A spending limit tells a card how much it can spend. Merchant controls tell it where. In Ledgerly you can decide, card by card, which kinds of businesses a card works at, so a travel card pays for flights and hotels but not for a new laptop, and a software card never withdraws cash. This post explains how the controls work and how to set them up in a few minutes.

How merchant categories work

Every card payment carries a merchant category code that the card networks assign to the business taking the payment. Airlines, hotels, restaurants, software providers and fuel stations each have their own codes. Ledgerly groups the hundreds of individual codes into a short list of readable categories such as Travel, Dining, Software, Advertising, Office supplies and Cash withdrawals, so you choose from plain words instead of a list of numbers.

When a card is used, Ledgerly checks the category of the merchant against that card's rules before the payment is approved. The check happens in the moment, so a blocked payment never goes through and never needs a refund.

Allow lists and block lists

Each card can use one of two approaches. An allow list names the only categories the card works at, and everything else is declined. A block list works the other way round: the card works everywhere except the categories you name. Allow lists suit cards with a narrow job. Block lists suit general cards where you only want to rule out a small number of risky categories.

You can also add single merchants to either list. That is useful when one supplier sits in a category you otherwise block, or when you want a card to work at one specific software provider and nowhere else.

Rules that fit each card

Merchant controls sit next to the limits, expiry dates and receipt rules you already set on each card. A few combinations our customers use most often:

• Travel cards: allow airlines, hotels, taxis and dining, block everything else

• Software cards: one virtual card per tool, allowed at that single merchant

• Team cards: block cash withdrawals, gambling and money transfers

• Event cards: allow dining and venues, with an expiry date after the event

• Fuel cards: allow fuel stations and parking only

Admins can save any combination as a template and apply it when issuing a new card, so a new hire's travel card is set up the same way as everyone else's.

What happens when a payment is declined

If someone tries to pay at a category their card does not allow, the payment is declined and the cardholder gets a notification that explains why, in plain language. They can request an exception from the app with a reason attached. The card's owner or an admin approves it once or adds the merchant to the allow list for good. Every decline is logged, so you can see which rules cause friction.

Getting started

Open any card, choose Merchant controls and pick an allow list or a block list. Start with the cards that have the narrowest purpose, since they benefit most and rarely need exceptions. Review the decline log after the first month. If the same request keeps coming back, the rule is probably too tight, and a small change will save everyone time. Small adjustments beat a full rewrite of the rules.