How Tippmann saved 40 man hours per week with Rydoo

With more than 50 years of experience in construction, the Tippmann Group's impact can be seen all across the country. Such success also means travels are an intrinsic part of the work life of Tippmann employees.

Handling the expenses of all travellers and for all projects manually was becoming a burden on the company. The field teams were spending too much time filing expenses that the finance team had to review manually. Matthew Streicher, Tippmann’s Director of Project Development, decided to take the matter into his hands and change things.

– What made you want to change your expense process?

For the last 4 years, we‘ve been talking about getting an expense management platform. But the past year, it got really critical. The time spent on expense management was getting out of hand.

My personal example: I used to spend 1 to 2 hours every week doing expense reports. On the finance side, the team would need to spend 4 to 6 hours every Tuesday manually reviewing all submitted expenses and processing reimbursements. It was not very efficient, and I was convinced there was a better way to do this and improve it.

– How many expenses are processed every week?

We reached a point where each employee had 6 to 10 reports per week. In one day spent on the job site, I, personally, would have 5 to 10 receipts.

We also needed to create an expense report for every project. With 40 people constantly travelling, the field teams and finance team were losing more than 50 hours a week combined on expenses. It was a waste of time and not a solution for the long run.

– Why did you choose Rydoo?

We looked at several platforms and tried a few of them. With Rydoo, we were able to test drive all the features. I’ve put together a small project team for the trial period, and everyone loved it. We then decided to build a case with the Rydoo team and presented it to management.

Also, the risk was low. If the platform didn’t work for everyone after implementation, we could always go back to Excel at the end of the year.

– Did you feel Rydoo’s impact immediately?

Definitely! I can easily say that it saved the company over 40 hours / per week. That’s one resource!  And it has eliminated at least 2 manual processes. We now have automated processes that have reduced the number of errors in submitted expenses and allow the finance team to control and run reimbursement reports in 1 hour instead of a full day.

Historically, 90% of the finance role in expense reports involved checking reports against receipts for 40 people working on 10 different projects, at least reviewing 1,000 transactions every week, which amounts to 6-8 hours of work each week.

Personally, I can now do my expenses as soon as they occur, whether I am checking out at a restaurant or getting gas at the station, just take a picture, and it’s over. The time I spend at my desk for expenses doesn’t exceed 10 min, compared to 1 to 2 hours before.

– What did your colleagues think about Rydoo?

95% of the group adopted it immediately, and we received great feedback from those who reached out. You always have reluctant people, but it’s mostly because they are not using the platform correctly.

Rydoo pushes you to manage your expenses in real time. Keeping the habit of storing receipts and only scanning them when the deadline approaches is not ideal.

It’s better for us as we can instantly get rid of the receipts, and for the finance team, they have a lot more visibility on expenses’ spending.

From a technology standpoint, it shows we are state-of-the-art, and it helps us sell to the younger generation to come work for us.