How a US-Based Professional Services Firm Eliminated $1.9M in Uncontrolled Spend After Switching to ExpenseAnywhere
A Chicago-headquartered management consulting firm serving Fortune 500 clients across strategy, operations, digital transformation, and M&A advisory comprises over 2,500 consultants, analysts, and engagement managers operating out of 18 countries – many of whom bill more than 200 travel days per year – making its travel and expense operations both high-volume and high-stakes.
For four years, the firm relied on one of the market’s most well-known travel expense management platforms as its primary travel and expense management software. Despite significant investment in implementation and customization, the platform consistently failed to meet the company’s needs. Support response times averaged 8-11 business days. The mobile receipt capture function had a documented 23% failure rate on iOS devices. Multi-entity reporting across the firm’s UK, Singapore, and Brazilian subsidiaries required manual workarounds that consumed an estimated 140 finance-hours per month. Integration with the firm’s Workday HRIS system was unreliable, producing duplicate employee records that required manual cleanup.
In mid-2023, following an internal finance transformation audit that surfaced $1.9M in uncontrolled or misclassified spend, the firm’s leadership team made the strategic decision to replace that popular enterprise solution entirely. After a formal evaluation process involving demonstrations from five leading travel and expense software vendors, the firm selected ExpenseAnywhere®, including the ExpenseAnywhere Reloadable Prepaid Card solution, as its new unified platform.
Why They Chose Us
The decision to switch from one of the market’s most well-known travel expense management platforms was not made lightly. The firm’s CFO commissioned a comprehensive review that documented the following persistent, unresolved issues with their existing provider:
The total estimated annual cost of these failures, including staff time, error correction, write-offs, and reimbursement delays, was quantified by the internal audit at $1.9 million.
Our Solution
The firm implemented ExpenseAnywhere®’s integrated business travel and expense management platform alongside ExpenseAnywhere Reloadable Prepaid Cards, deployed across all 2,700+ employees globally within 7 weeks from contract signature.
Core capabilities included:
Business Impact
Twelve months after go-live, the firm’s internal finance team conducted a formal post-implementation review. The results exceeded projections across every metric:
$1.9 million
eliminated
In uncontrolled or misclassified spend annually
98.7%
improvement
In mobile receipt capture success rate from 23% failure to 0.3% failure
79%
reduction
In average reimbursement cycle from 19 days to 4 days
Virtually 100% reduction
In out-of-pocket employee expenses through prepaid debit card deployment
162 hours saved monthly
In finance team effort related to HRIS reconciliation and error correction
34% improvement
In client billing accuracy due to engagement-coded prepaid cards
+62 point increase
In employee Net Promoter Score for the T&E process from +12 to +74
Over 95%
faster
In platform support resolution time from 8–11 days to under 4 hours
$380,000 saved annually
In platform Total Cost of Ownership compared to prior contracts and modules
The $3.2M annual recovery in T&E leakage was attributed to three primary sources: $1.6M from elimination of duplicate and out-of-policy claims previously undetected under the manual system; $890,000 from improved FOREX rate management and reclamation of previously unclaimed VAT in the UK and EU; and $710,000 from reduced processing overhead and audit costs.
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About ExpenseAnywhere Corporation
We are a global leader in AI-powered corporate spend automation, offering end-to-end solutions for travel & expense automation, invoice automation, prepaid or debit card automation, and mileage automation. Our platform empowers enterprises to eliminate manual processes, ensure policy compliance, and gain real-time financial visibility across every transaction.
