Platinum Roofing is a construction company that specializes in both commercial and residential roofing across 30 states. With a large portion of their workforce consisting of remote service technicians, as well as project managers who frequently travel from their headquarters in Sheridan, Arkansas, Platinum Roofing needed a way to minimize the administrative burdens of corporate travel. With Center, they found a system that helped them control travel costs, monitor spend, and provide actionable, real-time reporting.
Challenge: A surge in travel overloads a manual system
Platinum Roofing has experienced a lot of growth in recent years, leading to a corresponding increase in travel costs. CFO Jeff Mascagni estimates that their annual travel expenses have surged to $1.6 million, more than double what they were just three years ago. Unfortunately, the company’s employees were managing expenses through a cumbersome, manual process. Some relied on a busy service manager for travel arrangements, while others booked travel on their own.
When it came time to submit expenses, employees would snap photos of receipts on their phones or jot down transaction details on paper, ultimately uploading everything to a shared drive at month’s end. This surge of submissions created a heavy workload for the finance team, who had to accurately code each expense to the right work order. Adding to this challenge, the finance team faced mounting pressure to shorten the time it took to close the books. Mascagni realized that a more efficient expense management system was essential to meet Platinum Roofing’s evolving needs.
“Having the CenterCard mobile app is a big plus. Platinum is now seeing a clearer and more detailed picture around its travel spend, so it can go out to suppliers and negotiate better pricing.” –Jeff Mascagni, CFO, Platinum Roofing
Solution: A comprehensive system for streamlined travel and real-time expense management
To tackle its expense management challenges, Platinum Roofing began to explore an integrated travel and expense management system.
After sitting through a lot of sales calls and demos, Center stood out as a comprehensive T&E solution that combines a corporate card with connected software, providing real-time visibility into employee expenses. Center’s corporate card-centric approach helped Platinum Roofing automate traditional accounting tasks while simultaneously unifying data and policy applications, significantly enhancing compliance and eliminating the need for cumbersome expense reports.
With Center, finance teams gain real-time insights to monitor spending and make informed decisions, while employees enjoy a more modern, convenient, and intuitive expensing experience. This integrated travel and expense solution has empowered Platinum Roofing to focus less on admin and more on actual work.
Impact: Integration expedites reconciliation and expensing
Six months after adopting Center, Platinum Roofing has experienced impressive results that have transformed its financial operations. CFO Jeff Mascagni’s team is consistently meeting its monthly closing goals, and field employees are thrilled with how Center automates much of the expense reporting process.
“Having the CenterCard mobile app is a big plus,” Mascagni noted, emphasizing the ease it brings to expense management. The company now enjoys a clearer, more detailed view of its travel spend, enabling them to approach suppliers for better pricing negotiations. “Pouring over our travel spend was 100% manual without Center,” he says. With the ability to run reports directly from the system, Platinum Roofing can now scale and grow across all ten companies.
The success of Center has even led five sister companies to adopt Center solutions, with five more in the process of implementing it. This collective shift highlights how effective expense and travel management can drive growth and efficiency across the board.
Since implementing Center, Platinum Roofing has seen many benefits, including:
- Real-time insights into travel and expenses: Employees now book travel directly through Center, with instant visibility into what’s within policy, giving managers more control.
- Cutting reconciliation time from days to hours: What once took several days to reconcile expenses now takes a fraction of the time, allowing Platinum Roofing to process hundreds of transactions seamlessly
- Significant savings on travel costs: By centralizing their travel platform, Platinum Roofing has saved thousands annually in travel and expense management fees.
- A travel and expense system that employees actually enjoy: With Center, booking travel is simple, making life easier for employees and the finance team.
“Pouring over that $1.6 million in spend would have been 100% manual to do otherwise. Center lets us run reports straight out of the system. We want to scale and grow all 10 companies. It’s very important to my team to automate expense management so we can assist the company in getting there” –Jeff Mascagni, CFO, Platinum Roofing