1030 · Cards and spend management
Agent cards for AI agents
Autessa Accounting agent cards are small, single-purpose cards for an AI agent buying API credits, a software trial or one vendor. Each has a purpose, an accountable owner, a small limit, an allowed-merchant list, a cap per charge and an expiry date, and Accounting checks every charge against those rules.
The problem
Handing an agent or a trial a full company card is a risk
AI agents and SaaS signups need a card number, but a general-purpose card with a high limit is an open door. Agent cards make the safe path the easy one: one job per card, a limit sized to that job, and an alert the moment a charge falls outside the rules.
What you get
- Three kinds: a Mercury agent card, a small-limit Mercury purpose card issued from Accounting, or an agent card tracked from another provider such as Privacy.com.
- Accounting suggests $100 a month and warns above $500.
- Allowed merchants: a charge anywhere else raises an alert on Home.
- A per-charge cap: a larger charge raises an alert too.
- Choose what a rule break does: notify the accountable person and approvers, or freeze the card.
- On the expiry date the card is cancelled in Mercury, or closed if it is tracked.
- When sync finds a new Mercury agent card, Home says “New agent card found, set it up”.
How it works
How does agent cards for ai agents work in Autessa Accounting?
Choose the kind
Create an agent card and pick Mercury agent card, small-limit purpose card or tracked agent card. Mercury agent cards are created in Mercury first; sync finds them.
Set the rules
Give it a purpose, an owner, a department, a limit and reset, allowed merchants, a cap per charge and an expiry date.
Every charge is checked
A charge at a merchant not on the list, or over the cap, raises an alert on Home and freezes the card if you chose that.
It ends on its own
On the expiry date the card is cancelled or closed, so a forgotten trial never keeps billing.
Every option
Agent card rules
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Kind | Mercury agent card, small-limit purpose card, or tracked agent card from another provider. |
| Purpose and owner | What the card is for and the person accountable for it. |
| Limit and reset | Suggested $100 a month; a warning above $500. |
| Allowed merchants | Charges elsewhere raise an alert. |
| Cap per charge | Charges above it raise an alert. |
| On a rule break | Notify, or freeze the card (Mercury agent cards can then only be unfrozen in Mercury). |
| Expiry date | Cancelled (Mercury) or closed (tracked) on that day. |
Permissions
Who can do what?
| Role | Can |
|---|---|
| Controller and Admin | Create and edit agent cards and their rules. |
| Accountable owner | Is named on every alert for the card. |
Connected
How it connects to the rest of Accounting
ACCOUNTING FEATURE
Corporate cards
Agent cards sit in the same Cards list, filtered under Agent cards.
ACCOUNTING FEATURE
Home
Rule breaks and newly found agent cards appear as to-dos.
ACCOUNTING FEATURE
Budget guardrails
Agent cards default to Notify, since Mercury does not let their limit change through its API.
FAQ
Questions about agent cards for ai agents
How do I give an AI agent its own card?
Create an agent card in Autessa Accounting. Give it an owner, a small limit, allowed merchants, a cap per charge and an expiry date, and every charge is checked against those rules.
Can I see an agent card’s number in Accounting?
No. The card page links to the card in Mercury, where the number is shown, so the number is never stored in Accounting.
How do budget guardrails handle agent cards?
Agent cards default to Notify, so Accounting alerts you as their spend nears the budget. Mercury holds an agent card’s limit and its unfreeze, so those changes are made in Mercury.
100% customizable, code and all
Make Autessa Accounting fully your own.
Use it out of the box, then change anything. Ask Autobot, Autessa’s AI builder, for a new field, screen, report, workflow or agent and it builds it into your copy of the app. Or open the code and edit it yourself. Nothing is locked: the app, its data and its code are yours.
Start free and make it yours