Why Launch Expense System During a Lockdown?
Why does a FTSE250 choose lockdown to roll out a new expenses system? Nick Haigh, Director of Financial Process & Transactions from Marshalls explains why.
Marshalls Plc are the UK’s leading manufacturer of stone and concrete hard landscaping products, Marshalls plc has been helping to create beautiful and practical outdoor spaces for the past 120 years. As a FTSE 250 company with 2,500 employees, they have set the benchmark for the quality of products and the standard of customer service.
Nick explained that “We had a paper expense process, which required either a wet signature or email approval. Our main challenges were the speed of the process end to end, a lack of visibility of the claim after submission, and no reporting capabilities.”
Nick started talking to the Sales team at Webexpenses at the start of October about some new updates which had been made to the system, and the steps needed to introduce a solution to the Marshalls Group.
Andrew May, Webexpenses Sales Director, revealed that “Our team had been talking to some of the team at Marshalls previously about their process and how we could help. At the time, there hadn’t been the right time for Marshalls to start this project, so it was good to start speaking with Nick and understand the challenges lockdown was having on some of their processes”.
"Having a digital process has reduced the number of queries the finance team receives because of the increased visibility claimants have. It also provides finance with an electronic repository of all the claims."
The impact COVID-19 has had on businesses around the world has been significant. Many businesses we are speaking to are seeing the strain of manual, paper-based processes as a result of more employees being remotely based and choosing now as the primary time to review processes.
Nick highlighted that “Given that our teams were working remotely, there was an immediate requirement to have a process that was fit for purpose. Having a digital process has reduced the number of queries the finance team receives because of the increased visibility claimants have. It also provides finance with an electronic repository of all the claims. With Webexpenses, the claimant has full visibility of the whole process, and we have also been able to make a marked improvement in the time to pay back claims.”
For most businesses, the recovery after lockdown is key and the introduction of Webexpenses was seen as an important tool to help Marshalls prepare for the year ahead due to the way it can flex due to the demand of the business. Nick Added “Marshalls selected Webexpenses over other solutions because it offered the best option, both from a user, back office and IT point of view. The Sales Process and implementation team matched the system for quality and delivery. For anyone unsure if now is the right time, don’t hesitate, the process to implement was straightforward and Webexpenses has become BAU within a couple of weeks.”