Traditional corporate cards create more problems than they solve. Distributing physical cards across teams leads to a lack of visibility, exposes your business to fraud, and forces finance departments to spend countless hours chasing receipts and manually reconciling expenses. This chaotic, reactive approach to spending holds businesses back.

Innovative fintech companies have introduced virtual cards as a powerful solution. These digital-only cards offer unique numbers for every transaction, providing unmatched security and control. However, not all virtual card solutions are created equal. While many platforms offer virtual cards, the most effective providers integrate them into a comprehensive system that addresses spending at its source: the purchase itself.

This guide explores the most innovative virtual card providers for business spending, comparing their features and highlighting how a truly unified platform delivers superior control and efficiency.

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Why virtual cards are essential for modern business payments

Virtual cards are essential for modern businesses because they provide superior security, granular spending controls, and streamlined expense management compared to physical corporate cards. By allowing businesses to issue a unique card number for a specific vendor, transaction, or employee, they dramatically reduce the risk of fraud and simplify financial oversight.

Here are the core benefits of using virtual cards for business payments:

• Enhanced security: If a virtual card number is compromised, you can instantly deactivate it without affecting any other cards. Features like single-use cards and vendor-locked virtual cards mean the card number is only valid for one specific vendor, making it useless to fraudsters.
• Granular spend control: Finance teams can set precise spending limits, designate approved merchants, and establish expiration dates for each virtual card. This proactive control ensures employees stay within budget and adhere to company policy, preventing maverick spending before it happens.
• Simplified reconciliation and AP automation: Virtual cards can be pre-coded with general ledger (GL) information, department codes, and project details. This automates data entry and simplifies reconciliation, which saves the accounts payable team valuable time at the end of each month.

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What features should you look for in a virtual card solution?

When evaluating top virtual card solutions, you should look for features like advanced spend controls, seamless accounting integrations, robust reporting, and, most importantly, integration with a broader procurement process. A card is just a payment method; its true value is unlocked when it’s part of a system that manages the entire purchasing lifecycle.

Granular spend controls

The best virtual card solutions give you complete authority over every dollar spent. Look for the ability to set dynamic rules based on your specific needs. Key control features include:

• Spending limits: Set limits by transaction, day, week, or month.
• Vendor locking: Restrict a card to a single, pre-approved merchant.
• Card types: Issue single-use cards that expire after one transaction or multi-use cards for recurring subscriptions.

Accounting and ERP integrations

A virtual card provider should eliminate manual work, not create more. Ensure the platform offers reliable, pre-built integrations with your existing accounting or ERP system, such as NetSuite, QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, or Workday. This allows for the automatic syncing of transaction data, which eliminates manual data entry and ensures your financial records are always accurate and up-to-date.

Real-time reporting and analytics

You can't control what you can't see. Your virtual card platform should provide real-time dashboards and detailed analytics that offer complete spend visibility. This enables you to monitor spending as it happens, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to optimize budgets and cut costs.

Integration into the procurement workflow

While many companies offer virtual cards as part of an expense management tool, the most innovative providers embed them within a complete procurement software solution. When virtual cards are tied to a centralized purchasing system, you gain control over the entire purchase-to-pay process—from the initial request to the final payment. This proactive approach is far more effective than simply tracking expenses after the fact.

The best virtual card providers for business spending

The market is filled with fintech companies that offer virtual cards, but they differ in their capabilities. Some focus on expense management and rewards, while others provide a complete, end-to-end procurement platform.

Order.co: The most complete solution for purchase-to-pay control

Order.co stands apart by integrating virtual cards into a comprehensive procurement and finance automation platform. Unlike point solutions that only address payments or expenses, Order.co manages the entire business buying process, from requisition and approval to fulfillment and payment. This provides a fully controlled purchasing environment.

With Order.co, virtual cards are not just a standalone feature but a vital component of an automated, compliant, and efficient system. Purchases are initiated within the Order.co platform, where every item is pre-approved against specific budgets, sourcing needs, and approval policies.

Key differentiators of Order.co include:

• Proactive spend control: Because every purchase starts in Order.co, out-of-policy spending is prevented at the source. This is fundamentally different from expense management tools that only flag non-compliant spend after it has already occurred.
• Fully automated reconciliation: Since all purchasing data is captured upfront, there is no need for manual GL coding. Order.co syncs consolidated invoices that contain all purchasing data directly to your ERP, making reconciliation faster than ever.
• Unified purchasing for all spend: Order.co centralizes every vendor and transaction — whether it’s a subscription paid with a virtual card, a purchase order for physical goods, or services from a local vendor. 
• Flexible financial offerings: In addition to virtual cards, Order.co provides flexible payment options like net terms and B2B Buy Now, Pay Later, giving businesses more control over their cash flow.

Other innovative virtual card providers

While Order.co offers the most complete system, other providers offer strong features for specific use cases. These companies primarily focus on the "pay" part of the process through corporate cards and expense management.

Brex

Brex offers a corporate card and spend management platform primarily aimed at startups and technology companies. It provides virtual cards with built-in expense management, automated receipt matching, and rewards tailored to tech-centric businesses. Its platform is user-friendly and helps automate expense reporting, but it functions as a reactive tool for managing expenses rather than a proactive system for controlling procurement.

Ramp

Ramp is a spend management platform focused on helping businesses identify and cut costs. It combines corporate cards (both physical and virtual) with expense automation and savings insights. Ramp's software analyzes spending to find duplicate subscriptions and other saving opportunities. While effective for spend analysis, it operates separately from the initial purchasing and approval workflows that a full procurement platform manages.

Divvy (Bill)

Divvy, now part of Bill, is a spend and expense management solution that helps businesses control spending through smart corporate cards. A core feature is its real-time budget management, where funds are allocated to virtual cards tied to specific budgets. This provides visibility and control over team spending. However, this control is still centered around the payment itself, not the strategic sourcing and approval process that precedes it.

Ebook

The Procurement Strategy Playbook for Modern Businesses

Learn the key pillars of a strong strategy, valuable procurement metrics to track, and initiatives you can start implementing today.

Download now

How Order.co's approach to virtual cards creates more value

Order.co creates more value by integrating virtual cards into a proactive procurement platform, which prevents out-of-policy spend before it happens, unlike reactive expense management tools. This fundamental difference in approach gives businesses an unparalleled level of control and efficiency.

Proactive spend control vs. reactive expense management

Most virtual card providers operate on a reactive model. An employee makes a purchase, and the software helps categorize the expense, match the receipt, and sync it to the accounting system. If the purchase was out-of-policy, it is flagged for review after the money has already been spent.

Order.co’s platform is built on proactive spend control. Employees make purchase requests through a unified marketplace containing pre-approved products and vendors. Automated approval workflows ensure every purchase is compliant with budget, brand, and vendor policies before an order is ever placed. The virtual card is simply the final, secure payment mechanism in a fully controlled process.

Simplified AP automation and reconciliation

With other virtual card solutions, the AP team still has to manage transaction data coming from dozens or hundreds of individual card payments. While some coding is automated, reconciliation remains a significant task.

Because all purchases originate within Order.co, the platform captures line-level detail from the very beginning. When an order is placed, it is already coded and approved. Order.co then pays all your vendors and provides you with consolidated billing statements that account for all purchases made on a weekly or monthly basis. This reduces the number of invoices your AP team handles by up to 50x and completely automates the reconciliation process, freeing up your team for more strategic work.

A unified platform for all business buying

Virtual cards are ideal for online subscriptions and vendor payments, but they don't cover every type of business spend. Many companies still rely on purchase orders, check requests, and reimbursements, creating fragmented workflows and data silos.

Order.co is a single, centralized platform for 100% of your purchasing. Whether an employee needs to order office supplies from a preferred vendor, pay for a new software subscription with a virtual card, or source custom materials, it all happens in one place. This delivers complete visibility and control that point solutions for virtual cards or expenses can’t match.

Get total control over your business spending with Order.co

While many innovative providers offer virtual cards, they often treat the symptom — uncontrolled spending — rather than the cause — a chaotic and decentralized purchasing process. Virtual cards are a powerful tool, but their true potential is unlocked only when they are part of a system that governs the entire purchase-to-pay lifecycle.

Order.co provides that system. By unifying procurement, AP automation, and payments into a single AI-powered platform, Order.co simplifies buying for every business. You gain proactive spend control, eliminate manual AP tasks, and achieve complete visibility over every dollar.

Ready to transform your business spending? Schedule a demo to see how Order.co can simplify buying for your business.