Sometimes paying with a card doesn't cut it. You might find yourself in a taxi that doesn't take card payments. Or you want to be reimbursed for having used your own car for a work trip. For situations likes these, we got you covered with Pleo Pocket.
What is Pleo Pocket?
Pleo Pocket lets you keep track of money owed between an employee and the company.
How to enable Pleo Pocket
Please keep in mind that it's not possible for an admin to deactivate Pocket once it's been enabled.
In the Pleo web app, click "Pocket".
Click "Learn more".
Follow the on-screen steps to complete the set up. You can use Pleo Pocket without an accounting system, but you must have an accounting system integrated if you want to export your Pocket expenses.
Enabling Pocket also enables access to Per Diem (currently available in Germany and Sweden) and Mileage (available for all countries).
How to submit a Pocket expense
Whether you're an employee or an admin who's spent their own money on something work-related, here's how to submit a Pocket expense and get reimbursed.
Who can see Pocket expenses?
Admins can see all Pocket expenses.
External bookkeepers (limited and extended) can see Pocket expenses. They can also settle Pocket balances if that permission has not been disabled.
Employees can only see their own Pocket expenses. Unless they're a reviewer.
How to track and review Pocket expenses
Pocket expenses appear in three places: the Expenses page, the Pocket page and the Export page.
The Expenses page is where you can make any changes (e.g, change the category) to a Pocket expense, just as you would for a regular card expense.
The Pocket page is where you get an overview of the settled versus outstanding expenses for each employee. Every employee has a Pocket balance based on the accumulation of expenses submitted or owed ("owed" if they withdraw cash). Expenses still awaiting review will not be added to the balance owed until it has been approved.
The Export page is where you can see a complete overview of expenses that are unexported, in the export queue and exported. This page is also only accessible to admins and bookkeepers. On the export page admins are able to see much more contextual information around Pocket-related expenses (e.g, direct & manual reimbursements).
How can I reimburse a Pocket expense?
Personal bank account or card reimbursements
Enable direct reimbursements by clicking on the feature in the Pocket page:
When setting up this option, Pleo will nudge you to set up any review thresholds. Follow those steps if you want to approve Pocket expenses before someone can reimburse themselves to a personal bank account or card.
Once enabled, employees can reimburse themselves by going through the steps in the mobile app. There is a 2000 GBP/euro limit per reimbursement.
Settle the balance manually
If you've decided to settle a Pocket balance outside of Pleo (e.g., along with an employee's salary), here's what to do:
If an employee has either withdrawn cash or marked an expense as personal, your manual reimbursement options change. Specifically, an admin or bookkeeper will need to settle the an employee's entire Pocket balance (instead of select Pocket expenses):
This is due to a current limitation on Pleo's side. Please stay tuned for future updates! Once an employee's previous Pocket expenses have been exported and reconciled in your accounting system, their balance will be re-set in Pleo, and it will be possible to manually select specific expenses for reimbursement again (like this):
How to export Pocket expenses
Depending on your chosen accounting system, Pocket expenses and reimbursements can be exported directly along with Pleo card expenses. Learn how exporting works.
Reimbursements will show up in your "Export" page as "Pocket transfers":
Once exported, this line will reflect a movement of funds from your Pleo Wallet account to your Pleo Pocket account in your accounting system.
FAQs
Can an admin trigger a direct reimbursement?
Once a Pocket expense has been submitted (and reviewed as okay, if relevant), it's up to the employee to reimburse themselves to their bank account or personal card. But admins cannot trigger a bank account or card reimbursement. Why not? A few practical reasons are that:
The employee might not have added their personal bank account or card info yet.
The info has been entered, but the bank account or card has since expired.
The bank that's connected to the card might send out a push notification before letting a card reimbursement through.
With these things in mind, it makes sense to put the onus on the employee.
If an employee owes the company money (e.g., they paid with their Pleo card and then marked the expense as personal), how is this resolved?
It's not currently possible to, for example, take money from the employee's personal card. As an admin or bookkeeper managing Pocket expenses, in this scenario you can choose to:
Wait until the employee submits a Pocket expense that negates the money they owe to the company, or
Settle the balance outside of Pleo (e.g., deducting what's owed from a pay slip).
Are there any fees involved with reimbursements?
There is a transaction fee of 0.9% of the amount with a max of 1 GBP per reimbursement (i.e., whichever is lower will be the fee).
Why can't I see the Pocket page?
Find out if your pricing plan gives you access to this feature: