Key takeaways
- Pennylane is an all-in-one finance and accounting platform used by businesses and their accountants across Europe.
- It connects banks by API, EBICS or aggregation and asks for a receipt (justificatif) on each transaction.
- Analytic axes, such as project, region or team, apply to invoices and transactions from the Essentiel plan.
- For cards from your existing bank, Vergo proposes account and axes, texts for receipts and records entries through Pennylane's API.
Where should you go next?
- Vergo's Pennylane integration
- What expense management software integrates with Pennylane?
- Get started with Vergo
How do you automate expense management in Pennylane, step by step?
- Connect Pennylane. Vergo connects through Pennylane's public API, reads your ledger accounts, and records coded card spend as transactions or journal entries with the receipt attached; reimbursements go in as supplier invoices to the employee.
- Connect your existing cards. Connecting your existing cards involves no card applications, no re-issuing and no banking change.
- Collect receipts by text. Employees handle everything by text message — no app to download, no portal login — and Vergo chases missing receipts itself instead of waiting for a report.
- Code account and axes. For every receipt line, the ledger account and each analytic axis are proposed.
- Record in Pennylane. The transaction arrives justified and categorised, so the accountant has nothing to chase.
What does Pennylane need on each card transaction?
- Justificatif: the receipt or invoice behind the transaction.
- Ledger account: the category your accountant reports on.
- Analytic axes: project, region, team or whatever you defined.
Where does Pennylane stop and automation start?
Pennylane suggests matching receipts by amount and date, and its own company cards attach a photographed receipt to the transaction automatically. Many companies still pay on cards from their main bank, where each missing justificatif is a reminder in someone's inbox. Vergo reads the receipt itself, line by line, and predicts the coding from what was actually bought — the ledger account and analytic axes — not just the vendor name on the header.
A practical example
A Paris agency on Pennylane tracks work by client project. An account manager pays for a photo studio and props on the company's bank card. A text brings in the receipt, and Vergo suggests production costs on the client's project axis for the studio and small equipment on the same project for the props. The finance lead confirms, and both lines arrive in Pennylane justified.
How Vergo handles this
Vergo proposes the coding by inference from your own accounting structure and history — no rule library to build, no keyword lists to maintain, and new vendors are coded on first sight. In Pennylane, that includes the analytic axes your team applied, so a client project is proposed without a mapping table. Approval workflows are optional and fit how you already control spend: route by GL account or by amount — or skip approval flows entirely and let policy flags catch only what breaks a rule.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do we need Pennylane cards to use Vergo?
No. Any bank's cards will do.
Can Vergo code analytic axes?
Yes. Vergo suggests each axis value from how similar spend was coded.
Does Vergo replace Pennylane expense reports?
Card spend comes first for Vergo, and it can also record reimbursements as supplier invoices to the employee. You can keep Pennylane's notes de frais if they suit you.
Does Vergo work with our accountant?
Yes. Entries arrive in Pennylane coded and justified, where your accountant already works.
Do we need new cards?
No. Connecting your existing cards involves no card applications, no re-issuing and no banking change.
