How Growth Tribe Grows Faster with Spendesk

More control over company spending

Like many modern companies, Growth Tribe wants to enable employees to make smart decisions and perform to their best abilities; that includes how to spend company money.

However, the finance team still needs visibility and control. Prior to using Spendesk, this was a major issue. ‘We wanted to allow our employees to spend without having to micromanage every transaction.’

‘We were using a digital banking app but we didn't have any control. The approval system was not working as we wanted it to, and we didn't have enough data over the transactions. We were missing supporting documentation, like receipts in some cases.’

“We needed a better software that would give us transparency, visibility and control. And that’s exactly what Spendesk gives us, in real time.”

Easy methods to manage subscriptions

“I would say that 80% or more of our spending is online - either one-off purchases or subscriptions.” This is the case for many modern businesses, and the Covid crisis forced them even more to think online-first.

Before using Spendesk, Growth Tribe relied on a digital banking app for all of these purchases. But while the cards let them pay relatively easily, it was almost impossible to track these payments effectively.

“With that banking app, you didn’t have a list of active subscriptions. With Spendesk, you do; which means we have all of our subscriptions in one place. That is a big benefit.”

“We can also manage budgets more easily with Spendesk, and set limits.’’

“As the controller, Spendesk makes my life easier by collecting receipts. We have the majority of subscription receipts on time and digitally, so I can access them easily. I can transfer subscriptions to new employees very easily, without interrupting the users of these tools.”

Quick onboarding for new team members

The crisis also put new pressure on company onboarding practices. As the name suggests, Growth Tribe grew steadily in 2020, and had to find smart tools and processes to welcome staff from home. Georgios himself joined in 2020 - “I’ve only been to the office two times.”

“We’ve increased our employees by 10-15%. And we’ve had a clear objective to make joining the company easy for new hires while gaining more control on the spending process. They can set up the tools they need themselves. And Spendesk is great for that.”

“First, the UX is great. It’s very easy to use and nobody gets confused. While creating a Q&A manual for internal purposes, I just put links to the great onboarding videos Spendesk already offers and a few basic instructions.”

“Employees can make transactions when they need to very easily. You don’t have that awkward thing of sharing credit card details and worrying by sharing sensitive info.”

“It helps a lot with the scaling process too. When you have new hires come in, you can’t have process delays slowing things down. If you’re trying to move fast and build a very active company, Spendesk works very well.”

A faster closing process

Many finance teams dread the annual closing process. It takes valuable time and creates headaches, especially when processes have been designed well. But Georgios’ team has Spendesk to make it smoother.

“The biggest issue for us again is subscriptions. We usually have to do a lot of work for those. But Spendesk helps in a few key ways. First, we have all the documentation we need. We have receipts and can check approvals easily.”

“It’s also very easy to sync with our accounting ERP. We just set the filters we need, download a file, and upload it straight into the ERP. So the reconciliation is very quick.”

“It also really helps us prepare for any future audits. We can identify any transaction, the approval flow, and the receipt really quickly. We know that we have all of those documents prepared; which is a nice feeling.”

Smarter invoice processing

With a relatively small number of invoices for things like rent and legal advice, Growth Tribe doesn’t pay these from their Spendesk wallet. But they can still use the tool to track approvals and give team members an easy invoice experience.

“The benefit of this is the UX, again. It’s very easy for people with no finance knowledge to grab a supplier invoice and upload it to Spendesk. And then it follows the same process as every other purchase. The budget owner reviews and approves it, it’s assigned to the right budget, and the employee can track its progress through the whole way.”

“The most important thing is that they don’t have to learn a whole new flow for invoices. It’s the same, simple process they’ve used before.”