Achieving greater spend control and visibility at Baton

Life before Payhawk

Baton, a progressive transport company, is all about positive change and constant development. However, until recently, their card expense and vendor invoice management lagged behind their bold vision and they knew there must be a better way.

Employees used traditional bank cards, leaving the accounting department with no direct visibility over incurred expenses. Plus, getting funds onto the cards took a lot of time and the lack of any built-in controls often led to inefficiencies and blocked funds

To establish a degree of control, the Baton team issued new truck drivers cards without funds. Then whenever a driver needed to make an expense, such as for oils and consumables, they had to call a dispatcher, explain why they needed the funds, and only then would the money be transferred.

Expense reporting was also inefficient. Nelly Dobreva, Lead of Process & Technology Center of Excellence at Baton, shares:

When drivers were returning to their home country for weekly rest or vacation, they had to take all the receipts they collected for the last four weeks to the office. As a result, many receipts got lost and accountants spent a lot of time matching receipts with registered expenses.

“All our employees have Payhawk cards now”

As a modern company that aims to be data-driven with digital processes, Baton found the perfect solution in Payhawk. The main reasons for choosing us included 1) the customization options and 2) platform flexibility, which the transport company couldn’t find anywhere else.

With our Payhawk cards, Baton’s finance team can set spend rules more easily. They set limits on all cards for their employees and use the option to request additional funds around the clock, provided there is a valid reason.

Another reassurance is the ability to monitor spent funds at the moment they occur.

Maria Draganova, Process Specialist at Baton, says:

In real time, you can see who spent what and with which merchant, even before the expense document is uploaded.

All these features are also available via virtual cards, which the Baton team can issue through Payhawk for their employees in seconds. Employees can then easily add them to their mobile wallets cutting out the wait time and streamlining the process for everyone.

Another benefit the Baton finance team and their employees love is the ability to freeze their cards in case of loss. Previously, this had to be done through an administrator, posing a potential risk of theft in the meantime. Now, the team can freeze cards in seconds via the mobile app. On the other hand, the Baton’s finance team can also temporarily freeze employees’ cards when they’re not on the road and don’t need them, giving the company additional security.

But the benefits for Baton don’t stop there:

Lewbina Ilkova, Group Excellence Specialist, says:

The interface is very user-friendly. When you pay for something, the expense is immediately recorded in the app, and you can easily upload the invoice or receipt. The simple interface of the mobile app is particularly important for our drivers.

Improved invoice management

Already impressed by our corporate cards and expense management features, the Baton team decided to add another module from the platform — supplier invoice management.

Before Payhawk, accountants struggled to track invoice progress because they were sent to shared mailboxes.

Nelly Dobreva explains:

Now we can see everything about a specific invoice; how many days it has been in the Review stage, how many days it stayed in the Approval stage. We have now set KPIs on this and can easily report on them.

It also took time for the invoice to reach the right person for approval. Now, with our solution the accountant simply selects the corresponding cost center from the menu in the platform, triggering the approval workflow.

With all this, the team has also increased transparency; it’s clear how much each cost center has spent and who has delayed in processing the invoices. “Anyone with the appropriate access can check the Payhawk dashboard and see how many invoices are pending at a particular stage, which one is the oldest, who’s the owner, and why they haven’t completed their task.”

"We always find the Payhawk team to be very understanding."

As we’ve said before, one of the key pillars of our culture at Payhawk is: Everyone at Payhawk works in Customer Success. And our work with Baton confirms this once again.

Nelly Dobreva, continues:

What we noticed with Payhawk from the very beginning is that when we give feedback to the team, we always experience help and understanding. We have confidence that our feedback will be addressed and included in the development plan. And they even actively seek our feedback to improve the product. We even have cases where features have been added based on this.

Baton's employees, including the company's drivers, actively use our Payhawk Chat Feature, to ask any questions they have regarding the use of the cards and the platform.

Baton’s team also enjoys the benefits of working with an implementation manager, especially when adding the multi-entity management feature. Additionally, they have regular insightful meetings with their dedicated Customer Success Manager.

Baton's learnings from working with Payhawk

Baton’s key takeaway from using Payhawk? A clear cost center structure. Before implementing Payhawk, they didn’t have one, but after establishing and integrating it into the expense management platform, they’ve achieved a really efficient reporting process.

Do you think your company could also improve its expense control, reporting, and invoice management processes like Baton? Learn how our team at Payhawk can help you by scheduling a meeting with one of our experts today.