that comes with physical prepaid Mastercards that can be issued to employees. In essense, the Pleo product offers small and medium-sized companies a practical, clear and easy-to-use option for
managing employee expenses
. So really, gone are the days of open bars on business trips and questionable expenses!
Find out below whether you are ready to do less work managing employee expense, thanks to Pleo.
Quick Navigation
Pleo Profile
What account models does Pleo offer?
The Pleo Essential
The Pleo Pro
The Pleo Premium
How to open a Pleo account
What is the structural difference between the Pleo acccount models?
Who are the intended Pleo users?
The Pleo Spending Solution in Detail
Pleo and Company cards for employees
Pleo and Automated expense reports
Real-time spending overview with Pleo
Easy accounting systems integrations with Pleo
Advantages and Disadvantages of Pleo
Advantages of Pleo
Disadvantages of Pleo
How does Pleo compare against its competitors?
Frequently Asked Questions: Basic Pleo Information
Frequently Askes Questions: How to use Pleo
Frequently Asked Questions: Security and Privacy
My Conclusion
Pleo Profile
Fact / Feature
Pleo Details
HQ
Denmark
Service provider
Pleo Technologies ApS
Founded
2015
For consumers
No
For companies
Yes
Supervisory authority
Financial Supervisory Authority
HQ of the supervisory authority
Denmark
SSL-encrypted website
Yes
Security of deposited money
Trust accounts at separate banks
API banking
possible
No
Integration into ERP or accounting systems
Datev, Xero, Lexoffice, Sage, Fortnox,
e-conomic, Visma, Quickboks
2-factor authentication
No
Virtual & plastic cards
Yes
Value for money
5 out of 5
Supported languages
English, Danish
Realtime overview of all spend
Yes
Pricing options
Free Trial, Subscription
Pricing
Starting from £7/month
Mileage
Yes
Markets
Denmark, Ireland, Spain, United Kingdom, Sweden and Germany.
Individual spending limits
Yes
Foreign VAT recovery with Pleo Reclaim
Yes
Fetch – Automatic receipt finder for Gmail, Outlook & Microsoft 365
Yes
Direct integration to Xero, QuickBooks, DATEV etc.
Yes
Digital & audit proof receipt capture
Yes
Devices
Desktop, iOS App, Android App
Data & analysis dashboard
Yes
Customised .csv export
Yes
Cash expenses
Yes
Intendend business size
SMEs
Automatic initial account assignment (dealer, category and amount)
Yes
Apple Pay Integration
Yes
Access for an external accountant
Yes
Pleo offers a practical, clear and easy-to-use reimbursement option (not management!) for companies, which offers the possibility of equipping employees with payment cards in order to purchase products, pay travel expenses or expenses on behalf of the company.
Pleo offers SMEs the following:
An optimal overview of company expenses
The ability to categorize expenses
A complete corporate expense solution that automates billing and simplifies bookkeeping
What is Pleo?
What account models does Pleo offer?
Pleo offers the following three account models which can optimally be tailored to the size of the company and the individual company needs:
Pleo Essential
Pleo Pro
Pleo Premium
The Pleo employee expense cards are the central element of the Pleo payment solution for companies. These are prepaid cards that can be topped up as required in order to equip individual employees with required funds.
Technically, the Pleo account is not actually a business account. Instead, the Pleo account functions as a “sub-account” which is operated from an existing business account. It is an expense management system underpinned by rechargeable prepaid debit cards linked to your existing business account. The cards are connected to the Pleo app so that you can check all the expenses that are made with the cards in real time.
The Pleo Essential
The Pleo Essential comes with the following:
Costs 6 EUR per user, per month (for up to 5 users)
Pleo cards for your team
Automated expense reports
Digital receipt capture
Easy integration with your accounting software
Automated e-mail receipt finder
Expense management
The Pleo Pro
The Pleo Pro comes with the following:
Costs 10 EUR per user, per month
Pleo cards for your team
Automated expense reports
Digital receipt capture
Easy integration with your accounting software
Automated e-mail receipt finder
Expense management
Individual spending limits
Review of expenses that are above a fixed amount
Real-time data view & analysis
Access for external accountants
The Pleo Premium
The Pleo Premium comes with the following:
Pleo cards for your team
Automated expense reports
Digital receipt capture
Easy integration with your accounting software
Automated e-mail receipt finder
Expense management
Individual spending limits
Review of expenses that are above a fixed amount
Real-time data view & analysis
Access for external accountants
Personal account manager
Personal onboarding
On-site training
Recovery of VAT paid abroad.
Travel insurance coverage (additional cost)
How to open a Pleo account
Pleo offers free trial for two of its account models. This give you time to test-drive the SaaS platform before finally making the decision to use it.
All you have to do is register for Pleo with your company email.
After registering, you can try out for a month free of charge whether Pleo Essential or Pleo Pro is suitable for you.
If you are interested in Pleo Premium, you can contact the Pleo team directly via the Pleo website. Pleo will then make you an individual offer.
Pleo
What is the structural difference between the Pleo acccount models?
Feature
Essential
Pro
Premium
Document entry
from the Gmail account
from the Gmail account
from the Gmail account
Support
100% human, very fast
100% human, very fast
100% human, very fast
Setting up your account
–
–
Help from an account manager
Accountant access
–
Yes
Yes
Insurance
–
–
Travel insurance on request
Access to innovations
–
Yes
Yes
Cost / month
6 euros
10 Euro
Price on request
Who are the intended Pleo users?
Pleo is ultimately aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. It offers them a web app for managing and tracking spending. It includes a native Android and iOS apps whih is utilized for capturing receipts.
The following makes Pleo it ideal for small and medium- sized businesses:
Virtual prepaid Mastercards can be generated in Pleo for online purchases, and employees can be given physical cards for other spending.
Different spending limits can be set for individual employees, with options for both monthly and total spend limits.
Users can enable and disable cards instantly, and view spending in real-time through Pleo’s web dashboard.
Through the native mobile apps, Pleo automatically reminds users in real-time to take a photo of their receipt whenever they make a purchase.
Purchases are automatically categorized, matched with receipt photos, and users can add custom tags and notes to expenses for identification.
Pleo can be integrated with a range of accounting systems, including Xero, Sage One, and QuickBooks, allowing one-click export of expense data.
Pleo
The Pleo Spending Solution in Detail
Pleo
Pleo offers smart company credit cards that automate expense reports and simplify company spending that by doing away with manual reimbursements, paper receipts and forms, and petty cash.
The Pleo spending solution for your company revamps the process by doing the following:
Allowing SMEs to issue smart company cards with limits for the staff
Automating the expense recording and reporting process by allowing employees to capture receipts with an app instantly on-the-go
Allowing employees and the company to view expenses in one place in real-time
Integrating Pleo with company accounting tools thus saving bookkeeping time
Pleo and Company cards for employees
A company can manage employee expenses with Pleo by:
Issuing every employee with a company card
Setting individual spending limits for each employee with a card
Disabling or enabling Pleo cards instantly
Pleo and Automated expense reports
Pleo offers SMEs the following flexible features:
Real-time notifications when a Pleo card is used
Easily capture and match receipts with the Pleo app
Automatic categorization of all purchases
Real-time spending overview with Pleo
With Pleo your company will get access to real-time data on the following:
Follow all purchases, categorized with the right receipts
Set custom tags to match the accounting procedures
Integrate and sync Pleo with your accounting system
Easy accounting systems integrations with Pleo
Pleo makes expense reporting very easy by seamlessly integrating with various accounting systems.
Your bookkeeper can now import all expenses and associated data with a single click thereby saving precious time on repetitive tasks.
At the moment, Pleo can be integrated with the following platforms:
Xero
Datev
Fortnox
quickbooks
VISMA e-conomic
sage
billy
Microsoft Dynamics
VISMA
Advantages and Disadvantages of Pleo
To come up with the following advantages and disadvantages, I had to throw my technologist hat out of the window. In order to fully appreciate Pleo, you have to instead put on only two hats: An Employee / bookkeeping hat and a business owner hat.
Advantages of Pleo
Pleo will allow your company to keep employee expenses in check. While its easy to equip all employees who need access to company funds with Pleo prepaid company cards, it’s also easy to set an individual limit for each employee so that you always have an overview of the expenses your employees make.
You can top up your company cards at any time simply and easily by transferring money from your existing business account.
The expenses are automatically categorized via the Pleo app while paying with the company card. For this purpose, the card is linked to special software and a mobile app. This makes work easier and saves time and the associated costs.
Pleo can be easily synchronized with your accounting system. Since Pleo wants to conquer the German market as well as the Northern European market with its payment system, Pleo offers an interface with Datev especially for German companies. Therefore, you can combine almost every common accounting system directly with Pleo.
Disadvantages of Pleo
Pleo is fundamentally “Employee-oriented”. It essentially has the goal of enabling employees to be more independent rather ultimately reining in employee expenses by giving managers and accountants more control. From a business owner point of view, it has yet to convince me on its long term viability even though the employee will love it!
How does Pleo compare against its competitors?
Product
Deployment
Aproval Process Control
Receipt Management
Reimbursement Management
Spend Control
Spendesk
Mobile, Cloud/Web-based
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Chrome River Expense
Mobile, Cloud/Web-based
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Pleo
Mobile, Cloud/Web-based
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Lanes & Planes
Mobile, Cloud/Web-based
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Declaree
Mobile, Cloud/Web-based
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Haslle
Mobile, Cloud/Web-based
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ProcurementExpress.com
Mobile, Cloud/Web-based
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Expensya
Mobile, Cloud/Web-based
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Rydoo
Mobile, Cloud/Web-based
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ExpensePoint
Software, Mobile, Cloud/Web-based
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Satisfied Pleo Users
Frequently Asked Questions: Basic Pleo Information
What is Pleo?
Pleo is a cloud-based solution for managing company spending and automating expense reporting, using virtual and physical company cards. Pleo is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. It helps the businesses reduce the administrative complexity, eliminates expense reports and simplifies bookkeeping.
Who is the issuer of the Pleo cards?
The Pleo Card is issued by Pleo Financial Services A/S pursuant to a license from Mastercard International Incorporated.
Pleo Financial Services A/S is a regulated Electronic Money Institution, authorised by the Financial Supervisory Authority, Denmark. Registered Office of Pleo Financial Services A/S: Ravnsborg Tværgade 5 C, 4. Copenhagen N, 2200, Denmark. CVR Number: 39155435. All communications should be sent to Pleo Technologies A/S, Ravnsborg Tværgade 5C, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
Mastercard and the Mastercard Brand Mark are registered trademarks of Mastercard International Incorporated.
Is Pleo suitable for use?
Pleo is conseptualized to reduce administrative complexity, eliminate expense reports and simplify bookkeeping. It is therefore created for dynamic businesses with decentralized spending cultures. This means businesses that experience the pain of sharing of corporate credit cards, chasing receipts, doing expense reports and making reimbursements, all causing confusion and complexity for everyone involved.
How do Pleo cards work?
Prepaid Mastercard cards are accepted by more than 30 million merchants worldwide. The plastic Pleo cards can be used for in-store payments, contactless transactions and have a chip and pin facility. Meanwhile the virtual Pleo cards can be used to make any work related online purchases. Prepaid cards can be used to purchase goods in the same way as a debit or credit card but you can only make transactions when there is money in your account.
With Pleo employees capture receipts on-the-go using their smartphones and then system automatically categorizes the expenses based on previous behavior and eliminates the need to do manual expense reports.
Who is behind Pleo?
Pleo was founded in early 2015 by fintech veterans Jeppe Rindom and Niccolo Perra, who met while working at the Danish startup success, Tradeshift.
The Pleo team is based in Copenhagen and London with around 400 employees.
The company is financed by Kinnevik (portfolio includes: Zalando, Betterment, Babylon Health, Home24, Westwing and Tele2), Creandum (investors in over 60 companies including Spotify, Tictail, iZettle, Edgeware and Vivino) and Founders A/S (owned by Kirkbi A/S, Anders Holck Povlsen and the Oticon Foundation).
Frequently Askes Questions: How to use Pleo
In which countries is Pleo available?
Pleo is currently available to companies incorporated in Denmark, Ireland, Spain, United Kingdom, Sweden and Germany.
How can our company transfer funds to the Pleo Cards?
The virtual and plastic Pleo cards are Mastercard cards. To use the cards, your company needs to have funds available in the Pleo account. To provide funds to your Pleo account, you need to wire funds into a segregated account held by JP Morgan or Danske Bank.
Can Pleo cards be used everywhere?
Pleo issues Mastercards. That means the cards can be used in more than 30 million locations worldwide, online and in stores, making corporate purchasing easy and convenient – just look for the Mastercard Acceptance Mark.
Do I still need to do my expense reports when using Pleo?
No. The concept behind Pleo is eliminating expense reports.
When using your Pleo card, you will instantly receive notification on your mobile app. Pleo works hard to make the next steps of capturing the receipt and categorizing the expense as smooth and automatic as possible.
From an account owner perspective, they can monitor all transactions in real time and even define your own notification settings to alert you when specific purchases are made. All transactions can be directly pushed or exported to most accounting systems.
Will Pleo work with our accounting software?
Yes. Pleo can be integrated with most accounting systems.
Their software has direct integrations with Xero and e-conomic. Additionally, they offer customized CSV export functionality which works well in many other cases.
At the moment, you can seamlessly integrate and or export your data to the following platforms:
• Xero
• Datev
• Fortnox
• quickbooks
• VISMA e-conomic
• sage
• billy
• Microsoft Dynamics
• VISMA
Frequently Asked Questions: Security and Privacy
Where are the funds being held?
The virtual and plastic Pleo cards are Mastercards. To use the cards, your company needs to have funds available in the Pleo account. To provide funds to your Pleo account, you need to wire funds into a segregated account held with JP Morgan or Danske Bank.
How safe are our company funds with Pleo?
Your company funds are safe with Pleo. Neither Pleo nor any other third party can access your money held with JP Morgan or Danske Bank. JP Morgan is a designated as a Systemically Important Financial Institution by the United States’ Federal Reserve, with the highest rating. Danske Bank is designated as a Systemically Important Financial Institution by the Danish Central Bank.
What is Pleo’s fraud policy?
With Pleo, all purchases are monitored by fraud detection algorithms which will temporarily block your card in case of suspicious activity. You will be informed via a push notification or email if your card has been blocked along with information on the suspicious transaction.
If you recognise the transaction, you can enable your card from the web app. As well as enabling the card, you too can block your card immediately from the Pleo web app if you notice a suspicious transaction. In case of fraud you are covered by the
Mastercard Zero Liability Policy
.
How will our data be protected?
The Peo cardholder data is protected by bank-level data encryption and is stored in a PCIDSS level-1 compliant data centre in the EEA. All data passed between the Pleo servers and third parties is 2048-bit SSL encrypted. Card transactions data is transmitted via VPN-tunnels to a certified PCIDSS level-1 processor.
My Conclusion
As a technologist, I’ve seen a lot of SaaS products that offer PFM solutions for both end users and businesses.
What Pleo is offering is essentially not new. Let’s take a look:
A SaaS Solution – there are 9 other companies that I can think of that have something similar
Physical employee prepaid cards – prepaid cards for employees have been around for a while
The question that comes to mind is why is Pleo solving a problem that has already been solved? Maybe they have something up their sleeves that will sweeten the deal?
As a person with a background in finance, I’ll be excited to see the following features added to Pleo:
Brand partnerships – If my employees are going to be running around proudly displaying their Pleo cards, they might as well get some perks for it! Travel discounts? Restaurants? 😉
But in all honesty, the fact that the Pleo SaaS product is tied to prepaid cards is a positive. It eliminates the pesky issue of credit card deductible fees and all the accounting.
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“that comes with physical prepaid Mastercards that can be issued to employees.”KEVIN MOSERI