Spend Management Software UK 2026: Pleo, Soldo, Spendesk, Payhawk Compared

Spend management software addresses a gap that traditional AP and expense systems leave open: the period between an employee committing company funds and the finance team seeing the transaction. A corporate card statement arrives weeks after the spend; an expense claim arrives whenever the employee gets around to submitting it. In both cases, the finance team has no visibility of the liability until after it is incurred. Modern spend management platforms close this gap by issuing virtual or physical prepaid cards with pre-set limits and category controls, capturing receipts at the point of spend via a mobile app, and routing the transaction through an approval workflow before posting to the accounting system. The VAT receipt requirement under HMRC rules means that every business expense claim must be supported by a valid receipt - spend management software that captures receipts photographically at the point of purchase and validates the VAT fields automatically reduces the risk of disallowed input tax claims at year-end.

VAT Receipt Capture and Input Tax Recovery

HMRC's input tax recovery rules require that a VAT-registered business holds a valid VAT receipt or invoice for every input tax claim. VAT Notice 700 sets out what a valid VAT receipt must contain: the supplier's name and VAT registration number, the date of supply, a description of the goods or services, and the VAT amount. For retail purchases below £250, a simplified VAT receipt showing the VAT-inclusive price and the VAT rate is sufficient; above £250, a full VAT invoice is required.

Spend management platforms that use OCR to capture receipt data at the point of photograph automatically extract and validate these fields. Pleo, Spendesk, and Payhawk all offer receipt scanning via their mobile apps, with the extracted data matched against the card transaction and flagged to the cardholder if a receipt is missing or the VAT fields are incomplete. This automated receipt management materially reduces the input tax claims disallowed at year-end because receipts were lost or never captured - a common finding in HMRC VAT compliance visits to businesses relying on manual expense systems.

Under Making Tax Digital for VAT, the digital link between expense transaction and VAT return must be unbroken. A spend management platform that integrates with Xero, QuickBooks, or Sage and posts expense transactions with VAT coding automatically satisfies this requirement. Platforms that require manual export and re-import of expense data into the accounting system create a gap in the digital link that technically breaches MTD requirements, though HMRC's compliance focus to date has been on larger and more systematic breaches rather than individual expense items.

Pre-Spend Controls: Budget Limits and Category Restrictions

The defining feature of spend management platforms over traditional corporate cards is pre-spend control rather than post-spend reconciliation. Finance teams can issue virtual cards with a specific spending limit, a defined merchant category code (MCC) restriction, and an expiry date tied to the project or purchase occasion. An employee issued a virtual card for a specific supplier visit cannot spend beyond the approved limit or at a category outside the permitted MCCs - the transaction is simply declined at the point of purchase.

Soldo's platform is particularly strong on pre-spend budget allocation: budgets are created for teams, projects, or individuals, with cards issued against specific budget lines and real-time spend tracking visible to budget holders and finance administrators simultaneously. Payhawk combines card issuance with invoice management, allowing the finance team to manage both card spend and supplier invoice payments within a single platform - an integrated approach that reduces the number of systems in the finance stack. Spendesk targets mid-market businesses with a procurement request workflow upstream of card issuance, requiring spend to be approved before a virtual card is generated, rather than after the fact.

Platform Comparison: UK Spend Management Software

FCA Authorisation and FSCS Protection for Spend Platforms

Spend management platforms that issue payment cards and hold client funds are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Pleo, Soldo, and Spendesk operate as e-money institutions (EMIs) under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011, which require them to safeguard client funds by holding them in segregated accounts at an FCA-authorised credit institution. The FCA register allows businesses to verify the authorisation status of any EMI before loading funds onto a platform.

It is important to note that funds held on an EMI platform are not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which covers deposits at authorised banks up to £85,000 per eligible depositor. EMI safeguarding requires funds to be ringfenced but does not guarantee FSCS-backed compensation if the EMI fails. Businesses holding significant balances on spend management platforms should check the platform's safeguarding arrangements - which FCA-authorised bank holds the segregated funds and what the insolvency protection mechanism is - before committing large working capital balances to the platform.

Mileage, Subsistence, and HMRC Approved Rates

Spend management platforms that handle employee expense claims must correctly apply HMRC's approved mileage allowance payment (AMAP) rates and subsistence benchmarks. HMRC's AMAP rates allow employers to pay employees 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year and 25p per mile thereafter, without the employee incurring an income tax liability. Payments above AMAP rates are taxable benefit-in-kind; payments below AMAP rates allow the employee to claim mileage allowance relief through Self Assessment. Spend management software that calculates mileage claims against HMRC's current rates and flags any excess automatically reduces the risk of inadvertent benefit-in-kind liabilities.

FAQ

Are prepaid business cards covered by FSCS protection?

No. Prepaid cards issued by e-money institutions are not covered by the FSCS, which applies only to deposits held at FCA-authorised banks and building societies. EMI platforms are required to safeguard client funds in segregated accounts at authorised credit institutions, but if the EMI itself becomes insolvent, recovery depends on the insolvency process rather than an automatic FSCS guarantee. Businesses should check the FCA register to confirm the authorisation status and safeguarding arrangements of any spend management platform.

Can employees use Pleo or Soldo cards for personal expenses?

Spend management cards are issued for business use only. Employees who use a company-issued prepaid or corporate card for personal expenditure create a taxable benefit-in-kind unless the personal spend is repaid to the employer promptly. Spend management platforms with MCC restrictions can prevent personal spend categories (supermarkets, restaurants outside business travel) from being authorised on cards designated for specific business purposes. Any personal spend that passes through should be identified at the reconciliation stage and treated accordingly for payroll and P11D purposes.

What receipts are required for VAT recovery on business expenses?

For purchases below £250 (VAT-inclusive), a simplified VAT receipt showing the supplier's name, date, description, VAT-inclusive total, and VAT rate is sufficient to support input tax recovery. For purchases above £250, a full VAT invoice showing the supplier's VAT registration number and the VAT amount separately is required. Cash purchases without a receipt cannot support an input tax claim regardless of amount; spend management platforms that require receipt upload before a transaction is reconciled enforce this control automatically.

How do spend management platforms handle foreign currency transactions?

Most spend management platforms settle foreign currency card transactions at the prevailing interbank or near-interbank rate, without the retail FX margins charged by traditional bank corporate cards. The accounting integration posts the GBP equivalent of each foreign currency transaction using the settlement rate, with the FX conversion rate recorded in the transaction detail. For VAT purposes, HMRC accepts the GBP equivalent at the date of supply for input tax recovery on foreign currency invoices; the spend platform's FX conversion rate is generally an acceptable basis for this calculation.

Is spend management software the same as an expense management tool?

Expense management tools focus primarily on employee expense claims submitted after the spend has occurred - receipts uploaded, claims approved, reimbursements processed. Spend management platforms extend upstream to control spend before it happens, via card issuance with pre-set limits, budget allocation, and procurement approval workflows. The best spend management platforms incorporate expense management as one component alongside card management, invoice processing, and real-time budget tracking - making them a broader financial control tool than standalone expense software.

How We Verified

This article draws on HMRC's VAT Notice 700, HMRC's approved mileage allowance payment guidance, HMRC's MTD for VAT documentation, the Electronic Money Regulations 2011, and the FCA register. Vendor capability claims reflect publicly available product information from Pleo, Soldo, Spendesk, Payhawk, and Capital on Tap as of May 2026. No vendor has paid for inclusion or editorial placement.

Sources

• VAT Guide Notice 700 - HMRC
• Mileage allowance payments - HMRC
• FCA Financial Services Register
• Electronic Money Regulations 2011 - legislation.gov.uk
• Making Tax Digital for VAT - HMRC