Customer story — Wingstop
How Wingstop scaled to 100 locations while cutting expense review time by 70%
The challenge
Wingstop's UK franchise operation is on a growth trajectory most businesses dream of. In just two years, they'd expanded from 40 locations to nearly 100—adding stores from London all the way to the north of the UK, and bringing on thousands of new employees.
The finance processes that worked for a smaller business couldn't keep up. Reimbursements slowed teams down, receipts went missing, and finance spent too much time chasing information instead of analysing it.
Some of the biggest challenges included:
Slow reimbursements
Employees often waited up to a month to be repaid through payroll, creating unnecessary friction and poor cash flow for staff.
Not enough cards across the org
Only senior staff had cards, which meant junior team members and site managers had limited access to the funds they needed.
Receipt tracking nightmare
Receipt capture sat below 50%, turning month-end into a time-consuming hunt through inboxes and paperwork.
Manual overhead
Finance was spending hours manually trawling through emails and documents, looking for what had been spent and why.
The solution
Wingstop didn't wait until growth became a problem. They introduced Pleo while operating around 40 locations, laying the foundation for what came next.
As the business expanded to almost 100 locations, Pleo scaled with it, making it easy to roll out cards, automate expenses, and keep spend visible across the organisation.
“The thing that makes Pleo stand out is how clean it is, how well it integrates into our system, and how easy it is to order a new card, use it, and set it up. It ticks all of our boxes.”
— Suraj Mehta, Financial Controller
The results
Today, more than 350 employees use Pleo across the business, giving teams the freedom to spend while giving finance complete visibility.
Most importantly, finance spends less time processing expenses and more time on the strategy that keeps moving the business forward.
≈70% less time spent on reviewing expenses
Reviewing spend now takes a fraction of the time, with transactions, receipts, and context all in one place.
95% receipt capture
Receipt collection increased from below 50% to around 95%, making month-end faster and far less stressful.
Clearer financial reporting
Tagged spend and better categorisation make it easy to track pre-opening costs, monitor budgets, and report with confidence.
More time for strategic work
With less time spent on admin, finance focuses on forecasting, analysing spend, and supporting Wingstop's continued expansion.
Real-time cash visibility
Predictable top-ups and real-time data make cash flow easier to manage and forecast.
A tool people actually enjoy using
Teams across the business adopted Pleo quickly thanks to its intuitive interface, making onboarding and day-to-day spending refreshingly simple.
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