Adding an External Card

Topkey lets you connect cards from your existing corporate card programs — such as American Express, Chase, Capital One, Brex, or Ramp — so their transactions appear alongside your Topkey activity for coding, receipt attachment, memos, and owner statements. You do not need to switch card issuers to take advantage of Topkey's reconciliation workflow.

When to Add an External Card

Add an external card when:

• You already have a corporate card program you want to keep and do not want to replace it
• You want those card transactions to appear inside Topkey for GL coding, receipt uploads, spending memos, and owner statement reporting
• You are issuing virtual cards through American Express or Ramp and want to manage them from within Topkey

Supported External Card Types

Topkey supports two paths for bringing external cards in:

• Bank-connected external cards — Visa and Mastercard cards from most major US banks, connected through your bank directly
• American Express — a certified direct integration that syncs your AMEX credit accounts, cards, and daily transactions

Enabling the External Cards Integration

Before you can connect individual external cards, you must enable the external cards integration for your account.

1. Go to Settings → Cards → External.
2. Enable the integration for your account.

Once enabled, you can begin connecting cards.

Connecting a Bank-Connected External Card

Topkey can plug into existing Visa and Mastercard card programs through your bank, allowing transactions from those cards to flow into Topkey automatically.

1. Navigate to Cards → External.
2. Select Connect a Card.
3. Follow the prompts to select your bank, authenticate, and choose which card or cards to sync.
4. Once connected, each card appears on the external cards list showing the last four digits, card network (Visa or Mastercard), status, and connection health.

If a Card Loses Its Connection

If your bank authentication lapses, a banner will appear on the affected card with a Reconnect link. Select it and re-authenticate to restore the sync.

Connecting American Express

The American Express integration is a certified direct connection that pulls your AMEX credit account balances, card list, and daily transactions into Topkey.

One-Time Setup

1. Go to Settings → Integrations → American Express.
2. Select Connect and complete the setup form with your business details (name, tax ID, address, phone, and email).
3. Grant Topkey access to your AMEX account and select which credit accounts (called "basic accounts" in AMEX) to sync.

What Happens After Connection

• Your connected AMEX credit accounts appear in Topkey as AMEX Credit accounts.
• Each card associated with a credit account rolls up to its parent account.
• Supplementary cards (cards issued on the primary account) are imported automatically and tied to their parent credit account.
• Physical cards are created in Topkey as part of the account setup process.

Viewing Your AMEX Cards

Once connected, you can view all of your AMEX cards by navigating to Cards → American Express. The list shows each card's cardholder, card type (physical, virtual, or supplementary), last four digits, and status. You can filter by status or cardholder to find a specific card.

Configuring the Transaction Sync Start Date

For each connected AMEX credit account, you can control how far back Topkey imports transactions.

1. Navigate to Settings → Integrations → American Express and open the relevant credit account.
2. Set the Transaction Sync Start Date to the earliest date you want transactions imported from.
3. Save your changes.

Disconnecting an AMEX Credit Account

To remove a connected AMEX credit account from Topkey:

1. Go to Settings → Integrations → American Express.
2. Open the credit account you want to remove.
3. Select the option to disconnect the account.

Adding a Virtual AMEX Card

Once your American Express integration is connected and you have at least one active credit account, you can request new virtual AMEX cards directly from Topkey without logging in to AMEX.

1. Navigate to Cards → American Express.
2. Select New Virtual Card.
3. Complete the virtual card form:
   • Cardholder — the person the card is issued to
   • Spending limit — the maximum amount the card can be charged
   • Valid date range — the start and end dates for the card
   • Single use or multi-use — whether the card can be used once or multiple times
   • Memo (optional) — a note describing the card's purpose
4. Submit the form. Topkey sends the request to AMEX, which issues and activates the card automatically.
5. The new virtual card appears on the AMEX Cards page. To view the full card number, open the card and use the secure details modal.

Creating and Managing Ramp Virtual Cards

If your account has the Ramp integration enabled, you can create and manage Ramp virtual cards directly from Topkey.

1. Navigate to the external cards section and select the option to create a new Ramp virtual card.
2. Set the cardholder, spending limit, and spending interval (for example, monthly or total).
3. Save the card. It will appear in your external cards list.

Ramp Card Actions

From any Ramp virtual card, you can:

• Suspend the card to temporarily block new charges
• Unlock a suspended card to re-enable spending
• Terminate the card to permanently close it

Managing External Cards

Editing a Card

From any external card's detail view, you can:

• Rename the card — for AMEX cards, the updated name is pushed to AMEX as well
• Assign a cardholder — associate the card with a specific team member
• Attach to a property or property group — helps route transactions to the correct GL accounts automatically

Archiving a Card

Archiving removes the card from your active card list in Topkey without disconnecting the underlying integration.

1. Open the card you want to remove.
2. Select the three dots in the top right hand corner.
3. Select Archive.

How External Card Transactions Work

Transactions from all connected external cards pass through the same workflow as Topkey-issued cards:

• GL coding — assign expense categories and chart of accounts entries
• Receipt attachment — upload or forward receipts to match against transactions
• Memos and notes — add context for owner statements or internal records
• Approval workflows — submission rules and approval requirements apply the same way

Card group rules and GL routing configurations you have set up in Topkey apply to external card transactions automatically.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I connect cards from any bank or card issuer? Topkey supports bank-connected cards for most Visa and Mastercard programs from major US banks, as well as a direct integration for American Express. If you are unsure whether your card program is supported, Contact Support.

Will connecting an external card cancel or change my existing card program? No. Connecting an external card to Topkey only enables transaction syncing and management within Topkey. Your card program with the issuer remains unchanged.

What happens to my existing AMEX transactions when I first connect? Topkey imports transactions starting from the sync start date you configure for each AMEX credit account. You can set this date to control how far back the initial import goes. Transactions before that date will not be imported automatically.