Expenses Solutions for Multi-nationals

Company overview

Eka Chemicals UK is part of AkzoNobel, the world’s largest global paints and coatings company and a major producer of speciality chemicals. Supplying industries and consumers worldwide with innovative products, AkzoNobel’s portfolio includes well known brands such as Dulux, Sikkens, International and of course Eka Chemicals UK.

Headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, AkzoNobel is a Global Fortune 500 company and is consistently ranked as one of the leaders on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. With operations in more than 80 countries, its 55,000 people around the world are committed to delivering innovation and excellence.

Expenses software for one of the busiest sales teams in the world.

The WebExpenses software was initially a suggestion made to Eka Chemical’s UK Finance Controller, Jason Goddard by one of their IT managers as he explains.

“We were using our own local system but it had become a hotchpotch of different forms for different expenses with no real standardisation. Collating the data became an increasingly difficult and messy job. We watched a demo for the WebExpenses software and liked what we saw and implemented it over two years ago now. Since then it’s made a really positive impact on the company. Over and above these features and benefits, I think the WebExpenses system is one that everybody can associate with and is a lot easier administratively.”

“Sales guys are a breed of people who are busy every minute of every day,” he continues. “What’s brilliant about WebExpenses is it provides a system of accounting that’s available 24/7, anywhere in the world. So our sales team can access it whenever, wherever, be it in a hotel or the office or on the road. Other features improve the system further such as the fact you can send in receipts via text message means that all those expenses which are easily forgotten can all be accounted for. The credit card upload feature is also excellent and saves a lot of time.”

How WebExpenses works for Eka Chemicals UK

The WebExpenses system has also removed a lot of the ‘bottlenecks’ when it comes to the approval of expenses within Eka Chemicals UK. Before now, time was wasted trying to find a line manager to sign off expenses whereas now it can be done quickly and easily at the push of a button.

The reporting tool has also proved to be a fantastic solution for the company. Previously, the finance team used to have to ring around employees and ask them to estimate what their expenditure would be up to the year end. Administratively, it was both time wasting and inaccurate. Now each employee can simply open a claim form, enter the expenditure they expect, which can then be updated at a later date if necessary.

Our reporting accruals are far more accurate and it has saved lots of time with the year end reporting,” says Jason. “We can also use the same technology on a monthly basis. Where we used to take an average of our monthly expenditure, which gave very rough figures, this system is far more accurate and provides a powerful tool for the company.

Jason Goddard, Financial Controller, Eka Chemicals UK.