What is a Corporate Purchasing Card?
American Express® Corporate Purchasing Cards allow your business to process supplier payments efficiently and control spend needs. You can choose the solution that best suits your business, whether it be a physical Card or a virtual Account. Reduce manual process, eliminate check-writing, and streamline how you pay suppliers by automating your accounts payable process - while taking advantage of Card benefits.
See spending
Set Limits
Earn Membership Rewards® through your business spend
Why should your business have a Corporate Purchasing Card?
Maximise Control
Control spending for where and how Cards are used, and how much can be spent. Receive detailed information and data analysis to help inform decision-making.
Save Money
Take advantage of your payment terms to extend Days Payable Outstanding (DPO).
Save Time
Streamline operations by assigning physical or virtual Cards to help simplify payment and reconciliation compliantly.
Corporate Purchasing Card: Physical and Virtual Cards
Physical Card
Plastic issued per employee.
Virtual Card
Card/Account number issued to department or assigned to a single supplier.
How does American Express® Corporate Purchasing Card work?
CORPORATE
SOLUTIONS
American Express offers a range of options to manage local or global purchasing solutions and control how your employees spend on goods and services.
Fill out the form to request a call back from a Specialist or reach out to us at 0800 085 7725, Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm.
Frequently Asked Questions
A Corporate Purchasing Card complements your company’s Corporate Card programme by allowing you to consolidate regular payments to vendors within a single account, set limits on how and with whom your employees can spend, and gain insight into your spending so you can negotiate rates with preferred merchants.
Both “pcard” and “p-card” are abbreviations of “Purchasing Card,” which is itself a slight abbreviation of “Corporate Purchasing Card.” You may hear these terms used interchangeably by professionals, but they all mean the same thing.
When you sign up for an American Express Corporate Purchasing Card, you can choose to issue physical Cards or virtual Cards (in the form of Virtual Account Numbers) to your employees. Physical Cards are designed for staff who work away from the office and ideal for all business-related expenses, and virtual Cards are helpful to lodge with a preferred supplier or in a procurement platform, or for central use by a department within a company that does not want to issue physical Cards to multiple employees. From the American Express @ Work digital platform, you can set and enforce limits on which companies your employees can spend with, as well as how much they can spend.
While Purchasing Cards and Credit Cards can be used similarly, there are a few key differences in a Purchasing Card vs a Credit Card. Generally, Charge Cards are paid in full each month, while Credit Cards can have a revolving balance with interest being charged.
An American Express Corporate Purchasing Card acts as a Charge Card, but with several additional advantages. You can have a virtual account option available for use with online suppliers. Rather than assigning each Card to a single person, you can assign your Corporate Purchasing Card to a department within your company for use by multiple team members. You can also issue an Account in a supplier’s name for use with a key supplier who has recurring invoicing requirements for ease of reconciliation.
Most companies use a Purchasing Card programme to supplement their Corporate Card programme. If you make large or frequent business purchases, or have multiple employees making purchases on behalf of your business, you may be able to take advantage of a Purchasing Card to set spending limits, track companywide spend and negotiate with preferred suppliers.