Prepaid Cards: Are They the Best Corporate Credit Card Alternatives?

Corporate credit cards aren’t always easy to get, and even if your business qualifies, deciding who gets one feels like walking a tightrope. There’s always a risk of misuse, and reconciling expenses at the end of the month can turn into a nightmare.

“We wouldn’t know until the statement turned up at the end of the month what had been spent and where.”
‍~ Christopher Anthony, Global Business Controller, Platinum Heritage

In this blog, we’ll explore corporate prepaid cards—whether they offer the right balance of control and convenience, easing the finance team’s workload without leaving employees stranded with no funds. By the end, you’ll know if they fit your business expense needs.

What Is a Corporate Prepaid Card?

A corporate prepaid card is a budget-controlled card with pre-loaded funds for a specific purpose. It’s not just a simple debit card—it allows you to restrict vendors, spending categories, and budgets for each card.

For example, if the marketing team has a monthly ad budget of AED 5,000, you can create a prepaid card with an AED 5,000 limit, which is usable only for Google Ads or other approved vendors.

Unlike corporate credit cards, which are typically assigned to executives for discretionary spending, prepaid cards come with built-in controls, eliminating out-of-policy expenses. This is especially useful for companies with complex expense policies that employees struggle to follow.

For instance, if your travel policy only allows economy flights and specific hotel chains, you can issue a prepaid travel card that only processes transactions at approved airlines and hotels—ensuring compliance without extra approvals or manual tracking.

How Does a Business Prepaid Card Work?

Unlike traditional corporate credit cards, where banks issue a fixed number of cards and you receive a month-end statement, corporate prepaid cards let you assign unlimited virtual or physical cards as needed, which get captured and reconciled in real time.

You can assign cards uniquely configured to match different departments’ or team members’ spending needs. From category and vendor restrictions to budget limits and other controls, you can embed policies within the card to leave no scope of surprises. 

You can also set smart controls like:

• Enabling or disabling ATM withdrawals (useful in case vendors only accept cash payments)
• Auto-locking/freezing cards if employees don’t upload receipts within a specified period

With these budget-controlled cards, employees can easily access funds and make expenses without worrying about violations. Instead of dealing with lengthy expense reports or guarding receipts like their life depends on it, they can simply upload them directly on the app or WhatsApp. Pluto notifies employees after each transaction to attach receipts instantly via WhatsApp, eliminating the hassle of keeping physical receipts safe. 

“Always at the end of this month we used to get these huge groups of receipts to process… but now that we have a system that allows us to process in real time ahead of the month end everything becomes more powerful and controlled for the team”
‍~ Gabriel Garcia, Head of Financial Services, Keyper

Real-time receipt uploads mean real-time reconciliation. 

Finance teams no longer need to wait until the end of the month to process expenses. Every receipt is instantly logged, matched with the transaction, and coded, giving finance teams peace of mind without constantly monitoring transactions. They can see available funds, frozen cards due to violations, and other key details—all in one place.

To manage these cards, they get a centralized dashboard with a complete expense overview, including transaction status:

• If a receipt has been uploaded
• Whether the expense has been coded and approved
• Once fully reconciled, it gets locked

From the transaction tabs, they can approve, reject, and update policies. Plus, all comments and conversations related to a specific transaction stay documented in the same tab—no more chasing Slack or emails for clarifications. In case of a policy violation, they can deactivate a card in one click without any hassle.

Related Read: Corporate Credit Card Policy: What is it & How to Create One

How Corporate Prepaid Cards Offer More Than Just Spending Control

Corporate prepaid cards go beyond simple expense tracking. They offer finance teams a structured, automated, and policy-driven approach to corporate spending. 

Here’s a breakdown of their unique features and how they work in practice:

No-Code Approval Workflows

Finance teams struggle with manual approval chains, leading to delays or policy inconsistencies. Pluto offers an if-then rule based, no-code workflow builder, enabling companies to:

• Set multi-step approvals based on transaction value (e.g., expenses over AED10,000 require a director’s approval).
• Enable parallel approvals, so multiple decision-makers can approve at the same time—speeding up processes.
• Customize approval flows per department or spending category.

For example, an IT purchase needs both the department head and finance approval, while travel expenses go through a single approval step. This ensures compliance and eliminates back-and-forth emails for approvals.

OCR-Based Receipt Capture & Automated Coding

Traditional receipt tracking is a nightmare—lost receipts, manual data entry, and mismatched transactions slow down reconciliation. 

Pluto cards solve this by enabling employees to upload receipts directly through WhatsApp and connect it to the relevant transaction. 

“The beauty in one part that I was amazed about Pluto, in terms of your technology, was your whole integration with WhatsApp and the ease of how easy it was to swipe, make a payment, take a picture, upload it via WhatsApp, and it's there on the platform for approval.”
~ Lee Kersen Mascarenhas, Head of Operations, Blooming Box

From there, it uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology, which:

• Automatically scans and extracts key details (merchant, date, amount) from receipts
• Matches the receipt to the corresponding transaction
• Auto-codes expenses based on GL (general ledger) and tax categories—ensuring accurate bookkeeping

For example, if an employee uploads a restaurant receipt, the system automatically classifies it under “Client Entertainment” and applies the correct tax codes, reducing manual errors.

Easy Fund Requests for Additional Budgets

Unexpected expenses happen. Instead of lengthy approval chains, Pluto cards allow employees to request additional funds directly within the platform.

For example, a sales executive at a conference needs additional budget for last-minute client meetings. Rather than using personal funds and waiting for reimbursement, they can request an increase, get approval, and continue their work.

This ensures employees have the funds they need while keeping finance teams in full control.

You can also issue zero-balance cards, meaning employees have a card with no funds by default. When they submit a spending request, funds are only added after approval.

For instance, if a field technician needs to buy a replacement part, they request funds through the platform. Once approved, their card is instantly funded, allowing the purchase while ensuring compliance.

This prevents cash mismanagement, forgotten balances, and unauthorized purchases.

Seamless Accounting Integrations

One of the biggest challenges finance teams face is manual data entry and reconciliation at the end of the month. 

“Stunning that Pluto integrates directly with Accounting Software, it’s so much smoother, and CSV import/export means I'm living the dream.”

~ Tomasz Tremblinski, Managing Director, DeveEnergy

Pluto integrates with accounting software like QuickBooks, Xero, and NetSuite, syncing all expense data in real-time.

• Real-time data sync – Every transaction is instantly updated in the accounting system, reducing the risk of errors, duplicate entries, and last-minute reconciliations.
• Pre-coded transactions – Instead of manually categorizing expenses, transactions from prepaid cards are automatically coded to the right general ledger (GL) account, tax category, and department.

Finance teams no longer need to chase employees for receipts or spend hours manually reconciling expenses. They get a real-time, accurate overview of all spending.

Customized Reporting with the Insights Tab

Finance teams need real-time visibility to optimize company spending. The insights tab provides:

• Spending trends: Identify departments overspending or frequently requesting additional funds.
• Budget tracking: See how much of each department’s allocated budget has been used.
• Policy violations: Get alerts when transactions exceed set limits or violate spending policies.

For example, if the marketing team has exceeded its ad spend budget for the month, the system will highlight this before the budget is completely drained, allowing finance to step in proactively.

This level of transparency helps finance leaders make informed decisions, prevent overspending, and adjust policies in real time.

Overview: Corporate Prepaid Cards vs Corporate Credit Card

While credit cards offer a credit line for executive-level spending, they come with risks like overspending, manual reconciliation, and limited control over employee expenses. 

On the other hand, corporate prepaid cards allow businesses to allocate budgets in advance, enforce spending policies, and automate approvals—ensuring compliance without financial surprises. 

Here’s a side-by-side comparison to help you decide which option aligns better with your business needs.

Corporate Spending Made Simple, Secure, and Seamless

Corporate credit cards come with rigid limits, complex approvals, and the constant challenge of reconciling expenses at month-end. Pluto removes these hurdles, giving finance teams complete control without the headaches.

“We haven’t had a single transaction that when it’s received and gone through the approval process that we’ve said, oh my god, that shouldn’t have been spent.”

~ Christopher Anthony, Global Business Controller, Platinum Heritage

With Pluto, you can issue unlimited physical and virtual prepaid cards, each configured with custom budgets, merchant restrictions, and real-time policy enforcement. Unlike traditional cards, where expenses pile up before finance teams can review them, Pluto ensures that every transaction is accounted for instantly.

Especially, Pluto’s just-in-time funding enables finance teams to pull funds exactly when needed—eliminating idle balances while keeping spending flexible. 

Pluto also takes the manual effort out of expense management. Receipts are automatically captured and matched to transactions, with expenses coded to the right GL and tax categories. And with seamless integrations into QuickBooks, Xero, and other accounting tools, finance teams no longer have to chase data at month-end.

With Pluto, finance teams don’t just track expenses—they control them. See how Pluto can transform your company’s spending. Book a demo today.