Question 1

What are p-cards?

Accepted Answer

A p-card is short for "purchasing card", "purchase card,” or "procurement card.” It’s a special-use credit card that a company can give to its employees, vendors, teams, and departments to make high-urgency operational purchases when a lengthy PO process is not warranted or too slow. P-cards are an easy and fast way to enable operational spending while still enforcing your AP controls that matter. P-cards also go by other names, including corporate purchase cards, vendor cards, department cards, event cards, and virtual cards.

Question 2

Does Brex offer ghost cards?

Accepted Answer

Ghost cards are another way of referring to shared departmental or team credit cards, where the identity of the purchaser is obscured. For accounting teams, this anonymity makes it impossible to know who on the team executed which transaction, whether it was approved, and what business purpose it served. Expenses are difficult to reconcile and code to the appropriate GL category.

Brex purchasing cards are different from ghost cards because the cards themselves are not shared. Brex lets you create shared spend limits for a department or team with built-in controls, while giving each employee their own unique card. Each purchase is tracked to a specific user’s card, so there are no anonymous or “ghost” transactions.

Question 3

Can p-cards be shared or transferred?

Accepted Answer

With Brex cards, there is no need to share a card among an entire department or multiple individuals. Instead, you can easily assign unique p-card numbers to every employee and track all employees’ spend from your Brex dashboard. A team can share a spend limit and when they spend from their own cards, it will pull from the shared spend limit. This gives you more visibility and control over spend. .

If you need to transfer card ownership between employees — such as after an employee leaves the company — you can do so without changing card numbers that may be on file with vendors for recurring payments.

Question 4

When should a p-card be used?

Accepted Answer

In many companies, p-cards can be issued quickly for operational purchases that aren’t well-suited to the PO (purchase order) process, such as when:

The total spend amount falls below the PO minimum threshold (typically around $3,000)

A purchase might be time-sensitive and can’t be delayed while you wait for a PO to be submitted and approved (typically five business days)

A company or team may not follow the PO process

Whatever the reason, p-cards can make it easier to control, track, and report on vendor payments alongside T&E expenses. Learn more about building an employee-centric way to manage procurement spending.

Brex corporate purchasing card: P-cards and company procurement cards for corporations

Smart purchase cards for procurement spend.

Instantly issue purchase cards with per-transaction limits and PO-like approval flows.

Smart purchase cards for procurement spend.

Instantly issue purchase cards with per-transaction limits and PO-like approval flows.

Enable purchases, eliminate surprises.

With Brex corporate cards, you can issue purchase cards for procurement use cases like operational spend — with preset, auto-enforced controls.

Set controls and limits per transaction.

Create ultra-specific policies and spend limits for cards — in 40+ currencies. Brex ensures that every purchase stays in budget and in policy.

Cap individual purchase amounts

Approve or block vendors and categories

Set daily, monthly, or custom limits

Set cards to expire or limits to recur

Customize approval thresholds and approvers.

Controller-endorsed convenience.

Brex p-cards unburden teams from manual work via automation and ensure business continuity with flexible ownership.

Sync expenses with your ERP.

Automate recurring payments.

Easily transfer card ownership.

“We’ve seen a huge shift in accounts payable from being a back-office data entry function to a powerhouse of information that creates a decision maker and stakeholder.”

Control all spend, invoiced or otherwise, with Brex.

FAQ

Purchase cards that work for you.

From high-urgency purchases to recurring SaaS bills, Brex purchase cards unblock spending with unmatched control.