Employee cards: issuance, ownership and offboarding

Issuance

Administrators create employee cards as part of onboarding. The useful pattern is a role template: engineer, salesperson, office lead — each with a default limit, merchant rules and receipt policy. One-off exceptions should be rare and logged.

Ownership and visibility

The employee holds the plastic or wallet credential. The company holds the liability and sees every transaction. That split is the whole point of a corporate programme. If visibility is delayed until the statement, you do not yet have a corporate operating model.

Offboarding

The most common avoidable leak in card programmes is a leaver whose card stays live. Freeze first, then terminate, then review pending authorisations and recurring virtual cards they owned. Tie the steps to the HR checklist, not to a monthly review.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

Sources and further reading

Every factual statement on this page is checked against primary documentation. Terms change frequently, so confirm details with the provider before acting on them.

1. Brex — official websitePrimary source for current product names, availability and terms.
2. Brex Support CenterOfficial help documentation, including account access and card administration topics.
3. Visa — commercial payment solutionsNetwork-level background on commercial card products and data levels.
4. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — credit card resourcesBackground on card terminology, billing cycles and consumer-vs-commercial distinctions.
5. FDIC — deposit insurance and pass-through coverageReference for how deposit insurance applies, including through third-party arrangements.