Burger King is one of the world’s most recognisable brands, having served their distinctive meals to customers for more than 50 years.
With 17,000 restaurants serving 11 million people worldwide, it may not be a surprise to learn that the company needs the very best back-office systems to manage the enterprise efficiently. In Germany, Financial Controller René Gotza recognised that the business needed to build in this efficiency by implementing an improved employee expenses system.
In this case study, we’ll look at the challenge René faced and how he totally transformed the expenses process for Burger King Germany.
René Gotza
- Financial Controller, Burger King
“With Rydoo, the finance team spends just 2-4 hours checking expenses. We save around 80% of the time.”
Challenge
At first sight, it may seem that a restaurant chain would not need an expense management system, after all, the majority of its staff work in customer-facing roles within their sites, delivering the food for which the company is so renowned. However, behind the 740 German retail sites is an extensive infrastructure that supports the business, with franchise business leaders, district managers, and other support staff travelling widely throughout the country.
Like many companies that have grown rapidly over the years, Burger King used a manual system in which employees collected their receipts, entered them into a spreadsheet, printed the resulting claim, and sent the whole bundle to the accounts department. With 80 employees regularly submitting expense claims, you can imagine how cumbersome it was to log them all onto the accounting system!
Naturally, along with being a very time-consuming process, there was the ever-present chance of human error: “There was a huge amount of paperwork, and there were so many mistakes, as there was just so much room for error. We knew we needed to improve on that.”
René also noted issues with tax recording and that it took an unreasonable amount of time to verify that each expense claim was within company policy. The business also had problems with employees submitting claims late, which caused frustration with both staff and accounts team members. In response to the issues they were seeing, the CEO instituted a search for a better system, and as a supporter of a truly digital office, René welcomed the idea with open arms.
“The transparency went from zero to 100%. Before Rydoo, when I wanted to check one receipt, I had to go to the folder in the office. Now, I go into the Rydoo app when I’m working from home and just open the receipt.”
René Gotza, Financial Controller
Solution
René realised that any new expense management solution had to tick three major boxes:
- Provide a pre-approval process for booking flights and hotels
- Have an approval workflow in place
- Give management a transparent overview of expenses
René knew that expense management tools like Mobile Expenses and SAP existed, but when he was researching the subject, a simple Google search led him to Rydoo. Rydoo ticked all of René’s major requirements and provided a whole host of other features that would transform the way Burger King Germany manages its process expenses.
René then set about gaining the buy-in from senior staff, including the CEO and CFO, who quickly gave him the backing he needed, and with that, the project was underway.
Implementation
One of the most attractive parts of the Rydoo offer was the support of a dedicated Customer Success Manager, and Connor quickly became part of René’s project team: "Connor supported us and did a really good job, so there was no struggle in terms of implementation. It was more than okay, it was perfect.”
Communication is key to a successful project, and René chose to present the concept at one of the company’s quarterly meetings. Running through the features of the system and the benefits to both the company and employees, René says that “I told them it was the best thing they could do. I wanted them to appreciate and accept Rydoo before they even used it”.
To show their commitment to the project, the CFO joined the Burger King pilot group, which also included staff from other functions, including operations and marketing. The pilot group thoroughly tested all Rydoo’s features, and this gave René the confidence to roll out the solution to the wider company.
René continued communicating with the business throughout the project and sent regular emails explaining upcoming changes, helping people buy into the idea of a new system being in place.
Conclusion
René had decided to wait a few months until people had become accustomed to Rydoo before carrying out a survey to see how they felt about the system. However, what he immediately saw from his own experience in the finance team was remarkable. From a simple time-saving point of view, Rydoo has been transformative.
“Before we used Rydoo, our accountancy team needed 2–3 days to check travel expense bookings because everything was done manually. Now, the finance team spends just 2-4 hours checking those expenses, so we have a time saving of around 80%.”
René Gotza, Financial Controller
But the transformation didn’t stop with saving time. In fact, one of the most valuable benefits was the visibility it gave managers over expenses claims. René himself now has a really clear idea of what company money is spent on and can access the information very easily, either in the office or when working remotely.
Whilst this visibility is useful for finance, it also assists managers and supervisors with control. Indeed, the Rydoo system has helped them ensure that expense claims stay within policy with automatic warnings.
In terms of user acceptance, usability is the key, and in this respect, Rydoo also gets top marks from René:“ Usability for me is very simple because you don’t even need to have an explanation. You just flick through Rydoo, and then you know what you have to do if you want to submit your travel expenses.”
The Burger King Germany experience has been that a modern expense management system can be transformative. With an 80% reduction in finance processing time, a drop in error rate, and a simple, guided implementation process, the project has more than been justified. The benefits of greater control, integrated approval workflow and superb, real-time reporting mean that Rydoo has more than paid back the faith that René and the senior staff had in it.