Custom Home Exteriors (CHE) is busy. With employees across the Carolinas and Virginia, CHE is the premier exterior refinisher in the region, working on more than 4,000 homes a year. When CFO Joshua Menold stepped into his new role at CHE, he saw his company needed a better way to handle field expenses, with less hassle for both field staff and office workers.
Challenge: Handling blind expenses
Custom Home Exteriors wasn’t happy with their old system for handling field expenses. Workers in the field didn’t like the slow, awkward system for attaching receipts to expense reports, so they waited until the end of the month to submit large batches of expenses all at once. Back in the office, workers were left to sift through a month’s worth of reports, manually, all at once.
“Workers in the field were frustrated. The managers were frustrated,” CFO Joshua Menold said.
Spending on travel and in-field materials were a blind spot. And there was no analysis of spending, to show areas for improvement like hotels for technicians who were on the road, so Menold couldn’t negotiate for better prices with preferred vendors. Field service spending was a big, black box that CHE threw money into every month.
“I asked them to do it ASAP, and they conquered it incredibly fast. I think they got it done in half the time they told me. I got everything back right away. I was responsive, and it made the process go really quickly.” –Joshua Menold, CFO, Custom Home Exteriors
Solution: Quick implementation of an intuitive expense management solution
CHE needed to revamp its expense management process. Menold, who had used Center before, knew it was the right tool for the job. Center’s card-first approach seamlessly combines a corporate card with intuitive software and a mobile app, so CHE’s field workers can manage expenses with ease. With Center, workers can use the CenterCard app to snap a photo and attach it to a job. Then they’re ready for the next job. Whether they’re in the field or in the office, Center is simple and user-friendly.
CHE relied on Center’s hands-on deployment team to integrate with their existing infrastructure. What Menold expected to take three months was completed in just six weeks, with field workers instantly taking to the intuitive system. The smooth transition meant CHE started seeing benefits right away, from day-one receipt uploads to immediate spending insights.
“The visibility has easily saved $4,000 a month, on average (hotels).” –Joshua Menold, CFO, Custom Home Exteriors
Center’s dedicated support team managed a smooth transition. The benefits were immediate. Instead of receiving a flood of receipts at the end of the month, expenses were captured and categorized daily. Center’s customized system automatically mapped expenses to the right categories and projects as they came in. In a couple of months, CHE went from having no visibility into their expenses to a fully automated, transparent system. Managers like Menold went from wondering where money was being spent to seeing categorized spend data in real time.
“I have insight in the ability to control my expenses as a CFO and owner, so I have that at my fingertips with Center. So I feel like I constantly have a pulse of what’s going on, and I I’m more confident to give my employees a credit card.” –Joshua Menold, CFO, Custom Home Exteriors
Impact: Happier employees and cost savings
CHE’s field workers immediately adapted to using Center, giving the company real-time visibility into spending as it happened. This immediate insight into expenses saved CHE money while freeing up office staff from manual processing.
.The office worker who used to spend 10 to 20 hours a week calling field staffers with questions about receipts was immediately freed up to focus on work that adds value to the business. And Menold was quick to credit Center’s dedicated account manager with getting the whole system up and working for everybody in the organization, increasing satisfaction dramatically while also delivering results he could put to work.
Menold immediately put his newfound visibility into spending to work. He could now see areas where spending was higher than it needed to be, zooming in on his team’s spending on hotels. He told his team that hotel spending was too high and they should look for rooms outside city centers to help make a difference. After that note went out, Menold said there was an immediate and profound drop in hotel spending. He estimates Center is saving his company at least $4,000 a month on unnecessary expenses, because he has immediate visibility into spending.
“I asked them to do it ASAP, and they conquered it incredibly fast. I think they got it done in half the time they told me. I got everything back right away. I was responsive, and it made the process go really quickly.” –Joshua Menold, CFO, Custom Home Exteriors
Since implementing Center, Custom Home Exteriors has experienced significant benefits, including:
- Real-time visibility into spending: CHE now tracks spending as it happens, allowing them to address unnecessary expenses immediately.
- Saved time on expense reporting: Office staff saved 10-20 hours a week by eliminating manual receipt tracking and follow-up, thanks to Center’s automated system.
- Reduced hotel costs: CHE reduced hotel expenses by $4,000 a month by gaining insights into spending trends and adjusting policies accordingly.
- An intuitive platform for the field: Construction workers quickly adapted to Center’s easy-to-use mobile app, allowing them to submit receipts in real time, without hassle.
“I honestly was a little skeptical of Center’s ability to handle our new changes, and because of how easy this tool is, I was really impressed by it. We’re literally able to make the changes on the fly and get things out to the team.” –Joshua Menold, CFO, Custom Home Exteriors