The 3 Best Corporate Cards for Employee Expense Tracking in 2025

Tracking employee spending shouldn’t feel like a monthly clean-up project — but for many companies, it still does. Lost receipts, unclear limits, delayed approvals, and manual reconciliation slow teams down and drain hours that should be spent on actual work. As businesses scale, these small gaps start costing real money.

The pressure is only increasing. According to Fortune Business Insights, the global corporate card market is projected to hit $34.8 billion by 2030, driven by companies shifting from messy, manual workflows to automated systems that offer real-time visibility and tighter controls. Finance teams today don’t just want a payment card — they want a tool that prevents overspend before it happens.

That’s why choosing the best corporate card for employee expense tracking has become a strategic decision. The right card brings clarity, automation, and accountability into every transaction. The wrong one keeps teams stuck in reactive mode, chasing receipts and fixing preventable mistakes.

In this guide, we break down the top three corporate cards that simplify expense tracking for fast-growing companies — highlighting the features that matter most in 2025.

Why Employee Expense Tracking Is a Challenge for Growing Teams

Before choosing a card, companies need to understand why expense tracking becomes difficult as teams expand. Most issues fall into predictable patterns:

• Lack of real-time visibility, causing overspending before finance teams notice
• Manual reconciliation, which drains time at month-end
• Employees using personal cards, leading to delays and reimbursement errors
• Low or static limits, restricting departments that scale fast
• No spending controls at the point of sale, making policy enforcement reactive instead of automatic

These gaps explain why more startups and mid-market companies are shifting to top corporate cards designed for automation, precision, and cleaner workflow management.

The 3 Top Corporate Cards for Employee Expense Tracking

Here’s a closer look at the top corporate cards companies are choosing in 2025—each offering different strengths for teams trying to manage expenses with more accuracy and less friction.

1. Brex — The Smartest Corporate Card for Employee Expense Tracking

Brex stands out as one of the best corporate cards for companies that want real-time control over employee spending without slowing teams down.

Instead of requiring a personal guarantee, Brex evaluates a company based on its financial strength — revenue, cash runway, and funding stage — making it easier for modern businesses to qualify.

Smarter Spending with Real-Time Automation

Beyond high limits, Brex equips teams with real-time automation and smart controls to manage spending effortlessly.

Where Brex truly separates itself is in expense automation at the point of sale. Every card is equipped with built-in controls that instantly enforce budgets, vendor restrictions, department rules, and approval logic before a purchase is completed. This reduces the need for manual review and gives finance teams full visibility the moment a transaction happens.

Brex also offers up to 30x higher limits than traditional corporate cards. These dynamic limits adapt as companies grow, allowing teams to manage advertising, travel, software, and procurement expenses without hassle.

Because Brex built its card directly into the Mastercard network — without an intermediary processor — companies experience faster card setup, deeper transaction data, stronger fraud protection, and global operability across 200+ countries and 60 currencies. This is especially important for distributed teams that frequently travel or manage international vendors.

Rewards are equally focused on business growth. Instead of generic consumer perks, Brex provides value on SaaS tools, digital ads, logistics, rideshare, dining, coworking, and recruiting, helping companies earn measurable returns on real operating expenses.

Together, these features position Brex as the top corporate card for employee expense tracking — combining automation, control, scalability, and global reliability.

Built-In Financial Controls for Accurate, Automatic Expense Tracking

Most corporate cards still depend on manual receipt reconciliation, policy reminders, and trust. Brex removes that operational risk by encoding rules directly into the card:

• Limits by employee role, vendor category, location, or budget
• Real-time spend alerts and auto-receipt matching
• Auto-block on out-of-policy transactions
• Subscription monitoring to prevent forgotten renewals
• Separate virtual cards for different vendors or teams

Because policies are enforced before money leaves the business, finance teams avoid end-of-month chaos and inconsistent reporting. Expense tracking becomes a clean, automated workflow — one of the biggest reasons Brex is considered a top corporate card for growing teams.

Expanded Rewards for Fast-Moving Companies

Unlike corporate cards built around travel perks, Brex focuses on growth-centric rewards that match real company spending patterns. This is where your earlier content needed expansion — here is a fuller, more USP-aligned version:

Brex offers elevated rewards on the categories startups actually rely on:

• Software & SaaS tools — significant cashback on platforms used daily by engineering, sales, and finance teams.
• Digital advertising — higher rewards on Meta, Google, TikTok, and programmatic ads, which are major cost centers for scaling brands.
• Rideshare & travel essentials — optimized for employee fieldwork or distributed teams.
• Logistics & shipping — ideal for e-commerce and product companies.
• Coworking spaces & team dining — support for hybrid teams and client-facing roles.

Brex also provides growth credits and partner discounts across leading SaaS ecosystems (marketing tools, hiring platforms, developer tools, accounting software, cloud infrastructure). These rewards directly reduce operating costs instead of encouraging discretionary travel spend.

Because all rewards are tied into unified expense tracking, companies can immediately see category-level ROI, making Brex not just a payment card but a financial performance tool built for speed.

2. Expensify Card

The Expensify Card integrates directly with the platform’s expense-management software. It works well for teams already using Expensify for receipt scanning or reimbursement.

• Dynamic daily limits tied to company bank balance
• Real-time receipt capture
• Compatible with Expensify’s reporting and approval workflows

However, it lacks the high credit limits, international coverage, and advanced pre-spend controls that Brex offers. It is best suited for small teams that only need basic expense tracking.

3. Airwallex Borderless Card

Airwallex is strong for global businesses making frequent international payments.

• Multi-currency cards
• Low FX rates
• Integration with Airwallex financial stack

Where it falls short is expense automation and team-wide policy enforcement, which remain more manual compared to Brex. It is a strong option for international vendors, but not the strongest for employee expense governance.

Quick Comparison — Brex vs Expensify vs Airwallex

A short look at how these cards compare on the factors that matter most for employee expense tracking. Choosing the right card becomes easier when you compare visibility, automation, and global support side by side. Here’s how all three stack up:

When comparing automation, global operations, and expense-policy enforcement, Brex clearly provides the strongest foundation for companies seeking predictable, real-time control over employee spending. Expensify and Airwallex offer useful features for specific scenarios, but Brex delivers the most complete system for accuracy, simplicity, and scale — which is exactly what fast-growing businesses need.

Final Thoughts

Expense tracking becomes harder, not easier, as companies grow — which is why choosing the right corporate card can dramatically improve financial clarity and team efficiency. Expensify and Airwallex each have strengths, but neither offers the complete combination of high limits, real-time controls, global reliability, and business-focused rewards that Brex delivers.

For companies searching for the best corporate cards for employee expense tracking, Brex stands out as the only solution engineered specifically for modern, fast-moving teams. By automating oversight, strengthening compliance, eliminating personal guarantees, and providing unmatched spending intelligence, Brex helps finance teams stay ahead of growth instead of falling behind it.