Welcome

Welcome to the documentation portal for Pleo.

Here you will find

How to get started with integrating your product with Pleo
Learn how to leverage the Pleo API for getting expenses into your accounting system and other tools

What is Pleo?

At a high level, the Pleo system works by allowing employees to make purchases using company-funded Pleo cards, by submitting expenses for reimbursement, or paying invoices through Pleo. These transactions are then automatically captured and categorised within the Pleo system to be prepared for bookkeeping. Pleo connects to the accounting system to automate the export of accounting data into the accounting system. Customers add funds to their Pleo Wallet, which is then used to fund card purchases, reimbursements to employees directly from Pleo, and invoice payments.

Pleo provides a number of features that make it a popular choice for businesses of all sizes. For example, Pleo avoids employees needing to spend out their own pocket with company-funded cards, allows for real-time monitoring of expenses, provides detailed reporting on employee spending, and simplifies the expense reimbursement process for both employees and accounting teams.

How do customers use Pleo?

Companies use Pleo to save time and effort by simplifying and streamlining their expense management process.

Customers connect Pleo to their accounting system and configure accounting in Pleo to match their accounting setup. For example the chart of accounts (called Categories in Pleo), their tax (VAT) codes, other “dimensions” (called Tags in Pleo) used for cost allocation, and a few other accounting settings.
Customers add funds to their Pleo Wallet that fund all payments made through Pleo.
Customers invite users to Pleo and issue them (virtual and physical) cards.
As users spend with their Pleo card, submit expenses for reimbursement, or pay invoices, data is captured in Pleo.
The expense moves through a workflow of data gathering and approvals.
Once the data collection is completed and an expense has received the required approvals, it is ready to be exported to the accounting system. Depending on the needs of the business, the exact steps of the workflow look different from company to company. Customers use Pleo for the entire process to collect data and approvals, before data is exported to the accounting system.
The data is exported from Pleo into the accounting system. Depending on the business needs of the customer, the export of data into the accounting system happens at different intervals. Normally all data and approvals are gathered in in Pleo, and there is no need to touch the data in the accounting system once it has been exported. Once an entry has been exported from Pleo, it is “archived” in Pleo and locked from further editing.

Setting up Pleo

To get the most out of the Pleo product it needs to be configured to support the relevant workflows, accounting logic, and cost allocation.

Connecting to the accounting system

There are often some configuration needed for accounting data to be correctly imported into the accounting system. The configuration which is specific to the accounting system or integration itself should be configured during the setup of the integration.

Accounting settings in Pleo

To use Pleo ensuring that the relevant data is collected, Pleo must be setup with the right data.

Categories

Categories represents the different categories of spend, representing the chart of accounts. Categories can be configured to require that the spender adds attendees for the expense. For example by configuring a category such as “meal with client” to require attendees.

Tax codes

Tax codes represented different VAT rates

Tags

Tags in Pleo represent different cost allocation dimensions. The different dimensions are called “tag groups” and each individual value is the “tag”.

Inviting users

Users are invited to Pleo. Different users have different permissions.

An “employee code” can be added for each user as a reference to the employee id outside of Pleo. For example for matching towards the HR or ERP system.

Types of spend in Pleo

Pleo supports a number of different types of spends and methods of payment.

The main types of transactions in Pleo to be familiar with are:

The Pleo wallet is the balance kept with Pleo. You can think of this as having a bank account with funds at Pleo. Funds can be added or withdrawn from the Pleo wallet.
Card payments are purchases made with a Pleo card, using funds from the Pleo wallet
Invoices, processed and paid through Pleo
Cash withdrawals, Pocket expenses, and Travel
- Cash withdrawals can be done using the Pleo card. A cash withdrawal is kept track of as a liability from the employee towards the company.
- Out of Pocket expenses, when an employee pays with their own money (instead of company funds). This is tracked as a liability from the company towards the employee.
- Travel expenses such as milage & per diem, when an employee should be reimbursed. These are tracked as a liability from the company towards the employee.
Reimbursements, employees can be reimbursed to their personal bank account through the Pleo product, using funds from the company’s Pleo wallet.

This was an introduction to the Pleo product. Now we will get into how to build an Accounting Integration for exporting accounting data from Pleo into the customer’s accounting system.