How Konica Minolta gained control by leaving bank cards behind

Life before Payhawk

Before Payhawk, Konica Minolta, Bulgaria, used credit cards issued by their traditional bank.

The team used bank cards for travel both in and out of Bulgaria to pay for hotels, rental cars, and any other business travel expenses. They also used them for online payments, including software subscriptions and social media ads.

But working with a traditional bank came with annoying and frequent issues, including:

• Inability to make online payments
• Low spend limits
• Slow transfers to top-up cards
• Delayed and unclear transaction details
• Unused balances stuck on cards

Managing cards and expenses had become clunky, not to mention the card issuance fees and high transaction costs.

These limitations pushed the team at Konica Minolta to look beyond the usual banking solutions, and they discovered us through a recommendation from a satisfied customer.
Elena Drecheva, Managing Director at Konica Minolta Bulgaria & Greece, says, “After the demo, we were convinced Payhawk was the solution we needed.”

Cards with controls, real-time visibility, and more

Every successful company values its time and looks for solutions that solve problems, not create more, and Konica Minolta is no different.
What convinced the team that we could best solve their problems? How quickly and seamlessly we could integrate it into their existing processes.

Elena explains:

The Payhawk team is always available to answer questions and ready to support us.

Other key decision factors included the flexibility to choose between virtual and physical cards, easy and fast top-ups, and real-time visibility of balances and transactions. Konica Minolta’s employees also love the intuitive mobile app, which makes submitting expenses quick and effortless. Every time they make a card payment, they just snap a photo of the receipt with their phone. The OCR technology auto-fills the fields, and the expense goes straight to the accounting team for approval.

Meanwhile, expense processing in the finance team now takes much less time and effort. What’s more, tracking spend by project, team, or individual is easier than ever.

“The expense categorisation automation and the reminder notifications — when someone forgets to attach a receipt or tag a transaction — are also very important to us,” Elena says.

Saving four days every month

Managing spend across entities is complex, and finance teams need their tools to make it as straightforward as possible. With us, Elena and her team have streamlined expense reporting, eliminated funding gaps, and saved time every month.

Elena Drecheva:

The best part is that no one complains, and we’re no longer putting colleagues in difficult or even crisis situations where they’re left without funds! Everyone finds Payhawk easy and enjoyable to use. We always have the funds we need within the set limits. And even business trip reporting and general expense submissions are quick and simple — all done from a phone in under a minute.

The impact is clear. The team at Konica Minolta saves at least two workdays per month across a team of two; that’s four workdays every month.

The finance team have automated the routine work of expense reporting, and reduced transaction costs thanks to our first-rate features, Visa partnership, and support across seven currencies.

Your next steps

Want complete visibility over spend and way less manual work like Konica Minolta? Book a personalised Payhawk demo to see how easy it is to get real-time control over expenses, automate reporting, and empower teams on the go.

Take Elena’s advice:

I’d be more than happy to recommend Payhawk to any company that wants complete transparency over spend and transactions, reliable payment methods, less manual work, and compliance with internal policies and regulations.