How to choose

How to choose: five questions

1. Who should owe the bank? Corporate liability spares employees a credit check and leaves misuse with the company. Individual liability moves the debt to the employee, but California still makes the employer pay the business expense, and in Canada only a card the employee is liable for gets the simpler GST/HST card method.
2. Can you name the merchant in advance? Software, ads and AI agents: a merchant-locked virtual card per vendor. A marketing team paying for eight software tools can give each one its own locked card; a number leaked by one vendor can't be used anywhere else, and canceling a tool means canceling one card. Supplies on account: a purchasing card with category blocks. Travel and meals: a physical card with limits.
3. Is it travel? A per diem removes the meal receipts; airfare on a central account removes the employee.
4. How fast can the company pay the card? Daily settlement shrinks the balance the platform funds; that's usually what a better rebate buys.
5. US or Canada, and which state or province? California, Illinois and a handful of states set reimbursement duties; Canada adds GST/HST recovery, and Quebec its own sales tax and slip.

My defaults: a merchant-locked virtual card per software vendor; per diems for travel meals; mileage at the IRS or CRA rate with a log; out-of-pocket only as the exception, paid by ACH or EFT within days, not with payroll; airfare on a central account; anything with an invoice to AP. For regular spenders I'd use corporate-liability charge cards on daily settlement.