MIT transformed their global expense management from 3-day delays to same day processing with our Expense Cards. See how they eliminated manual processes.
MIT is a marine and industrial engineering company with engineers working on projects worldwide, from quarries and railways to vessels in international waters. With staff traveling around the UK and overseas, the company needed an expense management solution that could handle complex, global operations.
MIT’s previous expense system was entirely manual, with employees having to physically drop receipts into office folders whenever they could make it back to base. Meanwhile, their corporate credit card transactions could take three working days to appear on statements. The switch to our Expense Cards transformed this process completely.
“We were very paper-based,” explains Natalie Morris, MIT’s accounts manager with over 20 years at the company. “The guys had a folder and they would come down and put their receipts in the folder, and it would be us going through saying ‘That’s that receipt, that’s that receipt, that’s that receipt.'”
“Now, with the Expense Cards, the transactions are coming through a lot quicker on our accounting system and the card users can upload their transactions a lot quicker when they do it.”
The difference in transaction speed has been dramatic – from three working days for the transaction to appear on their previous credit card provider, to same-day processing with our Expense Cards.
Managing expenses for engineers who travel all across the world presented unique challenges. MIT needed better control over spending limits and card management, especially when team members were working internationally.
“We can actually issue the cards ourselves as opposed to having to go through a request process with our Barclaycard,” says Natalie. “We’re able to control the credit limits and everything just seems a lot easier to manage when we need to.”
This self-service capability has been particularly valuable for MIT’s 16 current card holders, with plans to expand to 35 engineers across all departments by next year.
The speed improvement hasn’t just benefited the finance team – it’s changed employee behaviour. When transactions appear quickly, people process their expenses faster rather than letting them pile up.
“The employees get their expenses done much quicker because when transactions appear immediately, they’re more inclined to process them straight away,” explains Jamie, MIT’s finance controller. “By the time the transactions come through, they’ve already got their receipts uploaded and everything ties up perfectly.”
WIth Webexpenses, users get notified about transactions at every step of the process. When the claim is approved or rejected, when it’s processed by the finance team and (if you use Wise payments) then a final notification when the payment is sent.
Greater transparency and speed means employees are more likely to submit quickly. And for MIT, this shift has eliminated the end-of-period scramble to chase missing receipts and improved overall compliance across the organisation.
Book a free demo to discover how real-time expense management and integrated company cards can eliminate manual processes and give you complete control over business spending, wherever your team works.
