Though many businesses rely on corporate credit cards to provide buying power and preserve cost controls, alternatives like procurement cards (p-cards) can equip employees with access to the purchasing tools they need while better supporting broader procurement goals. Both p-cards and corporate cards enable easy, compliant employee spending, but procurement cards offer increased data centralization and customized controls for enhanced spend management.

Still, since p-cards and business credit cards share similar aims, it can be helpful to learn more about the key differences between a p-card vs. a corporate card before deciding which is better for your business. 

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What is a p-card?

A p-card, or procurement card, is a company charge card that allows a cardholder to buy goods and services without using a traditional expensed purchasing process. It streamlines the procurement and payment processes by eliminating the need for requisitions, purchase orders, and invoices. 

Typically, companies using procurement cards will designate select stakeholders to receive a p-card (as opposed to a corporate card, which may be available to any employee based on role or level). The cards have a preset spending limit for specific, business-related purchases, enabling buyers to charge transactions directly to the company account. Depending on the procurement card program, a manager may need to approve transactions once initiated.

What is a corporate card?

Corporate cards are credit cards issued by an employer to employees to cover business expenses. Unlike a personal credit card, charges made on a corporate card are billed directly to the company credit account. Each card has an individual account number for tracking and processing, but the individual expenses roll into a single corporate monthly statement. 

Corporate cards remove the need for employees to make purchases on their own credit and seek reimbursement afterward. They create a centralized record of all the purchases made, separated by account number or user.

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P-card features and benefits

Since they streamline the purchasing process and enhance transaction oversight, p-cards provide distinct advantages over traditional corporate cards. They allow for immediate, direct employee purchasing while bypassing slow reimbursement systems. P-cards also centralize transaction data, making it easier to monitor spending patterns and enforce compliance with company policies. With real-time expenditure visibility, p-cards facilitate efficient budget management, strategic procurement practices, and significant cost savings.

Tracking for online and offline purchases: Procurement cards offer a simple way to manage modern expenses like software purchases and offline vendor orders. They centralize transaction data into one platform, simplifying recordkeeping. 

Customizable spend controls: P-cards allow employers to set specific spending limits, restrict transactions to certain categories or purchases, and even control the time or day a card is used. Employers can lock or unlock cards within an app or set use parameters to control spending further.

Enhanced expense visibility: By consolidating all corporate transactions into a single, easily accessible platform, procurement cards offer detailed expense visibility. This centralization allows for real-time expense tracking and categorization, enabling businesses to monitor spending patterns, identify potential savings, and detect fraud or maverick spend. The detailed data captured in procurement card transactions aids in spend analysis report generation and procurement KPI tracking, helping businesses make informed decisions while ensuring compliance with company spending policies.

Safeguards against waste spending: Putting software purchases, subscriptions, and other nonstandard procurement items on a corporate card can lead to waste spending. These purchases often have automatic renewal clauses, and if the cardholder leaves the company or transitions to a different role, subscriptions may renew unnoticed—sometimes for years.

In situations like this, companies may find themselves paying for unused or unnecessary services, draining valuable financial resources without realizing any return on investment. In fact, over half of IT managers struggle with SaaS sprawl despite improvements in streamlining app use. With a procurement card, transactions can’t hide in a month-end credit card statement, helping finance and procurement departments protect against waste spending.

Rewards and incentives: Many p-card programs offer loyalty benefits, cash back on purchases, or discounts with vendor partners. These extras provide additional financial resources to the company, creating ways to save money while streamlining the procurement and spend management process. 

Administrative efficiency: Procurement cards enable several ways to reduce the administrative burdens of multiple buyers performing transactions. P-cards consolidate transactions into a single account, making reconciliation processes easier and less time-consuming. Procurement card platforms often also provide advanced reporting features that allow the AP team to automatically capture vendor and transaction data and pull it into reporting or spend management workflows.

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Choose the Right Procurement Technology With This Decision Matrix

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Corporate card features and benefits 

Corporate cards can be ideal for specific business scenarios, such as managing travel expenses. For individuals or departments that spend significant time on the road, a traditional corporate card provides a convenient and efficient way to handle all travel-related costs. This simplifies the process of tracking and reporting and ensures employees aren't paying out-of-pocket for business expenditures. By centralizing expenses, businesses can gain better insight into travel spending patterns, enabling more strategic decision-making around budgets and policies.

Increased spend control: Corporate cards can be tailored with specific spending limits and restrictions, allowing businesses to manage budgets more effectively and prevent unauthorized purchases. While not as detailed as procurement cards, corporate cards still offer some spend control functions to ensure purchases fall within spending policies. 

Enhanced security: Credit cards often come with security features such as real-time fraud monitoring and instant card lock capabilities to protect against unauthorized transactions. This reduces the financial risk of a lost or compromised card in cases where card purchases are successful. Considering over 100,000 instances of credit card fraud were recorded in the fourth quarter of 2024 alone, these enhanced security measures are essential to reducing risk. 

Rewards and incentives: Many corporate cards offer rewards programs, including cash back, travel points, or exclusive access to events, which can offset costs or unlock higher-tier benefits. Cards might incentivize employees to select in-network vendors for purchases. 

Streamlined expense reporting: Some corporate cards offer in-platform expense management tools to automate the reporting process and make it easier to track expenses. These reporting tools can break out expenses by user, department, location, or other parameters.

Flexible limits for users: Corporate cards offer flexibility for various purchases, from office supplies to business travel. Administrators can implement a blanket credit limit for individual users, giving employees access to necessary resources while maintaining control over expenditures. This adaptability allows employees to operate autonomously while removing the need to self-fund travel or purchasing.

Choosing between a p-card vs. a corporate card 

Depending on your department or company's needs, a procurement platform with p-card vs. corporate card options—or a combination of both—may be the most effective way to manage team spending while providing the right balance of flexibility and oversight.

P-cards are ideal for smaller, routine purchases and can simplify procurement by eliminating the need for purchase orders. Corporate cards, on the other hand, are better for larger expenses or travel and can offer more detailed spending tracking and control. The payment method you choose will depend on your organization's spending patterns, purchasing needs, and financial management strategies.

When considering a p-card vs. a corporate card, ask yourself the following questions:

• What are your most common expenses? Corporate cards are typically used for business expenses like travel, entertainment, and office supplies. In contrast, p-cards are appropriate for direct procurement of goods and services from vendors. These cards are also useful for indirect procurement, including maintenance, utilities, and subscriptions as well as category spend like marketing.
• What type of control and oversight is needed? P-cards may offer more specific controls tailored to procurement processes, such as direct integration with vendor payment systems and pre-approval workflows. Corporate cards might provide increased spending limits while enabling detailed tracking and reporting by category.
• Do you need detailed spending control? Consider whether you need the ability to set granular spending limits or restrictions on specific types of purchases. P-cards can be customized at a very detailed level to restrict purchases to certain categories, while corporate cards may offer more general spending control.
• What is the current reconciliation process? It is crucial to be able to reconcile expenses easily with your accounting system. P-cards can simplify the procurement process by automating reconciliation and integrating directly with accounts payable systems, whereas corporate cards might require more manual effort to match receipts with expense reports.
• What types of rewards or incentives do you want? Corporate cards often come with rewards programs offering cash back, points, or miles that can be beneficial for frequent travel or large purchases. Although P-cards may offer rewards, their focus is more often on streamlining purchasing efficiency. However, procurement cards’ ability to reduce rogue spend may outstrip cash-back benefits.
• Who will use the cards? Consider who will be using the corporate purchasing card. A corporate card might be more suitable if it’s primarily employees making varied business purchases. For procurement or IT teams that regularly purchase from specific vendors or need to make bulk orders, p-cards could be more advantageous.
• What is your corporate credit situation? Consider how each type of card could impact company credit and liability. While corporate cards might impact credit ratings or debt ratios, procurement cards—like those available with Order.co Financial Offerings—present options for credit lines to extend working capital. 
• What type of spend compliance do you need? Ensure whichever card option you choose aligns with your company’s spending policies and compliance requirements. P-cards may offer features to help you better comply with industry regulations or contracting requirements.

Considering these aspects of spend management will help your team make an informed decision about corporate card or procurement card use.

How Order.co virtual procurement cards help teams manage spend

Procurement cards and virtual cards streamline the purchasing process, allowing procurement and finance teams to centralize and manage spend data. They provide real-time visibility into expenditures, simplify reconciliation processes, and enable tighter expense control. This centralized approach aids in strategic decision-making and ensures compliance with financial policies.

A procurement card makes it possible to save time and money on AP through automated invoice processing and reconciliation. Order.co’s program adds other valuable benefits as well, including: 

• Net terms for all vendors paid through virtual cards, giving you more time and flexibility for payment
• Real-time spend visibility and reporting on all purchases made with p-cards
• Easy-to-administer spend compliance with preset spend and category limits

When paired with a well-designed procurement platform like Order.co, procurement cards can help your organization manage every source of spend, from routine supplies and online purchases to software purchases and larger, one-off expenditures. 

In addition to the flexibility and control of a procurement card, Order.co offers a fully-featured procurement system that helps your organization meet all its procurement and spend management needs, including: 

• Centralized purchasing: All purchases happen within a centralized system, giving employees the ability to order needed items while staying within purchasing guidelines. 
• Order management: A curated order catalog ensures you can always order from preferred vendors and get purchases approved with an easy, automated process. This maximizes savings through volume pricing and improves the procurement process without adding manual management. 
• Invoice automation: With dynamic controls and automated workflows, AP can process and pay for orders quickly and easily—whether through the platform or purchases made on a p-card.

If you’d like to see how Order.co can combine the ease of a centralized platform with the added flexibility of a procurement card, schedule a demo today.