So, your Pleo account is now verified…how do you start spending? Adding funds to your account is the last (two-minute) step.
But before we get into how it works, let's talk about the thing that's probably on your mind.
You're responsible for company money. Moving funds into a new platform feels like a big step. That’s a responsibility we take just as seriously as you do.
When you add funds to your Pleo Account, that money doesn't sit in a general Pleo account. It goes straight into a safeguarded account held with regulated banking partners — kept entirely separate from Pleo's own operational funds.
Pleo Financial Services is a fully licensed Electronic Money Institution (EMI), authorised by the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (DFSA) for customers across Europe, and by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK. Under that regulation, your funds must be kept entirely separate from Pleo's own money at all times.
Every transaction is then handled by Pleo Financial Services, our separate licensed entity, which exists specifically to process payments securely across Europe and the UK.
This is the same regulatory framework that governs all authorised electronic money institutions in Europe.
With the safety question answered, here's how the Account actually works day-to-day.
The Pleo Account is a centralised pot of funds that your whole organisation draws from when making purchases. Every Pleo card (physical or virtual) connects to this single account. That means no more topping up individual cards one by one. No more chasing people to check their card balances. No more last-minute panics when someone's card gets declined at the airport.
You set the spending limits. Your team spends within them. Finance gets a real-time view of every single transaction as it happens. You can also build in additional guardrails such as automated blocks, controls, approval workflows, and even sub-accounts.
The Account connects directly to your business bank account, making it easy to move funds between the two whenever you need to. But don’t worry, it won’t debit from your bank account automatically, unless you tell it to.
Here's where things get really good for finance teams.
Because all spend flows from one central account, every transaction — every card, every employee, every department — appears in your Pleo dashboard the moment it happens. No month-end surprises.
And your employees no longer have to purchase on their personal cards and wait weeks to be reimbursed.
If you want even more control over where your money goes, sub-accounts* let you allocate funds into dedicated pots for specific teams, projects or expense types.
Say you want to make sure your SaaS subscriptions never go unpaid because general spend ate into the budget. Or you want a separate pot for the marketing team's ad spend. Sub-accounts make it happen — so business-critical payments stay protected, no matter what else is going on.
You can even set sub-accounts to top up automatically using Transfer Rules. More on that below.
*Sub-accounts and Transfer Rules are available as part of the Cash Management add-on.
The Pleo Account is simple enough to top up manually. But why do it manually if you don't need to?
Transfer Rules* let you automate when and how funds move — into your main Pleo Account, into sub-accounts, or between the two. You can schedule weekly or monthly transfers and set a minimum balance threshold, so when your Account dips below it, Pleo automatically pulls the amount you've specified from your linked business bank account.
You’re also able to set up ‘conditions’ to help prevent your linked business bank account(s) from running out of funds. For example:
Once you're set up, you can adjust thresholds and transfer amounts at any time, and pause or cancel whenever you like.
*Sub-accounts and Transfer Rules are available as part of the Cash Management add-on.
Having one central pot of funds doesn't mean giving up control. With Pleo, you’re able to set individual limits for every cardholder: monthly caps, per-transaction limits, or both.
You can freeze cards instantly if something looks off, and with threshold-based approval workflows, you decide exactly which expenses need sign-off. A £30 team lunch doesn't need CFO approval…a £5,000 supplier invoice probably does. You decide where the lines are.
Your employees can see their own limits and available balance in real time through the Pleo app — so everyone knows what they’re working with.
Setting up your Pleo Account takes minutes. Head to the top-up section in your Pleo web app, add your bank details and make your first transfer.
Now your company is set up to spend, and your finance team finally has the visibility they've been waiting for.