How Pleo uses Pleo to keep travel spend smooth across our Sales & Growth team

 As part of our How Pleo uses Pleo series, we’re spotlighting how different teams across the company rely on Pleo day-to-day to track spending, but also reduce admin, unlock clarity, and keep things moving in the right direction.

We’ve heard from Sales & Growth in Jan’s story, and took a trip behind the scenes with Meri and our Product & Tech teams. Now, we’re heading to the German region with Dietrich Menzel, Account Executive at Pleo, to see what smart spending looks like when you’re constantly on the move.

Spoiler: it starts with a card and trust that feels easy to give and receive.

One card, four years, and still blown away by smart spend

Dietrich’s first experience with Pleo came four years ago, when he joined as an intern. One of the first things he was asked to do was book a flight.

“I was given a Pleo account and asked to book flights to Copenhagen. I remember thinking: ‘Are you serious? You’re giving me a company card? I’m just an intern!”

That first swipe left a mark. There was a lot of trust involved, but mainly it left him in awe of how shockingly simple business spending could be.

“At the time, I had no idea how expense management worked. But Pleo made it effortless.”

Today, Dietrich’s role has changed, but his feelings about using Pleo haven’t. If anything, the more he travels, the more he loves it.

Life on the go, made simple

Dietrich’s work is focused on people: prospects, customers, partners. That means lots of travel… and lots of little moments where spend happens.

“I use Pleo to book flights, book hotels, and buy meals while travelling. Sometimes for events, too, but mostly it’s food, flights, that kind of stuff.”

This kind of frequent, on-the-go spend doesn’t leave time for uploading PDFs or saving crumpled receipts in coat pockets. So Dietrich sticks to tools that work flawlessly in real, day-to-day life:

• A virtual card for fast payments on the move
• A physical card as backup, just in case
• Pleo’s receipt scanner to snap and submit instantly
• The reimbursement feature for those out-of-pocket moments

“You can’t always pay with a card here [in Germany], so being able to submit a reimbursement right away is a lifesaver.”

A workflow that fits the rhythm of great work

Whether he’s grabbing a train ticket through an app or covering a client lunch, Dietrich keeps things simple: pay with Pleo, scan the receipt, move on.

“I buy transportation tickets on my phone, then upload the receipt directly into Pleo. It takes seconds.”

The beauty of it goes well beyond saving time. It’s about feeling trusted, something Dietrich’s carried with him from day one.

“It really showed me how important trust is. Being able to book your own flights and hotel with a company card? That’s not normal everywhere. It makes you feel responsible in the best way.”

Advice from someone who’s never known expense pain (and wants to keep it that way)

Unlike many of us, Dietrich has never had to deal with expense reports, spreadsheets, or approval chains. He started with Pleo, and he’d like to keep it that way.

“I’m super spoiled. I hope I never have to learn another system.”

His advice to new teams using Pleo?

“Snap a photo of your receipt right away. Don’t overthink it; it’s that simple!”

The speed you need, with the control you want

Dietrich’s story is a reminder that great tools don’t just cut down on admin, they remove roadblocks so teams can focus on the work that drives the business forward.

With Pleo, spend management happens in the background: receipts are fetched, transactions are categorised, and spending is visible in real-time. That means less friction, faster decisions, and fewer surprises, all while keeping the right safeguards in place for control and compliance.

That’s what smarter spending looks like in practice. That’s what Pleo is for.

Next up: Pleo’s CEO, Jeppe Rindom, shares how he keeps spending effortless: with receipts that get fetched on the spot, transactions that categorise automatically, and a workflow that runs in the background while he runs the business.