Sometimes it's important to know who was included in a business expense, whether a meal with colleagues or customers, an event, or a hotel booking for several employees.
In countries like Germany and Sweden, it's a legal requirement to document attendees on work expenses related to hospitality. To comply with these guidelines, employees can add attendees in an easy and smooth way in the Pleo app. Attendees can be added to both card and Pocket expenses.
This article explains:
How admins and bookkeepers can make attendees mandatory for select categories
How cardholders can add attendees in the mobile or web app
How reviewers can see listed attendees
How Pleo's "Representation" calculator works (relevant for companies in Sweden)
For admins and bookkeepers: setting up mandatory attendees
Go to Settings -> Accounting -> Categories
Locate the Categories you want to set Mandatory Attendees on
Hover on the Category and click on the 3 dots that open up the Settings options
Click on "Make attendees mandatory" to open the side panel
Switch on "Enable a mandatory attendee selection"
Done, an icon indicating "Mandatory attendees" should appear on the Category
For employees: adding attendees to an expense
In order for the Attendees field to be visible, an employee needs to select a relevant category (e.g., "Meals with customers). It's required to add at least one attendee to complete the expense.
To add Attendees, click the "+ Add" button (mobile app) or simply click the Attendees field (web app) to open the list of contacts.
You can select from the existing list of contacts and/or add a new contact (e.g. a customer). To do so, click "+ Add contact" and enter a name and company.
Done! The attendees you add will be automatically saved.
Mobile app:
Web app:
How reviewers can see listed attendees
Reported attendees will be displayed in the expense details, which are visible to reviewers and admins in both the Pleo web and mobile app. Attendees are also visible on the Export page in the web app.
How Pleo's "Representation" calculator works (relevant for companies in Sweden)
Is your organisation registered in Sweden? If so, you can use Pleo's Representation calculator to keep track of how much VAT can be claimed back for work-related entertainment expenses.
The right time to calculate Representation is right before exporting expenses from Pleo to your accounting system.
In Pleo, go to the Export page.
At this stage you can choose to filter by either:
One category at a time. By default, every category under "Meals and Drinks" and "Entertainment" will qualify for Representation calculation. The calculator will also work with any category for which you've made attendees mandatory. Click on "Account", select a category from the dropdown list, and then click "Apply":
Or
Click on "More filters", tick "With attendees", and then "Apply". This will pull a list of expenses where at least one attendee has been added:
Go through one expense at a time. Make sure to select a Representation "type" before clicking "Calculate deductions":
Note down the deductible amount for each expense:
Keen to know how our calculator works?
It follows the rules of the Swedish Tax Agency, taking into account the average VAT rate, the net total, the type of representation, and the number of participants to calculate the maximum deductible VAT. Our calculator works for receipts both with and without alcohol. By using the average VAT rate, we take into account the balance between Food (12%) and Alcohol (25%) on the receipt, without you having to enter that manually. Let's take the example in the above images.
Average VAT rate: 258kr / 1500kr = 17,2%
Representation type is Lunch/Dinner: 300kr per participant
Number of participants: 3
Deductible VAT: 17,2% x 300kr x 3 participants = 154,80 SEK