Automatically freeze cards when receipts are missing

Automatically freeze employee cards when receipts are missing, so your team stays compliant and you can close your books on time without manual follow-up.

How Automatic Card Freeze works

Automatic Card Freeze (also called Receipt Card Limitations) is a company-level policy that restricts an employee’s card usage when they have too many missing receipts for too long. It’s based on two rules:

• Missing receipt threshold (X): how many expenses can be missing a receipt at the same time (for example, 3)
• Grace period (Y): how many days the employee has to upload receipts before their card(s) are frozen (for example, 3 days)

What happens when the threshold is reached

1. When an employee reaches X or more missing receipts, the grace period starts (Y days)
2. During the grace period, the employee can still spend, and they’ll get reminders to upload receipts
3. If the employee is still above the threshold when the grace period ends, their card(s) are frozen automatically
4. As soon as the employee uploads enough receipts to drop below the threshold, their card(s) are automatically unfrozen

Defaults, customisation, and overrides

By default:

• Threshold: 3 missing receipts
• Grace period: 3 days (minimum grace period)

To change these settings (or set exceptions), contact Pleo Support or your Pleo Customer Success Manager. They can:

• Adjust your company-wide threshold and grace period
• Set employee-specific overrides (for example, a custom threshold or extended grace period)
• Exempt specific employees from Automatic Card Freeze

Which cards are affected

• Affected: employee physical and virtual cards
• Not affected: vendor cards

Notifications employees receive

Employees receive:

• Mobile push notifications before the freeze (for example, 48 hours and 24 hours before)
• An in-app callout linking to their missing receipts

Troubleshooting

I’m an Admin. Why do I get an error when trying to unfreeze the card?

Admins can’t manually unfreeze cards that were frozen by Automatic Card Freeze. To lift the freeze, the employee must add enough receipts to go below the threshold (or you can request an override via Support/your CSM).

Do past expenses count toward the threshold?

No. Counting starts when Automatic Card Freeze is enabled for your company. Expenses made before enablement don’t count.

Do exported expenses without receipts count?

No. Exported expenses that are missing receipts aren’t counted toward the Automatic Card Freeze threshold.