Credit cards and charge cards for small businesses are normally issued in the name of the principal – the business owner. Where the business is incorporated, liability for repayments may be shared between the business owner personally and the company, or by the company alone. If supplementary cards are issued to employees, each employee may also the liability with the business and its owner, but only for charges made with their individual card. (Corporate cards, issued to very large organisations, have a different arrangement: the corporation itself normally carries sole liability.)
Monthly business card account statements will normally list the charges for each supplementary card separately, providing for ease of reconciliation with expense reports submitted by employees. The statement may also consolidate expense types regardless of which card incurred them, for example reporting total travel expenses or total entertainment expenses. This facilitates transfer of the figures directly into your accounting system under the required headings.
Some business cards allow a limited number of supplementary cards free of charge, typically up to four. If you need more than this you may need to choose a card which charges an additional annual fee for supplementary cards, although it should be an amount significantly lower than the primary card annual fee.
It will usually be possible to have individual credit limits placed on supplementary cards, rather than allowing supplementary cardholders unlimited access to the primary card’s global limit. Alternatively, internal business controls may be needed in order to set each employee’s credit limit.
