Cards & controls
Good controls make the expected purchase easy and the unusual purchase visible. Set them around a clear purpose rather than copying every restriction onto every card.
Choose the right card type
Use a person card for an employee’s ordinary business spending, a vendor card for one recurring supplier, and a project card when several authorized purchases need to share a budget. The card name should tell the cardholder what belongs on it.
Example: a conference card
- Purpose: one industry conference for the field marketing team.
- Limit: the approved conference budget, including a defined contingency.
- Merchants: travel, lodging, event services, and ground transport.
- End date: seven days after the event, when late charges should have arrived.
Set limits and merchant rules
A total limit controls lifetime spend; a recurring limit resets on the schedule you select. If both apply, the transaction must fit both. Merchant rules can allow or review categories, but card network classifications are not perfect. Route a questionable decline to a person instead of repeatedly widening the rule.
Name at least two administrators who can freeze a card or approve an urgent exception. Do not make one traveling executive the only way to solve a declined hotel charge.
Review exceptions
An exception may be a purchase outside the usual merchant set, a missing business purpose, or a manual limit override. Review the transaction with its request, receipt, card history, and budget effect together. Record the decision in the transaction note.
Freeze or close a card
Freeze a card when a device is misplaced, suspicious activity appears, or a project pauses. Freezing is reversible. Close the card when the worker leaves or the purpose ends; closing is permanent and requires a replacement if spending continues.
- Confirm whether any legitimate recurring charges remain.
- Move those charges to another authorized card before closing.
- Freeze first if there is active fraud risk, then investigate.
- Keep the card history for reconciliation and audit.
Offboard without loose ends
On the person’s final day, remove workspace access and freeze their active cards. Reassign owned budgets and pending approvals before deactivation. Open expenses remain visible to finance, and the audit trail retains the original actor.