“Straightforward Expenses has had a hugely positive effect on our company. Employees love it – they no longer have to keep lots of paperwork on their desks and can submit their expenses with ease.”

As families of significant wealth have come to appreciate, the accumulation of wealth creates both rare opportunities and imposing challenges. Family members contend with a host of responsibilities, ranging from monitoring their estate and tax plans to coordinating yearly tax returns and philanthropic gifting. This is where Pitcairn steps in.

Every month 30 of Pitcairn’s 70 employees have to submit their expenses for approval. Until recently, the whole process was carried out manually, with employees submitting paper forms and receipts to their managers for clearance. Eddie Leon, Budget Analyst, Pitcairn, explains: “Every time an employee submitted their expenses, they would have to fill out a paper document and attach a receipt to it. The document would then be sent to a manager who would have to approve the expenses before passing them on to our accounts team. As you can imagine, there were often time lags between each stage in the process, and employees had to fill in their documents and manually store them once they had been approved. This made life difficult for everyone – we’re a small company and storage space comes at a premium.”

The company decided that it needed to automate its expenses process and went online to search for a solution. “One of IT Directors was using Google to search for products that could automate the expense process and happened to come upon Point Beyond’s Straightforward Expenses product,” explains Leon. After assessing various products, Pitcairn selected Point Beyond’s system because it was easy to use and could be readily customised to fit the company’s requirements.

Leon says: “Straightforward Expenses has had a hugely positive effect on our company. Employees love it – they no longer have to keep lots of paperwork on their desks and can submit their expenses with ease. Naturally, they’re also pleased that they can get reimbursed for their expenses so quickly!"

“The system has also made it easier for managers to approve expenses. In short, everyone that has used Straightforward Expenses has been impressed by it.”