The ‘no-receipt’ policy: How to handle unverified spend

Missing receipts often create some of the biggest headaches in expense management. Without proper documentation, finance teams face delayed month-end closes, incomplete audit trails and unnecessary back-and-forth. Worse still, unverified transactions can create compliance risks and leave businesses exposed during audits.

That’s why a clear no-receipt policy matters. Enforcing that policy shouldn’t mean endless chasing, awkward emails or spreadsheet detective work – and with Pleo, it doesn’t.

With the right processes and tools, you can identify missing documentation early, automate follow-ups, resolve exceptions quickly and ensure every transaction is complete, compliant and correctly coded from the moment it happens – all without slowing down your teams.

Here’s how to manage unverified spend effectively.

Key takeaways:

• Surface missing receipts immediately instead of discovering them at month-end.
• Automate reminders so employees stay responsible for their own documentation.
• Use Teams to automatically assign spend to the right department or cost centre.
• Use Tags to capture the project, client or initiative behind each expense.
• Resolve missing information directly within the expense workflow.
• Protect company funds by linking unresolved spend to employee balances.
• Enforce compliance through clear controls and consistent consequences.

Missing receipts matter – but they’re only half the story

Receipts confirm what was bought, when it was purchased and whether the expense complies with company policy. Without them, finance teams are left making assumptions – and auditors rarely appreciate guesswork.

But even a valid receipt doesn’t tell the whole story. Finance also needs to know where that spend belongs. Was it for the marketing team or the sales team? Was it tied to a client project, an internal initiative or a one-off event?

That’s why complete verification relies on three things:

• A receipt to prove what was purchased
• A Team to identify who spent it and which budget owns it
• A Tag to explain why the money was spent

Without all three, transactions can still be incomplete, difficult to reconcile and harder to analyse later.

How to handle unverified spend with Pleo

1. Identify missing receipts instantly

Instead of waiting until month-end to uncover missing documentation, use Pleo’s dedicated missing receipts view.

In Pleo:

1. Go to the Expenses tab
2. Filter by Missing receipt

Pleo automatically highlights incomplete transactions, so you don't have to hunt through hundreds of verified expenses to find the outliers.

This is also the perfect moment to check whether the transaction has been assigned the correct Team and Tag. Missing receipts and missing allocation data often go hand in hand.

2. Automate the friendly nudge

Chasing receipts manually is no one’s idea of productive work.

Pleo automatically prompts employees to upload receipts as soon as they make a purchase. If they don’t, the system sends weekly reminder notifications every Tuesday until the transaction is completed.

You can also require employees to add the relevant Tag before an expense is considered fully complete. That way, every transaction includes both the receipt and the business context behind it.

This keeps responsibility with the spender (where it belongs) whilst dramatically reducing the amount of follow-up required from finance.

3. Use Teams to assign ownership automatically

Teams help you answer one of finance’s most important questions: who owns this spend?

In Pleo:

1. Go to the People section
2. Select Teams
3. Create teams for each department, region or business unit

For example, you might create teams such as:

• Sales UK
• Marketing DE
• Finance HQ

Every expense is then automatically associated with the employee’s team, ensuring costs are allocated to the correct department from the outset.

You can also assign a Team Reviewer, so expenses are approved by the manager closest to the spend before finance ever needs to step in.

4. Use Tags to capture the purpose of spend

If Teams tell you who spent the money, Tags tell you why.

Tags can be used to track financial dimensions that cut across departments, such as:

• Client accounts
• Marketing campaigns
• Events and conferences
• Internal projects

For example:

• Web Summit 2026
• Q3 Sales Kickoff
• Office Rebrand
• Client Alpha

This makes it easy to filter spend by project, calculate ROI and allocate costs accurately across the business.

You can create Tags manually in Pleo or import them directly from your accounting system.

5. Resolve missing information directly

Sometimes a transaction is missing more than just a receipt. It may also be missing a note, category or Tag.

If something looks incomplete:

1. Open the expense
2. Select Ask for more info

The employee will receive a notification in the Pleo app, where they can upload the receipt, add explanatory notes, update the category or assign the correct Tag.

This keeps all communication tied to the transaction itself, rather than scattered across emails or chat threads.

6. Handle accidental personal purchases and unresolved spend

Mistakes happen. A company card can occasionally be used for a personal purchase by accident.

When that happens, employees can resolve it themselves by selecting the transaction and marking it as a personal purchase.

The expense is then moved to Pocket, where it appears as an amount owed back to the company. That balance can be offset automatically against future reimbursements.

If a receipt cannot be provided, or the expense remains unresolved, Pocket can also be used to ensure the company is reimbursed appropriately. No awkward payroll adjustments. No manual corrections.

7. Enforce consequences for repeated non-compliance

Policies only work when they’re consistently enforced. If an employee repeatedly ignores reminders, fails to upload receipts or submits expenses without the correct Tags, you can temporarily freeze their card until the required information is provided.

In Pleo:

1. Go to the People section
2. Select the employee
3. Freeze their card

This creates a clear and immediate incentive to comply, whilst protecting company funds from further undocumented spend.

Best practice: Build verification into your policy

A strong no-receipt policy should cover more than receipts alone.

Consider including:

• A deadline for submitting receipts
• A de minimis threshold for low-value purchases
• Rules for assigning mandatory Tags
• Guidance on Team ownership and approvals
• The process for handling lost receipts
• Consequences for repeated non-compliance

This ensures every transaction is not only documented, but also properly allocated and ready for reconciliation.

From receipt capture to complete spend visibility

The goal of a no-receipt policy isn’t simply to collect receipts. It’s to create complete, reliable and actionable spend data.

When every expense includes:

• A receipt
• A Team assignment
• A Tag

Finance gains a full picture of what was spent, who spent it and why.

That means:

• Faster reconciliation
• Cleaner month-end closes
• Better audit readiness
• More accurate project costing
• Stronger budget visibility across the business

With Pleo, receipt compliance becomes part of a much bigger goal: turning every transaction into a fully verified, fully allocated source of financial insight.