CDK Stone Empowers Employees with Streamlined Expense Management Corporate Cards Processes

CDK Stone selects Concur Expense with Archa business credit cards for near real-time integration, increased agility, and improved employee experience.

For over 40 years, CDK Stone has been supplying high quality, premium Natural Stone, Tiles, Tools & Equipment, Stone Care and Machinery. With branches in five states of Australia and two locations in New Zealand, CDK Stone has become the leader in the Australian Stone Industry.

"The online administration was easy and lightweight, compared to the process with the banks, and some of the banks don’t have the integration with Concur Expense that Archa does. That is really valuable to us. Going with Archa makes Concur even more efficient." - Naomi Parker, Chief Financial Officer at CDK Stone

Why SAP Concur & Archa?

• Improved efficiencies for employees including reconciliation of credit card statements with expenses, receipts and GL accounts
• Greater insights into company spend
• Increased efficiencies on administrative tasks
• Near real-time integration between Concur Expense and Archa business credit cards
• Archa’s ease of application and speed of set up
• The agility offered by Archa’s easy and flexible administration

CDK Stone case study

CDK Stone empowers employees with streamlined expense management corporate cards processes, selects Concur Expense with Archa business credit cards for near real-time integration, increased agility, and improved employee experience.

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Adopting an Automated Expense Management Solution

CDK Stone began the search for a comprehensive expense management solution that would improve their employee’s expense reimbursement process. The finance team was looking to replace a manual expense process, aided by spreadsheets, with an automated expense solution.

“The expense management process prior to implementing Concur Expense was manual,” said Sean Stroud, Finance Manager at CDK Stone. “We used a spreadsheet to manage everything and understanding how expenses were driven was a challenge. It was time-consuming.”

“We wanted to enable our people,” added Naomi Parker, Chief Financial Officer. “We were looking to reduce the amount of time they were spending doing expenses and managing receipts, while at the same time, providing us with greater insights into our spend.”

CDK Stone selected Concur Expense to streamline their expense management process. Concur Expense is a software solution that automates business expense reporting and allows companies to understand their spending. Employees can submit expense reports from a mobile device and approvers can approve from their mobiles, helping organisations to manage outgoing spend.

“It’s a comprehensive expense solution with a good history. We also had team members who had prior experience using Concur, so that made rolling it out a little easier,” said Sean.

Selecting Archa for Business Credit Cards

Soon after selecting Concur Expense the finance team discovered one of their business credit card providers was discontinuing in Australia. The team set about looking at alternative options.

“We heard that Concur had recently entered into a partnership with Archa and we knew we should look into it.” Said Sean.

Archa business credit cards help streamline their customers spending while integrating with leading accounting and expense management software. The integration between Concur Expense and Archa, offering near real-time data transfer, was a key driver for CDK Stone.

“We really liked the synergy between Concur Expense and Archa, and we knew they would work well together. We could also roll them out together, as one change. The online administration was easy and lightweight, compared to the process with the banks, and some of the banks don’t have the integration with Concur Expense that Archa does. That is really valuable to us. Going with Archa makes Concur even more efficient,” said Naomi.

Enjoying the “Lightweight Administration” of Archa Business Credit Cards

The ability to issue new cards, and to instantly change limits online, is a valued benefit for CDK Stone. The increased flexibility and time-saved during the management and administration process has been appreciated by the finance team.

For Naomi, the ability to offer increased flexibility and agility, removed many of the frustrations felt while dealing with the banks, “We have quite a number of business cards and we were having a frustrating time with the bank, so the potential was there to create even more efficiency and streamline the process,” said Naomi. “The bank’s process is very manual. There are a lot of approvals, and it effects your credit limits. Using Archa wasn’t going to affect our borrowing capacity and governance with our bank.”

Following a three-month trial with Archa, CDK Stone applied for 70 business credit cards. “We were up and running with the Archa cards quickly,” said Sean. “We do a lot of international travel and we got some of our highest users to use the cards during the trial. Everything went well so we decided to time the wider roll-out of the Archa cards with Concur Expense going live, so there would be one change: a new credit card and a new process. Once we applied for the bulk of the business cards, we had them within a week,” added Naomi.

Improving the Employee Experience with Increased Mobility and Velocity Points

CDK Stone employees have been quick to adopt the new expense management process, while improved insights and visibility have been a positive outcome for management. “The feedback has been positive; staff have been enthusiastic about the change,” said Sean. “The approval process has become more transparent. From a clarity of expectations point of view, it’s been great,” added Naomi.

Since Concur Expense and Archa business credit cards were rolled out, employees have embraced the time saved submitting expenses for reimbursement. “Our directors do a large amount of travelling, and being able to do expenses on the go has been really helpful. Where we also have staff doing expenses for other people, like executive assistants, it’s made their lives so much easier,” said Naomi. “The Archa cards also come with Velocity points. Many corporate cards don’t offer frequent flyer points,” added Sean.

Ease-of-use of both Concurs’ mobile phone app, as well as their employee’s ability to put the Archa business credit cards on their mobile phone has also been an important factor in employee satisfaction.

“One of the best benefits of Archa is we can put the cards into our digital wallets in our phones,” said Naomi. “We can’t do that with our other business cards and our employees wanted that. What you would think is a basic feature has been an important differentiator for Archa.”

"The feedback has been positive; staff have been enthusiastic about the change. The approval process has become more transparent. From a clarity of expectations point of view, it’s been great". - Sean Stroud, Finance Manager at CDK Stone

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