Choosing a cost-effective and efficient expense management tool

Delivering value to more than 5 million collaboration seats across more than 50 countries, Unify Square has around 200 employees based in 9 countries and traveling around the world. Between 130-150 employees submit expenses and about 80 employees are actively using Rydoo.

Paula Tica, the former Accounting Associate, shared with us the process of implementing Rydoo across the company. She was in charge of making sure every current and new employee understood how to use the new expense management software.

Before Rydoo, Unify Square was not using a solution, instead, they were using SAP’s expense reimbursement module. In 2018, Tica decided to look for a ‘’platform that would better suit a company of our size.’’

What kind of expenses do employees have at Unify Square? In Paula’s words: ‘’The majority of expenses that our employees incur is from customer-related meetings and projects. Our Sales and Consulting employees travel for customers and prospective customers so they submit trip-related expenses (examples: flight, hotel, transportation, meals). Employees in other departments travel between branches and subsidiaries or have one-off type expenses (examples: office related, training, department lunches).’’

Before choosing a solution, Paula did a Google search and reviewed the results. ‘’Rydoo was one of the platforms that caught our attention.’’ She had a clear vision of their requirements for a new tool so she looked for a platform that checked off the following boxes:

1. “Cost-effective – not all of our employees submit expenses on a regular basis but we still want to make sure that all employees have access to the platform; we wanted a cost model that would reflect this.
2. Efficient – we needed an expense management solution that would help save time not only when submitting expenses but also when reviewing and processing expenses for reimbursement.

3. Comply with different regulations of European states – we needed an expense management solution that had the ability to integrate European per diem rates and other policies.’’

After their research, they narrowed it down to three companies and set up demos. ‘’Rydoo checked off all the boxes so we knew it would be the right choice for our company.’’

In terms of local compliance in Europe, ‘’we needed to be sure that the expense management solution met the expense reimbursement requirements of our European locations. Rydoo helped us meet these requirements by providing the proper modules and settings to enable our company to meet the European reimbursement requirements (Per Diems, Mileage Rates, and Tax rates).

It was also very important for Unify Square to have an expense management solution that would comply with US tax regulations. We follow government set Per Diem rates, mileage rates, and VAT across our global locations so we made sure that the expense management solution allowed us to import these expense rules.’’

According to Paula, ‘’Rydoo’s implementation was fairly easy and only took several weeks to complete.’’ From the Unify Square side, I was the main person involved in the implementation but I had support from my global Finance team. Xavier is the Rydoo expert who made sure our implementation went smoothly.’’ 

Implementing new software is a great opportunity to set a new philosophy around expense management in your company: One that teaches employees the benefits of innovation and how news technologies help improve internal processes and life at work.

‘’Besides the hiccups that naturally come with any new software implementation, we didn’t face any big struggles. What helped us most was planning our implementation in phases and having the support from Rydoo every step of the way. We’ve always received support in a timely fashion. The Rydoo Help Center is also a great tool that we have utilized to find quick answers.’’

When asked about the main benefits after implementing Rydoo, Paula highlighted the fact that employee satisfaction has increased. Sometimes, it’s not just about saving time or money but investing in your teams’ happiness. 

‘’Rydoo makes it easier for our employees to submit mileage expenses. Employees can quickly enter their start and end locations and the software calculates the appropriate reimbursement amount by using the mileage rates that we set up in the Admin tab.’’

In terms of the tool’s adoption, the feedback has been really positive from both new employees and the current ones:  ‘’Rydoo’s UI allows for a fast adoption rate among new employees and, regarding current employees, they like the fact that they can submit really fast expenses via the Rydoo app and have visibility of the status of their expenses.’’

Furthermore, feedback from the Finance team has been also positive. ‘’Rydoo has helped us save time when it comes to reviewing and processing expenses. It is helpful that Rydoo flags duplicate submissions and that we can look up expenses using many different filters. The Finance team has been able to save time when processing expenses for reimbursement. 

Apart from the above, one of the unexpected benefits Unify Square has experienced is that ‘’the Excel reports have given us the ability to upload batches of expenses into our ERP system, which is something that we were not able to do in the past.’’ 

A smooth expense management process for your employees is an important step for companies that really aim to increase their employees’ happiness and productivity. Making your employees’ life at work easier can only have positive effects on your company’s results.