How cashback works

Cashback is a great option for our customers who have a lot of ongoing costs (travel, raw materials, subscriptions, etc.).

This article explains:

• What is cashback?

• What cashback looks like in the Pleo app

• How to sign up for cashback

• How to bookkeep cashback

What is cashback?

• With cashback, your company receives a percentage of the money spent with Pleo cards.

• Cashback is 0.5%-0.75%, depending on your Pleo plan, with the limit being the price of your subscription. For example, if you are on an annual plan paying the monthly equivalent of £39 per month for the Essential plan, the monthly cashback limit is £39.

• Cashback is calculated once per month based on settled card payments. Any pending transactions move to the next month's calculations.

• Cashback does not include funds spent on Invoices, reimbursements, or similar.

• The cashback amount is provided by Pleo Financial Services and not Pleo Technologies (the company you receive your Pleo subscription invoice from). Because financial services are not subject to VAT, there's no associated tax.

What cashback looks like in the Pleo app

• Cashback appears on your Wallet and Expenses pages once per month. For example, cashback for settled Pleo card expenses from January will be paid out within the first five business days of February. This is assuming that your billing period is from the start to the end of a given month.

• Cashback looks the same as a refund. How will you tell the difference? The former will have a cashback-specific receipt. Pleo automatically generates and attaches the receipt.

• The cashback line will be connected to the admin who is your billing contact. The reason is that every expense in Pleo (even positive ones like cashback) needs to have an owner assigned so that exporting works.
  
  

How to sign up for cashback

Cashback is for you if your Pleo account is on a long-term (e.g., yearly) Essential or Advanced plan.

You won't find a sign-up button for cashback in the Pleo app. Instead, talk to your account manager about having cashback added to your Pleo plan.

Don't know who your account manager is? Get in touch at sales@pleo.io or contact our support team.

How to bookkeep cashback

Disclaimer: This is not financial or legal advice. Please consult with your accountant/trusted advisor when deciding on how to bookkeep cashback. Rules and regulations might vary between countries.

Some customers have asked whether cashback can be considered an "income interest" or "other revenue". Generally speaking, cashback is more like a rebate/discount than income. The reasoning is that cashback is a percentage of what you spend and is capped at the amount of your Pleo subscription fee. It's similar to what the UK government describes in example three in this article. With this in mind, some customers have chosen to post cashback to the same account used for Pleo subscription fees.

That said, please see the disclaimer above. There might be some instances where your accountant/trusted advisor prefers to bookkeep cashback as income.