Corporate Card vs. Reimbursement: Choosing the Right Fit

Companies are always toying between reimbursements and corporate cards when it comes to managing employee spending. Reimbursements give finance teams peace of mind—expenses are reviewed before money leaves the company. But this control comes at the cost of delays, manual work, and frustrated employees who have to dip into their own pockets.

On the other hand, corporate cards shift the burden off employees and reduce paperwork. But they introduce a new set of challenges: it’s harder to track who’s spending what, and real-time visibility is limited unless systems are tightly managed.

Neither approach is perfect—and the trade-off usually lies between tighter control and smoother operations. In this blog post, we’ll break down both models to help you manage employee expenses without losing control or convenience.

What Is a Corporate Card?

A corporate card is a company-issued payment card that employees use to pay for business-related expenses—like travel, meals, or subscriptions. It’s billed directly to the company, so employees don’t have to use personal funds. 

These cards can be assigned to individuals or shared across teams, and spending is usually tracked through monthly statements or accounting tools. 

Pluto discourages shared cards because they reduce accountability. Instead, every employee can get their own physical or virtual card with tailored limits.

How corporate cards work:

The company issues corporate cards for employees to spend on business-related expenses directly. The process generally looks like this:

• The company issues cards (physical or virtual) to employees.
• Employees spend on approved categories.
• The transactions are logged automatically in expense systems.
• Employees tag and report their spending with complete documentation. 
• The finance team reviews expenses post-spend. 

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What Is a Reimbursement?

Reimbursement is a process where employees pay for business expenses out of their own pocket and later submit those expenses for approval and repayment. This involves keeping receipts, filling out forms, and waiting for finance to verify and process the claim. 

It helps companies control employee spending, but is slow and inconvenient for employees.

How reimbursement works:

In a reimbursement model, employees pay for business expenses upfront and are reimbursed later. The process typically involves:

• Employee pays using personal funds.
• Employee submits a reimbursement claim with receipts and explanations.
• The finance team reviews and approves the claim.
• Reimbursement is processed through payroll or bank transfer.
• The company records the expense post-approval.

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The Burden Shifts, But the Problems Stay

At first glance, reimbursements and corporate cards offer a trade-off between control and convenience. But in reality, neither delivers on either front.

In both models, expenses are reviewed after the money is already spent. That means there's no real-time oversight—making control mostly reactive, not proactive.

Reimbursements burden employees with out-of-pocket spending, manual claims, and long wait times. Corporate cards shift that burden to finance teams, who have to sort through transactions and chase receipts after the fact.

So while it feels like choosing between control and ease, the truth is: you’re not getting either. You're just shifting who carries the hassle—and when.

Best Solution to Manage Employee Expenses

Pluto is built for teams that are tired of choosing between two broken systems. It bridges the gap between traditional reimbursements and corporate cards—offering a single, flexible platform that gives you control, convenience, and complete visibility.

With Pluto, you don’t have to pick sides.

• Our corporate cards come with built-in budgets and real-time spend controls—limits configurable by vendor, category, or amount—so spend is in check before it happens.
• For cases where reimbursements still make sense (like one-off vendor payments or client dinners), Pluto supports a fully integrated reimbursement workflow.
  
  • Employees can submit claims in a few clicks.
  • Finance teams can build custom, no-code approval flows that match internal policies—without the IT back-and-forth.

With everything—cards, reimbursements, expense approvals, and policy rules—in one place, Pluto ensures that nothing slips through the cracks. Whether it’s a swipe or a claim, every transaction is tracked, verified, and easy to manage.

One platform. Total visibility. No trade-offs.

Pluto Corporate Cards: Smart Controls, Zero Chaos

Whether you need physical or virtual cards, Pluto lets you issue unlimited cards to teams, departments, or individuals—with precise controls baked and no extra cost.

Pluto’s corporate cards are built to do more than just enable spending—they’re designed to control it at the source. Every card issued through Pluto comes with custom budgets, policy-based restrictions, and real-time visibility, so finance teams never lose track and employees never overspend.

Key capabilities include:

• Advanced spend controls: Assign cards by team or purpose, block unapproved merchants, and freeze or deactivate cards instantly from the dashboard.
• Policy enforcement at the card level: Set up smart rules to freeze cards automatically if receipts aren’t submitted or if policy thresholds are breached
• ATM and category-level restrictions: Manage cash usage and limit spending to approved categories only
• Centralized visibility: Track every transaction live on a single dashboard with filters by team, merchant, or card

With Pluto, corporate cards are no longer a liability—they’re a real-time, policy-driven spend management tool your team can trust.

Pluto Reimbursements: Fast, Controlled, and Fully Integrated

Pluto takes the pain out of reimbursements by turning a messy, manual process into a streamlined, policy-compliant workflow. 

Whether it’s a one-off vendor payment, a travel expense, or an unexpected team purchase, employees can submit claims in seconds, and finance teams stay in complete control from start to finish.

Pluto Reimbursements are tightly integrated with the rest of the platform, so you get a single source of truth for all types of spend—cards and claims—without juggling multiple tools.

Key capabilities include:

• Instant submissions: Employees upload receipts and submit claims from desktop, mobile, or even via WhatsApp—no forms, no clutter.
• Custom no-code approval flows: Build multi-step approval chains that reflect your internal policies, without relying on IT
• Policy enforcement: Define rules around spend limits, receipt deadlines, and approvers to ensure compliance before reimbursement
• Real-time tracking: Get a full audit trail of every reimbursement—from submission to approval to payout

With Pluto, reimbursements aren’t an exception—they’re part of a fully unified expense management system that brings clarity and speed to every rupee spent.

Success Story: How BloomingBox Unified Cards and Reimbursements with Pluto

BloomingBox, a fast-growing gifting platform in the UAE, faced a common challenge: managing employee spend with manual reimbursements and uncontrolled expenses across locations.

They started with:

• Manual reimbursements that delayed payouts and depended on receipt collection, form filling, and approvals across departments

• Cash-based spending and shared cards, which made it hard to assign accountability or enforce spend limits

This led to poor cash flow visibility, delayed processes, and high operational overhead. 

To fix this, BloomingBox adopted Pluto—bringing both reimbursements and card-based spending onto one centralized platform.

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1. Pluto Reimbursements

With Pluto Reimbursements, employees no longer had to fill out forms or follow up manually. They simply uploaded receipts, and approvals were processed instantly using no-code workflows. 

This drastically reduced back-and-forth and helped finance stay on top of policy compliance.

• Instant reimbursements with approval routed via customizable workflows
• Ability to split claims and reject non-policy expenses
• No dependency on manual forms or follow-ups

2. Pluto Corporate Cards

At the same time, the team rolled out Pluto’s corporate cards. These came with built-in merchant and category controls, allowing cards to be configured for specific use cases, like issuing fuel-only cards to drivers. 

The entire process became even more seamless with Pluto’s WhatsApp integration, which enabled instant receipt uploads after each swipe.

• Unlimited virtual/physical cards with merchant/category-level controls
• Cards for drivers restricted to fuel-only usage
• Receipt upload via WhatsApp after each swipe—no app required.

With Pluto, BloomingBox moved from reactive processes to real-time, controlled spend management, cutting manual overhead and gaining complete visibility across teams.

Expense Management That Works for Everyone

Employee expense management shouldn’t come at the cost of team efficiency or financial control. 

Yet with traditional reimbursement processes, the burden shifts to employees, who front personal money and chase approvals. On the other hand, corporate cards without guardrails leave finance teams scrambling to clean up after the fact.

Pluto eliminates this trade-off. It gives finance teams the control and visibility they need, while offering employees a frictionless, modern experience—whether they’re using corporate cards or submitting reimbursements.

With Pluto, every transaction—card or claim—is tracked, approved, and policy-aligned from the start. No bottlenecks. No missing receipts. Just clean, compliant spend management in one unified platform.

Stop choosing between control and convenience. Get both with Pluto. Sign up for free and simplify expense management today.

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