek Arnette, Controller, Rustic Canyon Restaurant Group

How Ramp helped Viking Well Service institute a more efficient expense management process

“Having the purchase order and bills all in one place just makes a whole lot more sense for the type of business that Viking’s doing, because you can simplify it down to a one-line-item type deal. That’s really important for control purposes, for visibility."
Chris Lowdermilk, Senior Controller, Viking Well Service