Connect and manage your corporate cards
This article is about connecting and managing 3rd-party corporate cards to use with Tipalti Expenses. For cards issued by Tipalti, go to Tipalti Cards.
Overview
A corporate card is a company-issued payment card (physical or virtual) used by employees to make business purchases. In Tipalti Expenses, corporate card spend can come from either:
- 3rd‑party corporate cards (issued by a provider other than Tipalti): Your Tipalti admin connects the provider’s transaction feed to Tipalti Expenses so card charges can be reviewed and submitted inside the normal Expenses workflow.
- Tipalti Expense Cards (issued by Tipalti): Easy setup and seamless integration with Tipalti, providing customized cost controls and detailed spending insights.
When your company connects corporate cards to Tipalti Expenses, 3rd‑party card charges appear alongside other expenses so employees can review, upload receipts, code, and submit card spend through the same workflow as other expenses.
The Tipalti Support team can set up the Tipalti Hub to import your corporate credit card transactions from Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. This brings your external cards into the Tipalti Hub and allows them to sync to your ERP as part of your Expenses workflow.
Connect corporate cards
To connect, ensure you have a corporate card, not a business card.
Before you start, we recommend confirming with your bank that they can enable a card feed according to the guidelines below.
Select your corporate card below to see the instructions on how to connect your corporate card with Tipalti.
Connect your corporate American Express cards
To connect your American Express (Amex) corporate credit card:
- Ask your Tipalti rep to send you the following forms:
- Amex SFTP Information Exchange form
- Amex Global Data Transfer form
- Send the following to your Tipalti rep:
- The completed Amex SFTP Information Exchange form.
- The completed Amex Global Data Transfer form.
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The account to which you want to link all the corporate card transactions. This is the account the card spend settles against in your ERP, so it can be a credit card account or a bank account.
Tipalti uses this information to sync transactions with your ERP.
- The details of the bank that issued the cards, also known as the card issuer.
This is not the AP account you set on the card in the Tipalti Hub. The AP account must be an Accounts Payable (AP) account in your ERP, and it can't be a credit card account.
What happens next?
When Tipalti receives the completed forms and account information, our Support team connects your Tipalti Expenses account to your Amex credit card. This process takes about three business days to connect and set up.
Once connected, Tipalti emails you to confirm that the card is connected to your Tipalti Expenses account and ready to assign.
Connect your corporate MasterCards
To connect your corporate credit MasterCards:
- Ask your bank to send a Common Data File (CDF) to Tipalti through their MasterCard SmartData Portal.
- Your bank can send the CDF by finding Tipalti in the MasterCard online portal.
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When sent, the bank emails you a distribution ID.
Optional: Ask them to provide the date of the earliest transactions you require in the feed.
- Send the following to your Tipalti Customer Success Manager:
- The email with the distribution ID
- The account to which you want to link the card transactions. This is the account the card spend settles against in your ERP, so it can be a credit card account or a bank account.
- Tipalti uses this information to sync transactions with your ERP.
This is not the AP account you set on the card in the Tipalti Hub. The AP account must be an Accounts Payable (AP) account in your ERP, and it can't be a credit card account.
What happens next?
When Tipalti receives the distribution ID and account information, our Support Team connects your Tipalti Expenses account to your corporate credit MasterCard.
Once connected, Tipalti emails you to confirm that the card is connected to your Tipalti Expenses account and ready to assign.
Connect your Visa corporate credit cards
To connect your Visa corporate credit cards:
- Ask your bank to send a Visa Commercial File (VCF) feed to Tipalti through Visa Commercial Data Solutions platform.
- Your bank can send the VCF by finding Tipalti in the Visa Commercial Data Solutions platform.
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When sent, the bank emails you a distribution ID.
Optional: Ask them to provide the date of the earliest transactions you require in the feed.
- Send the following to your Tipalti Customer Success Manager:
- The email with the distribution ID
- The account to which you want to link the card transactions. This is the account the card spend settles against in your ERP, so it can be a credit card account or a bank account.
- Tipalti uses this information to sync transactions with your ERP.
- The details of the bank that issued the card, also known as the card issuer.
This is not the AP account you set on the card in the Tipalti Hub. The AP account must be an Accounts Payable (AP) account in your ERP, and it can't be a credit card account.
What happens next?
When Tipalti receives the distribution ID and account information, our Support Team connects your Tipalti Expenses account to your corporate Visa credit card.
Once connected, Tipalti emails you to confirm that the card is connected to your Tipalti Expenses account and ready to assign.
Assign corporate cards
Your organization's finance manager (or any user with permission to 'Create cards') must assign each card to a specific cardholder before transactions can appear in Tipalti.
Once connected, 3rd-party corporate cards will show in the Cards tab, labelled as 3RD PARTY and require assignment.
To assign corporate cards:
- Go to Cards > Manage cards.
- Click on any unassigned card and Click to assign.
- In the side panel, fill in the Card details, including Cardholder, Budget owner, and Payer entity, and the coding fields, including the AP account.
- Click Assign. Transactions will show as soon as cards are assigned to cardholders; the cardholder will also see relevant transactions in their Tipalti Hub Home.
The AP account on a card must be an Accounts Payable (AP) account in your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. It isn't the account you sent when you connected the card feed, and it can't be a credit card account. For more info on coding fields, go to Manage cards.
Filter and view corporate cards
To filter and view only 3rd-party cards in the Tipalti Hub:
Go to Cards > Active Cards subtab.
Click on Card type filter, and select External issuer.
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The list of cards will be filtered to show only 3rd-party corporate cards for that entity.
Alternatively, you can click on Issuer to filter and select the specific 3rd-party issuer that you’d like to view and manage cards.
Under Cards, your 3rd-party corporate card expenses appear under the Expense card transactions subtab.
To remove a 3rd-party card from the Tipalti Hub, click on the three-dot menu, and Remove card. Once confirmed, the card will be hidden, while keeping previous transactions visible to support cleanup when a card is no longer needed.
If the payee on a 3rd-party card transaction accepts virtual cards, a cashback icon appears next to the Payee field in the transaction side panel. Hover over it to see your estimated yearly cashback with Pay bills by card. For more info, go to Pay bills by card.
If you have a Treasury (Statement) integration, your Treasury-managed cards also appear in the Cards tab next to Tipalti-issued and other 3rd-party cards, labeled by provider. Their transactions show in the Expense card transactions subtab. Treasury cards are view-only for now.
Common questions
Which account do I send to connect the card feed, and is it the AP account on the card?
Connecting a 3rd-party corporate card and assigning a card both ask you for an account, but they are two different accounts:
- The account you send when you connect the card feed — the account your card transactions are linked to in your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, so Tipalti knows where the card spend settles. This can be a credit card account or a bank account.
- The AP account you set on each card in the Tipalti Hub — one of the card's coding fields. A completed card transaction syncs to your ERP as a bill and a payment, and the AP account is the Accounts Payable (AP) account that the bill posts to. It must be an Accounts Payable account — a credit card account isn't valid here.
For more info on the coding fields on a card, go to Manage cards.
Why don’t I see my corporate card expenses?
If you don’t see expected card charges in your Home or Expenses view:
- Confirm the purchase has processed (some card transactions may not appear until they are available from the card provider). Please note that 3rd-party card transactions are synced daily to Tipalti from the previous day.
- Contact your admin to confirm the corporate card feed is connected and your card is associated correctly.
Why can’t I submit a card transaction?
You may be missing a required field or receipt in your submission.
- Check for required fields your finance team configured for employees
- Attach the receipt (photo upload/attachment) and try again.
Can I bulk upload 3rd-party cards?
Yes, you can now migrate existing cards to Tipalti by sending a CSV file that contains the card details. Available for US and UK-based payers, Tipalti can create cards in bulk from a file, reducing the time required to recreate cards one by one. Contact your Tipalti rep to request the predefined CSV template.
Can I view cards from Statement (Treasury) in Tipalti?
Yes. If you have a Treasury (Statement) integration, your Treasury cards appear in the Cards tab, labeled by provider. They're view-only for now. Accounts Payable customers with a Payem, Payhawk, or Mesh integration can also view these cards in the Tipalti Hub. Contact your Tipalti rep for details.
Will I be notified about 3rd-party corporate card expenses?
Yes, cardholders may receive a daily email listing new corporate card transactions from the prior day. Use this email to quickly identify what needs a receipt, coding, or submission.
Cardholders may also receive a weekly reminder for transactions that are still waiting on employee review.
Email notifications may vary depending on your organization’s settings.
How do I submit expenses from 3rd-party cards?
When you are using a 3rd-party corporate card connected to Tipalti, your expenses will automatically show in the Tipalti Hub Home and mobile app, awaiting your review to submit. From here, you can fill in any missing details, add receipts, and submit expenses in the same way as regular expenses. For more information, go to Create and submit expenses.
After an expense transaction is approved and completed, it syncs to your ERP like any other Tipalti Expenses transaction.
How are expenses from 3rd-party cards approved?
Expenses made on a 3rd-party external issuer can be reviewed, approved, or rejected in the Tipalti Hub in the same way as regular expenses. For more information, go to Manage and approve expenses.