Pleo
Prepaid Mastercard cards, receipt chase, and an export into QuickBooks Online or a Xero bank feed.
Best for
UK and EU teams (and US entities of those companies) that will put spend on prepaid Mastercard cards and export reviewed lines to QuickBooks Online or Xero.
Not ideal if
A US-only shop that wants a free charge card and ACH reimbursements. Pleo's US getting-started page still lists 16 European countries as where it operates, US cards are prepaid with no cash access, and direct reimbursements are not available in the US.
Standout
A twice-daily Xero bank feed plus a QuickBooks Online export that attaches the receipt, after the employee snaps it on the phone.
About Pleo
Pleo is a company-card and spend platform, not a ledger. You fund a Pleo wallet (ACH or Plaid in the US; bank transfer or open banking in Europe), issue physical and virtual Mastercard cards, and employees swipe. The phone app asks for a receipt. You review and code the line. Then you export to QuickBooks Online (Expenses tab, receipt attached) or send a twice-daily bank feed plus an export to Xero. You still close and lock the period in those books.
It does not replace QuickBooks Online or Xero. Ramp is the free US card program with SMS receipt chase on the same login. Brex covers cards, reimbursements, and travel for US teams. Expensify is the phone camera if people still pay out of pocket. Payhawk is the other European-rooted spend suite with published US module prices. Pleo's extra is a 16-country European footprint and a Pathward prepaid Mastercard if you also run a US entity.
People who stick are usually UK or EU teams that want the swipe and the receipt in one app so Xero recon is a feed, not a statement hunt. They accept topping up a prepaid wallet and a per-user bill as headcount grows. Bookkeepers care that the Xero feed lands twice a day and that a reviewed QuickBooks Online export carries the receipt.
What people who used it say
What they tend to like
Live spend and a receipt at swipe
UK finance comments describe seeing the charge as it happens and only needing a photo plus a note from the cardholder.
Xero recon gets shorter
Owner talk about cutting Xero recon points at the coded feed and mapped tax codes, which matches the twice-daily bank feed in help.
Employees drop the expense report
The product pitch and UK comments agree: the job for the cardholder is snap and send, not a month-end form.
What they hesitate about
You have to top up a prepaid wallet
UK owners say the missing credit line and the manual top-up are the reason they look at alternatives.
Per-user price adds up
Public UK comments call Pleo expensive next to narrower subscription-card tools as headcount grows.
Prepaid is not a credit card
One UK thread kept a real credit card for high-risk bookings (cancelled flights) because prepaid protection is thinner.
How it hits your books
- Replaces your ledger
- No
- QuickBooks Online
- Yes
- Xero
- Yes
- Multi-entity
- Partial
- Inventory
- No
- Payroll
- No
Close is review and export in Pleo, then reconcile the Pleo bank account in QuickBooks Online or Xero. The Xero feed is date, merchant, amount, and employee only; categories and tags need a separate export. QBO help only documents UK and Ireland account-type setup.
Invite an external bookkeeper on every plan we saw, or hand over the QuickBooks Online or Xero file after export. Pleo does not produce a US year-end tax package. We did not see 1099 e-file.
Images
Features
Fund a wallet, then swipe a prepaid Mastercard
Top up from a company bank account (ACH or Plaid in the US; open banking or SEPA/Faster Payments in Europe). Issue physical and virtual Mastercard cards with Apple Pay and Google Pay. US cards are Pathward prepaid debit with no cash access. EU Start charges £5 per ATM withdrawal; Build and Optimise list ATM withdrawals as free.
Snap the receipt after the swipe
A purchase notifies the cardholder on the phone. They photograph the receipt and add a note. Fetch can pull matching receipts from Gmail, Outlook, or Microsoft 365, including a look-back of about a year. Automated receipt reminders sit on every plan we saw.
Review, then export to QuickBooks Online or Xero
Map Pleo categories to expense accounts. Tags map to QuickBooks classes and projects, or to Xero tracking categories and customers. A QuickBooks Online export lands in the Expenses tab with the receipt attached. Xero also gets a bank feed twice a day (8:00 and 13:00 UTC) with date, merchant, amount, and employee; you still export for categories and tags.
Vendor cards for subscriptions
Create a virtual card locked to one vendor so a SaaS charge cannot wander. UK Start includes 1 vendor card, Build up to 15, Optimise up to 50. The US small-business table we fetched did not print those caps.
Out-of-pocket claims (not a US payout)
Build and Optimise add out-of-pocket reports, mileage, and approval workflows. Direct reimbursement to an employee bank account from the Pleo wallet is documented as not available in the US. In markets that have it, the fee is 0.90% (help also names a £1 cap per reimbursement).
Invoices into the same wallet
Accounts payable captures invoices with OCR, routes approvals, and pays from the Pleo account (EU pages name SEPA, Faster Payments, and wires). UK Start includes AP. The US small-business feature table we fetched omitted the AP rows, so treat US invoice pay as unconfirmed on that page.
Pricing
A 5-person US shop on Build is 5 × $14 = $70/mo billed yearly ($840/yr) if Pleo issues them US cards. There is no Start plan on the US small-business page and no $0 software tier. You also pre-fund the prepaid wallet, so cash sits with the card issuer until it is spent. Direct reimbursements to an employee bank are not available in the US. Card FX is 1.75% on Build and 1.49% on Optimise. A UK shop can start at £8/user/mo on Start (monthly billing, one admin, no reimbursements). Ramp Free is $0 for a US-only card program.
Start (UK / Europe)
UK and European shops that want cards, invoice capture, and accounting export without reimbursements. Not on the US small-business pricing page.
- Physical and virtual cards, 1 vendor card
- Accounts payable and real-time expense tracking
- Accounting integrations and email support
- Monthly billing only, max 1 admin
- Credit limit up to £5,000 for eligible customers
- ATM withdrawals £5 each; card FX 2.00%
Build
US list price for growing teams that need reimbursements, limits, and approvals. UK/EU Build is £14/user/mo on the same yearly, 3-user minimum.
- Physical and virtual cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay
- Out-of-pocket reporting, mileage, approval workflows
- Flexible card limits and recurring vendor tracking
- OCR for receipts, accounting integrations, bookkeeper access
- Direct reimbursements 0.90% where available (not in the US)
- Card FX 1.75%
Optimise
Teams that want cashback (if eligible), budgets, HRIS, and AI expense review. UK/EU Optimise is £18/user/mo on the same yearly, 3-user minimum.
- Everything in Build
- Cashback for eligible customers
- Budgets and 100 AI expense reviews per month
- HRIS integrations and MCP
- Live chat support
- Card FX 1.49%
Integrations
Platforms
Audience
Pick something else instead of Pleo
Ramp
Pick Ramp instead if you are a US shop that wants a $0 card program, SMS receipt chase, and QuickBooks Online or Xero sync without pre-funding a European prepaid wallet.
Brex
Pick Brex instead if you want US charge cards, ACH reimbursements, and travel under one budget, without a 16-country Europe-first operate list.
Expensify
Pick Expensify instead if people still pay out of pocket and you need a phone camera plus ACH reimbursement, not a prepaid company card.
Payhawk
Pick Payhawk instead if you want a European-rooted spend suite that also publishes US module prices and can link the Visa, Mastercard, or Amex cards you already have.