Corporate Card and Expense Guardrails Kit

If you do not control corporate card behavior and expense submission quality, policy is just a PDF.

This kit installs enforceable guardrails so Finance and AP can:

• reduce misc and out-of-policy spend
• speed up audits
• reduce reimbursement disputes
• create a repeatable exception review loop

What you will install

1. Card control baseline (limits, MCC rules, approvals)
2. Receipt and documentation standards
3. Audit checklist for reviewers
4. Rejection and resubmission workflow
5. Monthly exception categories and owners

Step-by-step implementation

Step 1: Define your minimum documentation rules

Beginner-safe:

• receipts required above a threshold
• merchant name, date, and amount must be visible
• business purpose required for all travel and entertainment expenses

Step 2: Implement card controls

Controls to consider:

• transaction limits by role
• MCC allowlist or blocklist (for high-risk categories)
• restricted merchant types
• virtual cards for high-risk vendors

Start with simple rules you can enforce.

Step 3: Define audit categories

Examples:

• missing receipt
• no business purpose
• out of policy booking
• duplicate charge
• alcohol or prohibited categories
• incorrect coding

Track these categories to fix root causes.

Step 4: Create a monthly exception review

30 minutes monthly:

• top exception categories
• top repeat offenders (behavior pattern, not blame)
• policy changes required
• control improvements required

Templates

A) Card controls checklist (copy/paste)

Copyable template (TEXT)
Copy
Corporate Card Controls Checklist

Limits:
- Default transaction limit:
- Monthly limit:
- Role-based overrides:

MCC rules:
- Blocked MCC categories:
- Allowed exceptions:

Receipt enforcement:
- Receipt required above:
- Submission window:

Approvals:
- Pre-approval required for:
- Escalation path:

Audit and reporting:
- Monthly exception categories tracked:
- Owner for exception review:

B) Expense audit checklist (copy/paste)

Copyable template (TEXT)
Copy
Expense Audit Checklist

1) Receipt present when required
2) Business purpose stated
3) Merchant and date match trip context
4) No duplicates
5) Policy compliant (booking channel, class, caps)
6) Correct coding and cost center
7) Exceptions are documented and approved

C) Rejection message (copy/paste)

Copyable template (TEXT)
Copy
Expense Rejected for Resubmission

Reason(s):
- [missing receipt]
- [missing business purpose]
- [out of policy without approval]

Next step:
Please resubmit with the required documentation and approval reference if applicable.