CASE STUDY
From monthly Excel spreadsheets to a complete expense system:
How Capture Expense helped the
National Education Union
team go 100% digital
Capture Expense empowers over 150 NEU employees to effortlessly submit expenses from anywhere, using any device, at anytime
As the largest education union in the UK, the National Education Union (NEU) have been instrumental in shaping an education system that works for all.
One area where they weren’t meeting the grade (no pun intended) was their expense management process. Receipts were being individually attached to spreadsheets and then sent to a generic inbox. The finance team had to regularly check the inbox for expense claims, review and approve each one, and manually upload them to the accounting system.
What they needed was to move away from an Excel-based template and embrace a sophisticated expense management platform.
That’s where Capture Expense comes in.
“
Very easy
and smooth. From set up to go live, the process and communication has been second to none. It has been very well received by
all of
our users, there are now people claiming expenses that would not do so before as the process was too complicated and clunky! Now they can
submit
expenses with ease and from anywhere!
”
**
–
Emma Beattie,
Finance Operations Manager
**
The challenge
-
**Limited visibility into employee spend: **NEU’s outdated, Excel-based expense system made it difficult to track employee spending accurately. With minimal oversight, identifying spending trends and managing departmental budgets became increasingly challenging.
-
**Inflexibility for travelling employees: **the Excel-based process was not designed for mobile use, making it hard for employees on the go to submit expenses promptly. This caused delays in reimbursements, added stress for travelling staff, and created bottlenecks in finance workflows.
-
Ineffective expense tracking: there were often issues with lost receipts, and expenses getting “stuck in the system” due to the lack of a clear audit trail. This led to reimbursement delays and extra work for the finance team.
-
**Slow approval process: **line managers weren’t notified when an expense claim was submitted, which often led to delays in employee reimbursements.
-
Lack of automation: NEU needed a more intuitive and flexible solution that could streamline their entire expense process, from both a desktop and smartphone.
The solution
-
User-friendly system: Capture Expense’s intuitive design makes it easy for NEU employees to create and submit expense claims without hassle.
-
Mobile accessibility: the ability to use the platform on mobile devices allows NEU employees to easily snap a picture of their receipts and make an expense claim in a matter of seconds.
-
Streamlined approval workflow: line managers are now notified instantly when an expense claim is submitted, and the finance team can easily track the status of each claim.
-
**Real-time tracking: **NEU now have complete visibility over all spend, making it easier to monitor expenses as they happen. Every transaction is logged with a full audit trail, so nothing gets lost, and any issues are easier to spot and resolve right away.
“
Working with C
apture Expense
has been
an
easy and smooth experience. We had weekly updates to
make sure
the system was configured and set up to our requirements. Any issues were dealt with and resolved
immediately
and if the system did not have the
capacity
for any requirement, C
apture Expense
found an alternative, workable option.
”
**
–
Emma Beattie,
Finance Operations Manager
**
The results
Ease of use for 150 employees
All active users can now
submit
their expense claims from any device. For employees on the go, the app has been
a game-changer
,
enabling
them to
submit
claims directly from their phone at the point of purchase.
Faster expense submissions
NEU
s
taff members are
now
submitting
expenses
in a timely manner
,
allowing for
a
more
accurate
monthly reporting.
Over 5000 expenses processed
Digitising and automating NEU’s entire expense management process
meant
that
the finance team
could
focus more on
strategic tasks and less on chasing receipts.
This
led to
significant time
savings and improved efficiency
for 2024.
Capture Expense Brochure
Dive into our brochure to discover how you can stay on top of reimbursements, bills, and credit card transactions as they happen—while reaping the benefits of real-time spending insights across your entire organisation.
