Properly international: How Proper took control of cross-border currencies

Finance teams are great at handling complexity. If something is clunky, they build a process. If something is manual, they document it. If something is opaque, they reconcile it.

But that doesn’t mean it’s what they want to do.

That’s how the story of Proper, a Danish proptech scale-up operating across Europe, started with Pleo’s Cash Management solution. Nothing had failed and there was no crisis. Currency management just started to feel like an unnecessary relic in an otherwise modern tech stack.

We spoke with Johan Slooten, Proper’s Founder’s Associate, who leads Finance, Reporting and Sales Operations, about how FX moved from irritating background noise to a solved and forgotten problem.

Let’s start with Proper today. What does the company look like, and what’s your role?

Johan: We’re about 15 to 20 people, based in Denmark but working across Europe. So small team with a fairly broad reach.

I’m the Founder’s Associate, which in practice means Finance, Legal, and Operations. And I’m the main Pleo admin, so anything related to cards, payments, or setup usually lands with me.

How does Pleo fit into your wider finance stack?

Johan: We use Visma e-conomic for bookkeeping and accounting, Corpay for invoices, and Pleo for direct payments. Pleo handles the operational spending layer. It sits naturally in the stack.

Before our Cash Management solution, what started to feel inefficient?

Johan: Honestly, it was the FX fees and the fact that they weren’t very visible. They were baked into vendor payments, so you couldn’t easily see what you were actually paying in total. It wasn’t painful enough to cause a crisis. It was just slightly irritating every time.

Now we can see what we’re actually paying. And we don’t have to log into the bank to convert currencies all the time. We just transfer EUR directly into Pleo and spend from there.

Was there a specific moment that made you look for a solution like ours?

Johan: Not really. It was more a gradual realisation that this way of working felt outdated.

We use software from all over the world and that’s the norm for us. So why were we still manually thinking about conversions like it was something special?

What makes cash management structurally complex for you?

Johan: We collect a significant amount of EUR each month. Many of our expenses are in DKK because of where we operate. On top of that, we pay vendors in USD, EUR and DKK.

So revenue and cost bases move in different currencies. That creates friction unless you design around it.

Given you were already using Pleo, what convinced you it was worth adding Cash Management?

Johan: The deciding factor was how frictionless it was to implement. It felt like a natural extension of something we were already using, not a new project to manage.

No new system to roll out, no complex onboarding, no long internal explanation. We switched it on and it worked perfectly from the get-go.

What changed in your day-to-day once it was live?

Johan: We stopped converting currencies in our bank.

Before, we’d log in, move money around, convert, double-check rates. Now we transfer EUR into Pleo and spend directly. It removes one of those small recurring tasks that no one loves doing.

How have multi-currency accounts changed the way you approach foreign payments?

Johan: They’ve mostly removed the mental load around it.

Realistically, you’re not going to avoid a tool because of the vendor’s preferred currency. But before, there was always this small mental note: okay, what’s this going to cost in FX?

Now that thought just isn’t there. We pay. It works. Done. That simplicity is probably the biggest shift.

What have you gained in tangible terms?

Johan: Fewer bank logins, fewer manual conversions, and the clarity we were missing on fees.

But if I’m honest, as I said, the bigger benefit is ease of mind. Currency isn’t something we actively manage anymore. It’s just part of the infrastructure.

It’s hard to put a number on that, but it makes finance feel cleaner.

How has Pleo influenced financial decision-making more broadly?

Johan: Pleo as a whole has influenced how we approach spending and control. For us, cash management improves execution rather than strategy. It makes everything more coherent.

For Proper, implementing Pleo’s Cash Management was the natural next step, making their finance stack match their reality.

Money now moves exactly how Proper does—internationally, digitally, and without friction. FX is clear, and conversions happen automatically.

Instead of wrestling with manual processes, the finance team's attention now sits where it belongs: supporting growth and maintaining total transparency over cross-border costs.

See what Pleo’s Cash Management can do for you.