Pleo: The smart spending solution for modern utility companies

It’s hard to imagine just how much work goes into making sure our homes are heated, there’s water in our taps and there’s electricity running through our wires. 

But just like any other industry, we know utilities have to deal with mundane, and often frustrating, tasks: one of these being expenses. Since utility companies often employ hundreds of people and rely on engineers working remotely, it’s a daunting job having to manage expenses.

That’s where Pleo’s spending solution comes into its own – simplifying all of your business expenses, offering a real-time overview of where your money is going and ensuring your team isn't left out-of-pocket. Oh, and no more mountains of paperwork for your finance team to sort out.

How does Pleo work for utilities? 

We issue smart credit cards to companies, with the managing director or finance team deciding who gets a card on the team, and what the individual spending limits should be.

When someone on your team uses their card — be that an engineer or someone at HQ — as a Pleo admin, you’ll receive a notification in real-time detailing what they bought and how much for. Your team member who made the purchase is prompted to snap a picture of the receipt, meaning you can wave goodbye to paperwork. 

With Pleo, you have full oversight of what’s been spent, so you’re always in control of spending. If something doesn’t look right, you can freeze a card with just the tap of a button. 

You can rely on Pleo to pay for all the things in the background that keep your company running smoothly, whether that’s software tools or travel and accommodation costs. And we integrate seamlessly with the accounting software used by your bookkeepers or internal finance teams.

Managing out-of-pocket spend

When you send engineers out on a job, it’s likely they’re going to make a few work-related purchases. Maybe they need accommodation and food allowance, they might also need travel and fuel costs — and the longer the trip, the higher the expenses. 

Whatever these expenses are, your team shouldn’t be paying out-of-pocket and waiting for their next payday just to get back what they’re owed.

That’s why we launched Pleo Pocket, and it’s just as handy as it sounds. This feature helps you keep track of money owed between your team and the company — whether that’s money paid out-of-pocket, reimbursements or tracking mileage. 

Calculating your teams’ mileage 

With Pleo Mileage, we do the calculations for you. This is good news for your team on the road who don’t need to worry about recording every mile. Your finance team can also rest assured knowing they’re getting accurate data, instead of odometer estimations. 

As a Pleo admin, our Mileage feature lets you track how much is owed to people on your team who are travelling for work — whether they’re engineers on a remote project, staff visiting the HQ office or meeting a client, they shouldn’t have to chase for fuel reimbursements. 

If something doesn’t look quite right, the travel date, distance and rate can be edited if needs be. 

Keeping track of all your IT spend

The utilities industry has completely shifted from what it was 10-years ago. It’s never been more reliant on technology, and managing all this software quickly becomes hard work.

With Pleo’s real-time overview your HQ team can stay in control of what software they’re subscribed to: from your customer service tool to your online payment service to your admin management tools. 

Unifying all this spend means everything is categorised and accounted for. And the best part? Pleo seamlessly integrates with your accounting software — freeing up your finance team’s time. 

Our insight and analytics means you can track data to give you a better idea of future spending forecasts for months ahead. And maybe most importantly, you can spot opportunities to save money. 

No more chasing lost receipts

So your engineers are frequently working away — but how easy is it to track down each and every receipt?

Not only does this laborious process leave your team out-of-pocket, it’s your finance team dealing with the aftermath.

All these returned, crinkled receipts take the same time to file — whether it’s a 7-night stay in a hotel or a cheap breakfast. In fact, a GBTA study found that 20% of expense reports contain mistakes. And the worst part? It takes an extra 18 minutes to correct every single report. 

And it’s not just your finance team doing twice the work. It’s often down to department leads to chase engineers for receipts. Surely they have more important work to be doing? 

In our recent survey, we found that Pleo admins save 11.5 hours per month doing expenses — that’s a whole day-and-a-half freed up to focus on the more important things.

Get in control of your expenses instantly, and safely 

We get it, it’s a pretty daunting job rethinking how your whole company deals with expenses. But it doesn’t have to be…

Signing up to Pleo is painless. In fact, right after verifying your business, your HQ team can start managing their expenses straight away with our virtual cards — these handy cards are a great spending solution for all your online purchases and recurring subscriptions. 

And our cards aren’t just convenient, they provide an extra layer of security compared to traditional corporate cards since you can freeze them at any time, reducing the risk of fraud. According to UK Finance, in 2019 fraud losses on UK-issued cards totalled £620.6 million — proving it pays to safely manage company money. 

We partner with top-tier institutions like JP Morgan, Danske Bank and Mastercard. While security is our top priority, our partners also ensure we live up to the high standards we set ourselves with regular checks — all this combined probably explains why 99% of users feel secure paying with Pleo.

As the utilities industry continues to evolve with its adoption of technology tools and its long-term focus on sustainability, why not evolve the way you deal with expenses? Because are you really happy chasing scraps of paper from your engineers at the end of the month?

Why not book your demo today?