If your team is paying for online tools, travel, subscriptions or ad-hoc purchases, knowing how to use a virtual card helps you stay secure, reduce fraud and keep spending visible. This guide explains how virtual cards work, how to use them online and in store, and practical controls for Australian organisations.
See how ProSpend Virtual Cards help control employee spend
A virtual card is a digitally generated debit or credit card with its own number, expiry date and CVV — but no physical plastic. It works anywhere standard card payments are accepted, including online checkouts and contactless terminals.
Watch: ProSpend Expenses and Virtual Cards
This guide is designed for CFOs, Finance Managers, AP leads and operational teams across Australia and New Zealand who manage digital payments, corporate cards or employee purchasing. You may be dealing with:
Virtual cards offer tighter governance, cleaner data and easier compliance — without slowing your team down.
Virtual cards behave like any normal debit or credit card. They include:
The difference is control: finance teams can generate cards instantly, limit their use, restrict merchants, define expiry, and shut them down immediately, without waiting for a bank to issue a new physical card.
Proceed to checkout as normal.
Most websites won’t show “virtual card”, so choose Pay with debit/credit card.
Input the:
You may receive a one-time PIN or app notification.
Once approved, the transaction appears immediately in your virtual card dashboard for reconciliation.
To use a virtual card in person, the merchant must support contactless (NFC) payments through Apple Pay, Google Wallet or similar.
Once processed, the charge appears in your system immediately.
All the same things you’d use a physical card for, but with far more control:
Finance teams gain visibility, and employees gain a secure way to purchase what they need.
You can request a virtual card through:
Most ANZ businesses prefer bank-agnostic systems because each virtual card can be tied to an employee, project, vendor or budget line.
Virtual cards in ProSpend integrate seamlessly with:
Yes. Virtual cards are often safer than physical cards. You can limit merchants, define budgets and shut down a card instantly if compromised. Learn more about ProSpend virtual cards here.
Absolutely. Many organisations create one virtual card per subscription so they can cancel charges easily and avoid unknown renewals.
When managed in ProSpend, every transaction syncs seamlessly into Xero, MYOB, NetSuite, Business Central or Acumatica with the right coding.
Yes, virtual cards can be loaded into digital wallets and are ideal for hotels, flights and incidental spend, especially when limits and validity dates are applied.
Your available balance temporarily decreases. Set limits with buffer space to avoid declined transactions during holds.
Yes, as long as the merchant accepts standard card payments. Exchange rates and fees depend on the card issuer.
Sharing is strongly discouraged for audit and security reasons. Issue separate cards for each employee or purpose.
With ProSpend, it takes seconds — no bank delays, no physical card printing.