Finance playbook · AI Employee: Fin

Corporate Card Issuance

Card issued next business day

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The problem

Corporate cards are the answer to most "can I expense this?" friction — but issuing them is a slow, over-cautious workflow. Someone requests a card, finance debates the spend limit, the card takes days to issue, the employee expenses out-of-pocket in the meantime. Every card that could have been issued in a week but took three erodes trust in the finance function.

At a glance
Trigger
Form
Approvals
Finance manager approval
What it does
Writes to your systems
Systems
Ramp · Brex · Okta
How it feels in production

An hour-by-hour walkthrough.

Tuesday 2pm. New hire Alex needs a corporate card for upcoming conference travel. Manager submits: "Alex, $5000/month limit, cost centre eng-conf-travel." 2pm + 10 sec. Fin verifies: Alex is a real employee (Context Graph), cost centre is valid (NetSuite), manager is authorised to issue up to $5000 (approval matrix). Routes single-tap approval to finance manager. 2:30pm. Finance manager taps Approve. Fin calls Ramp/Brex API to issue the card, sets the $5000 monthly limit, sets category rules (travel + meals allowed, personal categories blocked), assigns to Alex's cost centre. 2:31pm. Alex gets a Slack DM with the virtual card details, the limit, the categories, and a link to the physical card mailing status. Physical card ships in 2 business days. Alex uses the virtual immediately for conference registration. Every card issued writes to audit: who requested, who approved, limit, categories, cost centre. Monthly usage flows into month-end close automatically.
How it works

Step by step.

  1. 01

    Collect purpose + spend limit + cost centre

    Manager or requester fills a form / DMs Fin. Fin parses: cardholder, purpose (travel / general / vendor payments), requested limit, cost centre, physical + virtual or virtual-only.

    Slack · Teams · Portal
  2. 02

    Verify against approval matrix

    Check requester is authorised at the requested limit (per your DoA policy). Amount above manager threshold escalates to finance manager or CFO per policy.

    Approval Policies · Context Graph
  3. 03

    Route for approval

    One-tap approval card in Slack. Deadline set (default 24h); escalation to delegate if untouched.

    Slack · Approval Policies
  4. 04

    Issue card via API

    On approval, call Ramp / Brex / Bill.com card issuance API with limit + category rules + cost centre. Virtual card active immediately; physical ships per courier SLA.

    Ramp · Brex · Bill · Airbase
  5. 05

    Set spend rules

    Category allowlist / blocklist per policy (travel + meals for expense cards; software + SaaS for vendor cards; no gambling / cash advances). Monthly limit enforced at swipe time.

    Ramp · Brex · Card provider
  6. 06

    Notify user

    Cardholder gets a Slack DM with virtual card details, limit, category rules, and how to expense. Physical card status link included.

    Slack · Email
Systems and wiring

What you connect to make this run.

Ramp · Brex · Bill · Airbase

write

OAuth credential with card-issuance + limit-set + category-rule scopes. Virtual card immediate; physical shipping tracked via provider webhook.

NetSuite · QuickBooks · Xero · SAP

read

Cost-centre validation. Card usage flows back into GL per cost centre on transaction settlement.

Okta · HRIS

read

Cardholder verification. Cardholder must be an active employee; termination automatically cancels active cards via the offboarding playbook.

What changes

Before and after, honestly.

Time from request to card issued
Before
3-7 business days
After
Under 4 hours, most under 1 hour
Employee out-of-pocket expenses (bridging card delay)
Before
~15% of expense reimbursements
After
Under 2%
Finance time per card issuance
Before
~30 min across form + verification + issuance
After
One approval tap
Card fraud + policy-violation catch rate
Before
Discovered at monthly reconciliation
After
Real-time via category rules + spend monitoring playbook
Related

Playbooks that pair with this one.

Finance

Card Lock & Lost Replacement

The lifecycle counterpart — locking a lost/stolen card.

Finance

Card Spend Limit Adjustment

Adjusting limits after issuance (temporary raises for a specific project).

Finance

Spend Monitoring Detection

The watchdog that catches anomalous spend on issued cards.

Finance

Expense Submission & Approval

Downstream — card spend flows into expense reconciliation.

Frequently asked

Answers about this playbook.

What if the requester needs a higher limit than the manager can approve?

Escalation chain — request goes to finance manager, then CFO per your DoA policy. Full context bundled at each level. Nobody has to re-explain the request.

Can we set category rules per card?

Yes — Fin passes category allowlist / blocklist to the card provider. Travel-card allows airlines + hotels + rideshare, blocks personal + gambling. Vendor-card allows software SKUs, blocks anything else.

What happens to cards when an employee leaves?

Offboarding playbook cancels all active cards on termination. Any pending transactions settle to the cardholder's cost centre; the card itself deactivates within seconds of the termination event.

Can Fin issue cards for vendors (not employees)?

Yes — vendor cards for AP flows. Same approval chain, different cardholder type. Vendor cards typically have lower limits and vendor-specific merchant rules.

How does this integrate with our expense tool?

Card transactions flow directly into your expense tool (Expensify / Ramp / Brex is often both card + expense; Bill + Concur are separate). Reconciliation is automatic.

See it run on your data.

Free plan, no credit card. Connect the systems this playbook needs and run it against a past event first.

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