For 30 years, GEM Technologies has delivered high-quality environmental, facility, and infrastructure management services to government agencies, universities, and private companies. They’re a small business that punches above their weight, pulling in high-dollar projects and landing big-name partnerships. Accounting specialist Jay Griffith was looking for a way to manage spend and increase visibility at a company with a lot of differing expenses — and a lot of moving parts.
Challenge: Headaches and delays caused by manual purchase tracking
GEM Technologies experienced a lot of headaches with its old expense management system, which was manual and cumbersome. Every month, the finance team found themselves downloading credit card statements and wrangling paper receipts from team members scattered across various offices. This tedious process involved a lot of manual data entry and often consumed 25 to 35 hours of time a month. With receipts going missing and approvals lagging behind, it became a race against time during monthly close-outs. Frustrated by inefficiency, GEM knew it needed a modern expense management system that could streamline their entire purchasing and reconciliation process.
“We feel comfortable issuing cards to a lot more people because of the visibility that we have on the back end and the kind of personal accountability that everybody has because they’ve got the app they can see.” –Jay Griffith, Accounting Specialist, GEM
Solution: Card-centric expensing to streamline purchasing and reconciliation
Griffith sought a streamlined solution that would allow employees to snap photos of receipts and upload them easily while improving real-time visibility from transaction upload to approval. Center’s card-centric platform transformed GEM’s expense tracking into an organized and user-friendly system.
Before Center, GEM struggled to track receipts and reconcile expenses each month. With Center’s digital receipt uploads and instant transaction notifications, employees could log purchases immediately, and managers could verify spending for approval and budget compliance.
GEM’s complex projects required a flexible, intuitive platform. Center customized the system with specific fields for different divisions, so employees now only see relevant GL codes and project numbers, making coding faster and more accurate. Purchases across departments follow established approval flows for precise accounting.
“There’s been an immediate benefit to the transparency and accountability that Center offers versus what we were doing before.” –Jay Griffith, Accounting Specialist, GEM
GEM’s fleet management also improved with Center. The platform now tracks fuel and general expenses in real-time, consolidating purchases on a single card. Project managers and drivers can use one card for fuel and other costs, streamlining both purchasing and expensing.
Center’s hands-on deployment team designed custom backend processes to improve workflows and provided training materials. The entire system was ready within a month, rolled out by department to ensure comfort with the new tools.
Impact: Transparency, accountability and customization streamlines expensing
With Center, Griffith no longer has to hound his employees for receipts and reconcile them himself. Instead, employees can now upload their receipts digitally — and managers can track spend as it happens. Griffith estimates that this automation has cut his reconciliation time by nearly 100%, making month-end close much smoother and faster.
Center empowers employees to manage their spending directly, with access to transaction history, limits, and insights right from their phones. Unlike the old system, which required frequent manager involvement to check spending limits, the Center card gives employees the confidence and control to handle their expenses independently. This user-friendly approach has led to enthusiastic adoption across the company, allowing GEM to double the number of corporate cards issued. Now, CFOs and CEOs have more access, visibility and control than ever before. They’re confident in the system because it prevents misuse and streamlines purchasing.
GEM also appreciates Center’s dedication to customer feedback. Their account manager has been quick to act on suggestions, ensuring the platform evolves with their needs. Whether it’s enhancing visibility into expense notes or tailoring user access by cost centers, this responsiveness reinforces GEM’s sense of being a valued client. Center’s commitment to continuous improvement makes it clear that they are dedicated to building a platform that not only meets GEM’s operational requirements but also boosts employee satisfaction by making the entire expense management process easier and more intuitive.
Since implementing Center, GEM Technologies has achieved:
- Significantly reduced reconciliation time: Automatic receipt uploads have nearly eliminated the time spent on reconciliation, which previously took 20-30 hours a month.
- Increased visibility into spending: With real-time access to transactions, employees now manage their own spend, reducing the need for constant manager oversight.
- Streamlined approval process: Center’s card-first solution has automated the approval flow, making it easier for employees to make purchases and managers to stay on budget.
- Customizable expensing: Center customized its platform to align with GEM’s project-specific GL codes and cost centers, simplifying the entire expense process.
“I really appreciate Center’s obvious intentionality toward being customer-oriented in the developments that they work on. It’s clearly intentional that they seek feedback from users and actually act on it.’” –Jay Griffith, Accounting Specialist, GEM