Capture Expense partners with Pliant on business cards

Capture Expense has partnered with Pliant to add business expense cards to its platform, bringing card spending and expense management into one system.

The integration lets finance teams issue cards directly through Capture Expense, set spending controls in advance and track transactions in real time. It also moves the process away from employees paying first and filing claims later, a model that often leaves finance teams chasing receipts and explanations after the event.

The move reflects a broader shift in how smaller businesses manage day-to-day spending. About one in five UK small and medium-sized enterprises now use credit cards for routine purchases, according to Capture Expense, suggesting that payment and expense administration are increasingly converging.

How it works

Under the arrangement, customers can issue virtual or physical cards through the platform. Spending rules can be set in advance, transactions are recorded in real time, and records can be matched automatically to purchases. Intended uses include travel, accommodation, software subscriptions and general business spending.

For finance teams, oversight begins at the point of purchase rather than when an employee submits a claim days or weeks later. For staff, it removes the need to fund company spending personally and wait for reimbursement.

The companies are addressing a long-standing back-office pain point. Traditional expense systems often rely on employees to keep receipts, enter details manually, and recall the purpose of spending after the fact, while managers and finance teams review and approve claims in a separate process.

By embedding card use into the expense platform, Capture Expense and Pliant aim to reduce that administrative burden. The model also gives employers more immediate visibility into spending patterns, which can support cash management and internal controls.

Market shift

The partnership links a specialist expense software provider with a European payments company as businesses seek tighter connections between payment tools and accounting workflows. Expense management software has increasingly moved beyond reimbursement processing to include pre-approved spending, mobile capture and direct integration with finance systems.

Capture Expense operates in a market where finance software providers are under pressure to simplify fragmented processes. Many organisations still rely on a mix of corporate cards, manual claim forms and accounting packages, creating gaps between when money is spent and when it is recorded internally.

Its platform already connects with accounting systems including Xero, QuickBooks, Sage and SAP. Adding card issuance expands its role from recording and reconciling expenses to controlling spend before and during transactions.

Pliant provides the payment infrastructure behind the cards. That gives Capture Expense a way to offer embedded payment tools within its software rather than requiring customers to manage a separate card programme outside the platform.

Operational impact

For growing businesses, the appeal of integrated spend management is often operational rather than strategic. Teams that buy software, book travel, or make routine purchases can be given quick access to funds, while finance departments retain limits on where, when and how those cards are used.

This can be especially relevant when spending is spread across remote teams, travelling staff or online subscriptions. In those cases, companies often want the convenience of card payments without losing oversight or creating additional month-end reconciliation work.

Capture Expense said the shift is intended to make expense handling less reliant on retrospective paperwork. Instead of reconstructing a purchase after it happens, the aim is to capture the transaction and its context from the start.

James Rowell, Founder and Managing Director of Capture Expense, outlined the practical problem the partnership is meant to address.

"For a lot of people, expenses still mean paying out of pocket, saving receipts and trying to remember what something was weeks after they've paid for it. It's never been a great experience," Rowell said.

He said adding embedded cards changes the process for both employees and finance staff.

"Our partnership with Pliant allows us to change that by bringing cards directly into the platform. The spend is already captured, the context is there from the start and the whole process becomes far more straightforward for employees and for finance teams," he said.