Spendesk vs Pleo vs Mooncard: which spend card suits your French SME in 2026?

You have decided to give your teams payment cards and move away from paper expense claims. Now you have to choose the tool. On paper, Spendesk, Pleo and Mooncard promise the same thing: physical and virtual cards, a photo of the receipt and an export to the accounts. In practice, their pricing models, accounting integrations and VAT handling differ enough to change your total cost and the workload of your chartered accountant (expert-comptable).

Quick answer. Pleo is the only one of the three publishing its prices in September 2026 (from €8 to €18 per user per month depending on the plan), which makes it easy to budget for a very small business or a small team. Spendesk (quote-based, with no per-user or per-card fees) targets SMEs that want approval workflows and a native Pennylane integration. Mooncard (quote-based, 5 seats minimum, €10 per card issued) targets SMEs and groups running Sage, Cegid or EBP.

This article compares products. It does not revisit the underlying choice between a company card and reimbursement, covered in our article on company cards versus expense claims and the end of employee advances, nor the digitisation method, detailed in automating expense claims: process and tools. If you are hesitating between a bank, a business account and a spend platform, read our comparison of Spendesk, Qonto and Memo Bank instead.

The comparison table shows three products that are close in features but far apart in business model and accounting ecosystem. The data below comes from the three vendors' pricing, integration and help pages, consulted at the end of September 2026. It changes often: have every line confirmed in writing in the quote. We have no commercial relationship with these vendors.

The key takeaway from the table: the "integrations" line matters more than the "cards" line, because it determines whether your accountant receives clean entries or a file to rework. Pleo also charges a 2% foreign exchange fee on the Start plan.

The right tool depends less on your headcount than on three parameters: the accounting software used by your accountant, the number of people who spend, and the need for managerial approval. Here are the profiles where each solution makes the strongest case.

Pleo: the small team that wants clear pricing#

Pleo suits a very small business or a startup of 3 to 30 people that wants to start quickly, without negotiation. Beware of the entry-level trap: Start includes neither mileage allowances, nor approval workflows, nor configurable limits, and allows only one administrator. As soon as a manager approves their team's spending, Build becomes the real starting point, with annual billing.

Spendesk: the SME structuring its finance function#

Spendesk makes sense when several dozen employees spend, when you want budgets per department and virtual cards for software subscriptions and online purchases, and when your accounts run on Pennylane or Sage 100. With no per-user fee, it favours organisations where many people spend little; a high transaction volume, however, weighs on the variable part.

Mooncard: the SME or group on traditional accounting software#

Mooncard stands out for the breadth of its connectors to the software installed in accounting firms and mid-sized companies (Sage, Cegid, EBP, Quadratus, Ibiza), for its multi-entity plan and for a fuel card for vehicle fleets. The 5-seat minimum and the €10 issuance fee per card make it less suited to a very small structure.

Where does Qonto fit in?#

Qonto, a payment institution providing a business account, also offers cards and receipt capture. For a very small business whose expenses are few and paid by the partners, this layer built into the business account is often enough: adding a dedicated platform creates one more tool with no real gain. Moving to Spendesk, Pleo or Mooncard makes sense when you need to approve employee spending, manage team budgets or calculate mileage allowances. We explain the accounting side in Qonto and your chartered accountant.

Quick decision#

Our view#

Choose the tool starting from the accounting software, not the card. An elegant card that produces a CSV export to reclassify every month costs more, in fees and internal time, than a higher subscription with a well-configured native sync. Ask your accountant which connector they can work with before the first sales demo.

Yes, VAT on an expense paid by card can be recovered on the basis of the captured document, provided that document is a valid invoice and the expense qualifies for deduction. OCR reads a VAT amount; it does not check whether you are entitled to deduct it. This is the most underestimated limitation of these tools.

Receipt or invoice: what the tax authorities say#

The BOFiP (the French tax authorities' official guidance) states that the right to deduct can only be exercised if the tax appears on an invoice (BOI-TVA-DED-40-10-10, § 30). For small expenses, the authorities allow simplification measures (BOI-TVA-DECLA-30-20-20-20):

• Restaurant bills up to €150 excluding VAT: the restaurant may omit the customer's identity, but deduction is conditional on the customer adding its full identification on the document.
• Motorway toll receipts: the receipt counts as an invoice if it carries the mandatory details and a space reserved for the customer, and deduction is strictly conditional on the user entering its full identification.
• Above €150 excluding VAT, all mandatory invoice details are required, including the identity of the customer company.

The practical consequence: a card terminal slip or a till receipt photographed as is, without the company's name and address, does not secure the deduction. The habit to impose on card holders is simple: ask for an invoice in the company's name, or complete the identification on the restaurant bill or toll receipt before photographing it.

Expenses whose VAT is not deductible, even with a perfect invoice#

Automatic extraction sometimes shows "recoverable VAT" on expenses excluded by law. Two cases come up constantly in expense claims:

• Accommodation for managers and employees: VAT on accommodation expenses incurred for them is excluded from the right to deduct (BOI-TVA-DED-30-30-10). Only accommodation for third parties, such as a client, can qualify, by stating the identity and capacity of the beneficiaries on the invoice.
• Passenger transport: train and plane tickets, taxis and ride-hailing services in principle fall under the exclusion for passenger transport (BOI-TVA-DED-30-30-30), except in specific cases such as a permanent staff transport contract.

Mileage allowances (indemnités kilométriques) carry no VAT: they reimburse the use of a personal vehicle based on an official scale, without an invoice. For the full list of exclusions, see our article on expenses whose VAT is not deductible.

The underestimated risk#

The default settings of some tools suggest deducting VAT as soon as an amount is read on the receipt. If nobody sets up rules by category (hotel, train, taxi: non-deductible VAT), the error repeats on every transaction and builds up over several financial years. In a tax audit, it is an easy adjustment for the inspector to quantify. Have the table of categories and VAT codes validated by your accountant before going live, then review it whenever a new expense category appears.

A digitised receipt can replace the paper original, but only if the digitisation meets the conditions set by the tax authorities. Article L102 B of the Livre des procédures fiscales (LPF, the French tax procedure code) allows documents received on paper to be kept in electronic form and refers to an order of 22 March 2017, codified in article A102 B-2 of the same code, for the rules on digitising paper invoices.

What article A102 B-2 requires#

• An identical reproduction of image and content, including colours where they carry meaning.
• No image processing, and any compression must be lossless.
• A PDF or PDF/A-3 file, secured by a server seal, a digital fingerprint or an electronic signature (a certificate of at least RGS one-star level, or an equivalent device).
• A timestamp on each file, at least from an internal source.
• Organised archiving, subject to internal controls, guaranteeing availability, legibility and integrity throughout the retention period.

The tax retention period is six years from the last transaction recorded (article L102 B LPF), and the French Commercial Code requires accounting supporting documents to be kept for ten years.

Points to watch#

• Automatic cropping and "enhancement": OCR that straightens, adjusts contrast or crops the photo may conflict with the ban on image processing. Ask the vendor how its process complies with article A102 B-2 and get its documentation in writing.
• Destroying originals: do not throw away paper receipts before you have that documentation and your accountant's opinion. Until the process is shown to comply, keep the originals.
• End of contract: check that you can retrieve all timestamped receipts and their metadata if you change tool. Six years of documents locked in with a vendor you have left is a real evidential risk.

Our articles on the evidential value of accounting records and on legally compliant electronic archiving cover these rules in detail.

The spend tool does not produce your FEC (fichier des écritures comptables, the standard audit file of accounting entries): your accounting software generates it from the entries it holds. The useful question is therefore how expenses reach that software, and in what state.

Three levels of integration coexist:

1. Native sync: expenses, receipts, suppliers and analytical axes flow automatically. This is the documented case of Spendesk with Pennylane, where Pennylane retrieves expenses every day.
2. Connector or entry file in the software's format: the tool generates entries according to your chart of accounts, imported into Sage, Cegid, EBP or Quadratus. This is Mooncard's territory and, depending on the product, Spendesk's.
3. Generic CSV export: the accountant reworks the file. Acceptable for low volumes, costly beyond that.

Whatever the level, three settings determine quality: the mapping of categories to expense accounts, the VAT codes per category, and the reconciliation between the platform account (often a dedicated suspense or cash account) and the bank statement that funds it. Our comparison of Pennylane, Sage and Cegid helps position your software.

E-invoicing: a change in the reference document#

Since 1 September 2026, all businesses must be able to receive electronic invoices through an approved platform; the obligation to issue them applies to SMEs and very small businesses from 1 September 2027. For purchases between VAT-registered businesses, the electronic invoice received gradually becomes the reference document, rather than the photo taken by the employee. Ask each vendor how it matches a card transaction with an invoice received through your platform, to avoid duplicates.

The real cost of a solution is the sum of the subscription, card and foreign exchange fees, set-up time, and the accounting time saved or added. The subscription is rarely the item that makes the difference.

Example calculation with Pleo's public prices#

For a team of 10 card holders on the Build plan at €14 per user per month, the subscription comes to 10 × 14 × 12 = €1,680 per year, billed annually. On the Optimise plan at €18, the same scope costs €2,160 per year. The website does not state whether these prices exclude VAT: have it confirmed.

This calculation cannot be transposed to Spendesk and Mooncard, whose pricing is quote-based. To compare them fairly, ask all three vendors for a quote on the same scope:

• number of card holders and of users without a card (approvers, accounting);
• estimated number of monthly transactions;
• modules required: mileage allowances, customised workflows, multi-entity, invoice payment;
• card issuance and replacement fees, foreign exchange fees, top-up fees;
• commitment period, notice and exit terms, including the return of receipts.

In practice#

Add an "accounting time" line to each quote: how many entries will need reclassifying every month? A tool whose export requires an hour of monthly rework by your accountant costs far more over a year than the subscription gap between two plans. A two-month pilot with three or four card holders, followed by a review of the generated entries by your accountant, remains the best way to decide.

The most costly mistakes are made during set-up, not when choosing the tool. In businesses moving to spend cards, the same friction points come up:

• Rolling out before setting the spending policy: without written rules (limits, authorised categories, deadline for submitting receipts), the tool only automates disorder.
• Leaving VAT on automatic for all categories, including hotels and passenger transport.
• Accepting receipts without the company's identification and losing the deduction on restaurant bills and tolls.
• Forgetting managers' spending: cards held by company officers must follow the same justification rules, otherwise the expense may be reclassified as a benefit in kind or disallowed.
• Calculating mileage allowances without checks: the scale, the vehicle's tax horsepower and distances must be verifiable. Our article on mileage allowances in 2026 sets out the rules.

If your business already uses an HR information system, also compare its built-in expense module: our article on Lucca for digitising leave and expense claims explains its logic.

• Pleo is the only one publishing its prices in September 2026: €8, €14 or €18 per user per month, with mileage allowances and approvals from Build.
• Spendesk charges a platform fee and a variable part based on transactions, with no per-user fee, and offers a native Pennylane integration.
• Mooncard is quote-based, with 5 seats minimum, €10 per card issued and many connectors to Sage, Cegid, EBP or Quadratus.
• VAT is only deductible on an invoice; for restaurant bills of €150 excluding VAT or less and for tolls, the company must add its identification on the document.
• VAT on accommodation for employees and managers and on passenger transport remains excluded, whatever the tool.
• A digitised receipt only replaces the original if the process complies with article A102 B-2 LPF: demand the vendor's documentation.
• Choose based on your accountant's software and test the tool in a pilot before rolling it out.