Mastering multi-entity spend management with Pleo and Xero

This article was written in partnership with Mayday.  

Is your fast-growing business struggling to manage spend across multiple entities? Are you drowning in spreadsheets and juggling different systems? 

If so, you're not alone. 

Many multi-entity businesses face significant challenges when it comes to spend management. 

In this 2024 Xero For Groups report, Becky Cawley-Hassall, Finance Director at Saragossa – and an in-house finance leader growing her three-entity group on Xero – identified the following pain points faced by groups when they start to scale.

If your business is encountering any or some of the below pain points, it may be time to move over to spend management software.

Do these challenges sound familiar? 

1. Lack of visibility: Disparate systems across entities often don't communicate effectively, leading to delayed reporting and difficulty obtaining a unified view of spending.
   
   
2. Compliance risks: Varied regulatory requirements and inconsistent policy enforcement can create vulnerabilities.
   
   
3. Inefficient workflows: Multiple approval layers and redundant data entry slow down processes.
   
   
4. Fragmented data: Inconsistent data formats make it a challenge to generate comprehensive, group-wide financial reports.
   
   
5. Cash flow management: Inefficient fund allocation can lead to forecasting challenges and trapped liquidity.

Whatever the driving force, having one clear view of multi-entity spending and one space where you control it is vital. In an era where agility and informed decision-making are paramount, robust spend management isn't just a convenience –it's a competitive necessity. 

Multi-entity spend management

Once you’ve identified it’s time to switch to a spend management software, the next step is to select one. 

A good starting point is to map out your priorities, whether it’s ditching disconnected processes, saving time with automation or visibility across entities using one centralised tool.

For instance, businesses using Pleo have experienced a better overview of how company money is being spent (72%), a more productive company (75%) and over 138 hours saved by admins every year.

Here’s an example of what good multi-entity spend management looks like: 

• Control your finances, not your employees
  Empower your finance team to manage spending through one account, no matter how many entities you have.
  
  
• No more manual work
  Automate spending so your business can run efficiently anywhere, anytime. From digital receipt capture and automatic expense categorisation to VAT reclaim and reconciliation.
  
  
• Automate onboarding and off-boarding at scale
  With HRIS and IdP integrations, you can securely add employees and deactivate them automatically when they leave.
  
  
• Make smarter business decisions
  Unlock real-time insights and analytics on company spending to help you spot ways to save.
  
  
• Create a culture of accountability
  Check top spenders by team and entity, from invoice payments to subscriptions, without changing screens. 

In the Xero For Groups report, Becky Cawley-Hassall, Finance Director at Saragossa, explains:

“The changes in the spend management space have just brought a huge amount of flexibility to businesses like ours, where we have people that are travelling day-to-day across various office sites, buying travel, taking clients out for lunch, managing our software spend. Using a tool like Pleo gives us the opportunity to see all of that in one place. The visibility of it is really crucial to us.”

In today's fast-paced business environment, robust spend management isn't just convenient—it's a competitive necessity. By integrating Xero with advanced spend management tools, multi-entity businesses can overcome common challenges, improve visibility, ensure compliance, and make smarter financial decisions.

For more insight on how you can scale and set up your multi-entity business with Pleo and Xero, download the Xero For Groups Report.