Soldo

Soldo at a Glance

Soldo Overview

Soldo is a London-headquartered spend management platform that separates the two problems most finance teams solve with the same tool: giving employees a payment method and controlling how they spend. The company issues prepaid Mastercard cards, physical and virtual, and layers a ring-fenced multi-wallet architecture on top so each team, project, or subsidiary has its own budget with a hard cap that cannot be overspent.

The platform captures every transaction into a mobile-first expense workflow with OCR receipt scanning, real-time expense visibility, automated approval routing, and direct sync to Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, Netsuite, and SAP. Multi-currency support on higher tiers allows GBP, EUR, USD, and 20+ additional currencies. Physical cards support Apple Pay and Google Pay for contactless spend.

Soldo operates two entities: Soldo Software Ltd provides the platform, and Soldo Financial Services Ireland DAC handles the e-money account and payment services under Central Bank of Ireland regulation, with a UK equivalent under FCA authorization. This regulatory footprint means UK and EU groups get a single card issuer across both jurisdictions after Brexit-driven passporting changes. Business customers span fashion retail, food and beverage, construction, education, and social care sectors.

Capabilities and Named Features

Soldo is built around the ring-fenced wallet: instead of one company account funding every card, each team, project, subsidiary, or expense category gets its own wallet with a hard budget cap. When the wallet balance is spent, cards attached to that wallet stop working. Finance controllers set the budget policy up front, employees spend within their wallet limits, and the reconciliation queue receives every transaction with the receipt already attached via mobile OCR. Approval workflows fire only when the transaction requires review, not on every card swipe.

Named feature list

• Prepaid Mastercard physical cards with contactless, Apple Pay, and Google Pay support
• Virtual Mastercard cards for online purchases and subscription payments with single-use, recurring, and multi-use variants
• Ring-fenced multi-wallet architecture with hard-cap budgets per team, project, subsidiary, or expense category
• Real-time expense capture via mobile app with OCR receipt matching to transactions
• Automated approval workflows with multi-level review, category-based rules, and amount thresholds
• Direct sync to Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, Netsuite, and SAP with pre-coded ledger entries
• Bank transfer capabilities for supplier payments and employee reimbursements alongside card issuance
• Multi-currency support (GBP, EUR, USD, plus 20+ currencies) on Plus and Unlimited tiers
• Multi-entity group configuration with consolidated reporting across UK, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, and other EU markets
• Employee onboarding workflow with role-based access, card assignment, and wallet allocation
• SSO with SAML on Unlimited tier, plus Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace integration
• Real-time balance visibility across all wallets with committed and available budget dashboards
• Instant card freeze and unfreeze from mobile app for lost, misuse, or offboarding scenarios
• PCI DSS and GDPR-compliant data handling with EU data residency options
• Custom expense fields, category tags, and cost-center mapping for detailed general-ledger coding
• Group entity structure for holdings, franchise, and multi-brand retail operations
• Automated VAT recovery workflow for EU multi-country VAT registrations
• Mobile-first UX with 4.7+ App Store rating and offline receipt capture

Pricing and Plans

Soldo publishes three named tiers with monthly pricing in GBP (plus VAT): Standard at GBP 21 per month for basic card issuance and receipt capture; Plus at GBP 33 per month for multiple wallets, OCR automation, reporting, and multi-currency; and Unlimited priced on request for enterprise features including unlimited cards and users, SAML SSO, and dedicated support. The published tiers cover the platform subscription; card transactions, FX markup on multi-currency spend, and international bank transfer fees are separate line items.

The tiered model is unusual for European spend management because most competitors (Spendesk, Payhawk) use fixed-plus-variable or custom-quote pricing. Soldo publishing Standard and Plus fees lets SMB buyers benchmark the entry cost before requesting a demo. The Plus tier is the most-adopted tier for teams with 20 to 100 employees needing multi-wallet budgeting and OCR-driven expense capture.

Buyers should ask the vendor for the exact FX markup percentage on multi-currency card transactions (typically applied per swipe on GBP-issued cards used in EUR or USD merchants), the per-transaction card interchange share (if any is passed through), and the bank transfer fees for supplier payments. Volume discounts on the Unlimited tier are negotiated per contract based on card issuance count, transaction volume, and multi-entity depth.

Pros

• Published Standard and Plus tier pricing lets SMB buyers benchmark the entry cost before demo without a custom quote process
• Ring-fenced multi-wallet architecture prevents accidental overspend because budgets are hard-capped at the wallet level, not warned after the fact
• FCA (UK) plus Central Bank of Ireland (EEA) dual regulation gives UK-plus-EU groups a single card issuer post-Brexit
• Xero, QuickBooks Online, and Sage Intacct native integrations cover the top three UK and Ireland SMB accounting stacks
• Physical Mastercard with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and contactless plus virtual cards for online purchases
• Multi-currency support (GBP, EUR, USD, plus 20+) on Plus and Unlimited tiers works for teams operating across multiple EU markets
• Mobile app rated 4.7+ on iOS and Android with offline receipt capture and real-time balance visibility
• Strong fit for franchise, multi-brand retail, hospitality, and social care groups that need per-location budget control

Cons and Trade-offs

• Unlimited tier requires a sales conversation rather than published pricing, so enterprise buyers need to run a formal RFP process
• Prepaid Mastercard cards do not build a company credit line the way credit cards do (some competitors offer credit-line cards)
• AP invoice automation module is lighter than Spendesk, Payhawk, and Emburse; supplier invoice-heavy teams should evaluate dedicated AP tools
• US market presence is minimal; US-headquartered teams should evaluate Ramp, Brex, or Divvy instead
• Reddit r/UKBusiness threads note FX markup on multi-currency card transactions can accumulate for teams with heavy USD or EUR spend on GBP-issued cards
• SSO with SAML is Unlimited-tier only; SMB buyers on Standard and Plus lack SSO
• Procurement workflow (purchase requests, purchase orders, three-way match) is not a core feature; procurement-first buyers should evaluate Coupa or Precoro
• The wallet-first model requires up-front budget planning; teams used to open credit-line spending need cultural change management during rollout

Soldo vs Alternatives

Who Should Choose Soldo

UK and EU SMB finance teams (5 to 100 employees) wanting FCA-regulated prepaid Mastercard cards, ring-fenced team budgets, and Xero or Sage Intacct sync without custom-quote sales cycles.

Multi-location retail, hospitality, and franchise groups that need per-location budget control with a hard cap so store managers cannot overspend the monthly allocation.

Multi-entity holdings and PE portfolio finance teams operating across UK, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, and other EU markets needing dual FCA plus CBI regulatory coverage.

Construction, professional services, and creative agency finance teams issuing cards for project-based spend with hard project budgets and OCR receipt capture at the moment of purchase.

Education and social care finance teams needing purpose-restricted spending controls (per-service-user, per-classroom, per-program budgets) with real-time visibility for compliance and audit.

Fashion retail, food and beverage, and consumer goods finance teams issuing cards for buyer trips, tradeshow spend, and sample procurement with multi-currency card support.

Named Alternatives to Soldo

• Spendesk. European mid-market with cards plus AP plus procurement on one platform
• Pleo. Nordic-first European SMB with per-user pricing and lightweight approvals
• Payhawk. European mid-market with fastest procurement plus cards plus AP feature velocity
• Ramp. US mid-market with unlimited cards, no software fees, and AI Bill Pay
• Brex. US venture-backed startups with combined banking, cards, and expense
• Revolut Business. Combined business banking, cards, FX, and payments across UK, EU, US
• Airbase. Mid-market spend management with cards, bill pay, and reimbursements
• Expend. UK-focused business expense management with Mastercard cards and Xero sync

Implementation and Deployment

SMB deployments (5 to 30 employees) go live in 1 to 2 weeks after the initial card issuance batch is delivered and the accounting export mapping is confirmed.

Mid-market deployments (30 to 150 employees) commonly run 3 to 6 weeks including multi-wallet configuration, approval workflow modeling, and Xero or Sage Intacct sync validation.

Multi-entity group rollouts run 6 to 12 weeks when the group operates across UK plus Ireland plus 1 to 3 additional EU markets with per-entity approval hierarchies and multi-currency wallet configuration.

Physical Mastercard cards ship in 5 to 10 business days across UK and EU; virtual cards issue instantly. Employees can start spending with virtual cards while waiting for physical delivery.

The wallet-first budget model requires 1 to 2 planning workshops for finance controllers to model per-team, per-project, and per-subsidiary allocation before card assignment begins.

Historical data migration is not required; most customers switch cutover on the first day of a new accounting month with legacy expense claims closed out in the prior system.

What Real Buyers Say About Soldo

A Reddit r/UKBusiness thread from mid-2025 titled 'Soldo vs Pleo for a 40-person creative agency' surfaced the recurring UK buyer trade-off: Soldo wins on the ring-fenced multi-wallet architecture for project-based agencies and on published tiered pricing that lets buyers benchmark before demo; Pleo wins on lightweight per-user UX and Nordic-market presence. Additional context: r/UKBusiness threads on UK spend management short-lists, Soldo on LinkedIn, FCA financial services register.

LinkedIn posts by UK finance controllers highlight that the wallet-first hard-cap model prevents accidental overspend in a way that credit-line cards do not; the payback is faster for franchise, hospitality, and social care operators where per-location budget control is a compliance requirement rather than a preference.

SoftwareAdvice and SelectHub reviews consistently rank Soldo as one of the top three FCA-regulated UK spend management platforms alongside Pleo and Revolut Business, with the strongest positioning in multi-entity groups spanning UK plus Ireland plus mainland EU.

Reddit r/UKPersonalFinance and r/finance threads warn that the FX markup on multi-currency card transactions is a variable cost buyers should model against expected USD, EUR, and non-GBP spend volume, and to compare against Revolut Business FX rates for teams with heavy multi-currency needs.

Vendor references: Soldo published pricing tiers, Soldo business spend management overview, Soldo regulatory and legal entity structure.

The Bottom Line on Soldo

Soldo is the default short-list candidate for UK and EU SMB and mid-market finance teams that want FCA-regulated prepaid Mastercard cards, ring-fenced multi-wallet budgets with hard caps, and Xero, QuickBooks, or Sage Intacct sync at published tiered pricing without custom-quote sales cycles.

Multi-location retail, hospitality, franchise, construction, professional services, education, and social care sectors are the strongest segment fits because per-location or per-project budget control is a compliance requirement rather than a preference. The dual FCA plus Central Bank of Ireland regulation gives UK-plus-EU groups a single card issuer post-Brexit.

Watch the FX markup on multi-currency card transactions closely: for teams with heavy USD or EUR spend on GBP-issued cards, the FX markup can add 1 to 3 percent per transaction and accumulate quickly. Model expected multi-currency spend volume and compare against Revolut Business FX rates before signing.

Alternatives to shortlist alongside Soldo: Spendesk for European mid-market with cards plus AP plus procurement, Pleo for Nordic SMB with per-user pricing, Payhawk for procurement plus AP feature velocity, Ramp for US teams with unlimited cards and no software fees, and Revolut Business for combined banking plus cards plus FX.

Verified on 2026-08-04 against vendor website.