You open your bank feed Monday morning and spot a $1,247 charge from a boutique hotel you've never heard of. Now the scramble begins: digging through Slack messages, emailing the team, hoping someone kept the receipt.
Without clear systems, every employee card becomes a potential source of unauthorized spending, missing documentation, and reconciliation headaches. Most businesses hand out cards reactively, add loose spending rules, then wonder why month-end takes three days instead of three hours.
This article shares ten employee card management practices that actually work. You'll learn how to issue cards strategically, match card types to roles, and write policies people follow. While platforms like Relay automate much of the heavy lifting, the strategy starts with getting these fundamentals right.
Relay is a financial technology company and is not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC. FDIC deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank. Certain conditions must be satisfied for pass-through deposit insurance coverage to apply. The Relay Visa® Debit Card is issued by Thread Bank, member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. and may be used anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted. The Relay Visa Credit® Card is issued by Thread Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc and may be used anywhere Visa credit cards are accepted.
1. Decide Who Really Needs a Card
Every card you distribute creates a direct line to your business bank account. Focus on two factors: how often someone spends company money and how critical those purchases are to revenue.
Use this matrix to decide:
High frequency + high impact = Issue a card immediately Traveling sales reps, field service managers, operations leads ordering inventory. They spend often and those purchases directly generate revenue or deliver customer value.
High frequency + low impact = Issue a card with tight controls Team members handling recurring subscriptions, office supplies, or routine operational expenses. They transact often but individual purchases don't make or break deals.
Low frequency + high impact = Evaluate case by case Executives making occasional big-ticket purchases like equipment or major vendor contracts. Consider approval workflows instead of permanent card access.
Low frequency + low impact = Use reimbursements Interns, contractors, and anyone whose monthly spending rarely exceeds an Uber ride. The administrative overhead of a card outweighs the convenience.
Distributing cards too widely buries your finance team in unnecessary transactions, where every swipe creates a reconciliation task. Relay supports up to 50 debit or virtual cards, each with specific spending controls.
2. Choose the Right Card Type for Each Role
Your operations manager who runs to the hardware store twice a week needs a physical card. Same goes for sales reps who travel or anyone making regular in-person purchases.
For everyone else, virtual cards work better. The marketing coordinator managing subscriptions? The finance team member handling one-off vendor payments? Spin up a virtual card instantly, lock it to a specific vendor, and set a hard limit before any money moves.
Relay offers both physical debit cards, customizable with colors and category illustrations for easy tracking, and up to 50 virtual cards per business. The 30-day charge card structure gives you float and 1.5% cash back without open credit line risk.
Start with physical cards for weekly in-person spenders and virtual cards for everything else. Review the mix quarterly as roles change.
Relay is a financial technology company and is not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC. Banking services provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC. FDIC deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank. Certain conditions must be satisfied for pass-through deposit insurance coverage to apply. The Relay Visa® Debit Card is issued by Thread Bank, member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. and may be used anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted. The Relay Visa Credit® Card is issued by Thread Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc and may be used anywhere Visa credit cards are accepted.
3. Write a Clear Employee Card Policy
Before issuing any card, get your rules on paper. A solid policy transforms "I thought it was okay" into "I knew exactly what was allowed."
Your policy needs to cover:
Approved expense categories so everyone understands what "business use" means
Spending limits that match each role's actual needs
Documentation requirements like itemized receipts uploaded within five days
Approval thresholds for bigger purchases
What's off-limits including personal charges, cash advances, and gift cards
Cardholder responsibilities to protect the card and report loss immediately
Consequences when rules get ignored
Keep language straightforward and format digestible. A one-page quick-reference guide beats a 20-page manual nobody reads. Platforms like Relay let you build these rules directly into each card with spending categories, limits, and instant freezes working automatically.
4. Set Up Card Controls Before You Hand Them Out
Configure your controls before the first swipe, not after the first surprise charge.
Start with spending limits that match real needs. A sales rep covering client dinners needs different limits than someone buying office supplies. Role-based limits prevent surprise overages and eliminate awkward conversations.
Then add smart restrictions: block merchant categories that don't belong in your budget, limit transactions to approved locations, and require approval for anything unusual. You can even schedule cards to go dormant outside business hours.
With Relay, all these controls live in one dashboard. Set per-card dollar caps, block unapproved vendors, or freeze a card instantly. Start conservative with settings. Raising a limit takes seconds, while clawing back an overspend can take weeks.
5. Protect Your Business from Fraud and Misuse
Good security is protection, not paranoia. Require a PIN on every physical swipe, enable two-factor authentication for online checkouts, and turn on real-time transaction alerts. Layer in tight spend controls like merchant-category blocks and per-transaction caps.
Relay offers instant card freezes from your phone and virtual cards that wall off recurring vendors from your core account. If a charge breaks pattern—like duplicate swipes, 2 a.m. purchases, or spending in a new category—you can pause the card before the cost snowballs.
Every team should have a standing playbook for lost or stolen cards: freeze immediately, review recent activity, then reissue. Create an alert for every charge over a certain amount. Fraud can't hide if you see it the moment it lands.
6. Train Your Team on Process and Security
Clear roles won't help if your team doesn't know about them. Missing receipts, unclear audit trails, and late expense reports vanish with one focused session.
Structure training around a clear agenda: walk through approved purchases, spend limits, and blocked categories. Keep it interactive by asking for examples and clarifying edge cases.
It also helps to demonstrate processes like receipt capture. Show employees how to snap a photo of receipts and watch the platform auto-code expenses in seconds. Relay takes this further by sending automated reminders when receipts are missing and using AI to categorize transactions, removing the busywork entirely.
Cover security protocols including two-factor logins, instant card freeze procedures, and what to do if a phone gets lost. Then walk through common spending scenarios to clarify policy edge cases: How do you handle shared meals? What's the process for last-minute flights? Which subscriptions need pre-approval? Clarify these grey areas before anyone swipes.
If you want to make extra sure everyone’s got it, you can have new cardholders pass a five-question quiz covering expense approval requirements, receipt deadlines, transaction limits, card freeze procedures, and policy violations.
7. Watch Spending as It Happens
Waiting for a month-end statement is like steering by looking in the rear-view mirror. Real-time monitoring flips that script.
Modern card platforms stream every swipe into a live feed. You see the charge seconds after it posts. With Relay, that feed sits beside your running cash balance, turning "What just happened?" into "Do we approve this or flag it right now?"
Set transaction alerts that ping you when a purchase crosses your threshold or lands in a risky category. Then you can block or approve charges from your phone in under a minute.
It’s also helpful to establish a sustainable rhythm: spend fifteen minutes daily matching transactions to receipts, then run a weekly exception report to catch patterns. Short daily reviews beat marathon reconciliations.
8. Make Month-End Reconciliation Fast and Accurate
Month-end shouldn't hijack an entire week. With the right workflow, matching card swipes to receipts, coding them to your books, and closing out becomes a matter of hours.
Start by pulling every transaction into one place. Relay automatically syncs settled transaction data from checking and savings accounts to QuickBooks Online or Xero every few hours.
Tackle receipts using modern capture tools that turn crumpled paper into clean data that automatically attaches to the right transaction. When the receipt travels with the transaction, coding expenses becomes a two-click process.
If you operate across borders, lock in the exchange rate when the charge posts and let your accounting software handle currency translation. Any outliers like duplicate charges or mystery vendors get flagged immediately, not thirty days later.
Dial in this system and you can close the books quickly. No spreadsheet marathons required.
9. Review Spending and Tighten Controls Quarterly
Think of quarterly reviews as your business's 90-day tune-up. Start by pulling card-level and category reports. Relay surfaces them by team member, vendor, and spend category in seconds.
Compare each card's limit to real usage. If an engineer with a $5,000 limit never tops $800, reduce the excess. If your marketing lead keeps hitting their cap during campaign season, increase it appropriately.
Audit policy violations and gather cardholder feedback. Was a vendor block too restrictive, or did it prevent unnecessary purchases? Adjust controls, freeze dormant cards, and document all changes. Put the next review on the calendar during your slowest business week.
10. Handle Card Returns When Employees Leave
When someone gives notice, card security moves to your immediate priority list. Freeze their card access before the exit interview. Disable the card in your banking platform, schedule final reconciliation, and check any recurring vendors tied to that card.
Relay lets you disable a card instantly while keeping all transaction history intact for audits. You protect your cash without losing the paper trail.
Once frozen, collect the physical card and cut it up immediately. Grab their final batch of receipts and review the statement for pending charges. Software renewals deserve special attention since they often bill monthly. Transfer them to an active team card or cancel entirely.
Build this into your standard HR exit checklist. When card return becomes automatic, you avoid last-minute scrambles and turn security into a smooth handoff.
Start Managing Employee Cards Strategically
When you combine these ten practices, employee cards stop being an admin headache and start working like a live dashboard for smarter decisions. Clear policy, role-based limits, and real-time monitoring keep spending on track while freeing you from end-of-month detective work.
Start with three moves: publish a one-page policy, set up card controls before anyone swipes, and check transactions daily. This foundation gives you immediate clarity and catches problems early.
The upfront effort pays off every month in faster closes, fewer surprises, and cash that stays where it belongs. Platforms like Relay make this easier by integrating custom bill payment approval workflows, enabling administrative controls over employee cards, and syncing directly with QuickBooks Online or Xero.
Relay is a financial technology company and is not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC. FDIC deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank. Certain conditions must be satisfied for pass-through deposit insurance coverage to apply. The Relay Visa® Debit Card is issued by Thread Bank, member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. and may be used anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted. The Relay Visa Credit® Card is issued by Thread Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc and may be used anywhere Visa credit cards are accepted.
