At Expensify we make “expense reports that don’t suck.” Our users are not shy about letting us know how Expensify has completely changed the way companies do (and feel about) expense reports.
Heidi Anderson from Groundspeak met Mich at the Finovate conference. Heidi didn’t hesitate to express her love for Expensify, and she even volunteered to dish out the whole story.
Tell me about your company.
Groundspeak was founded in October 2000 by three guys who were working at a dot.com about to dot.bomb. We’re located in Seattle, WA, and are 56 going on 60 (employees). We’re very excited to have been chosen as one of the best companies to work for in Seattle by SeattleMet magazine. Although they don’t list Expensify as one of our key employee benefits, they should!
Tell me about yourself.
I joined Groundspeak in 2007, leaving behind the crazy world of publicly traded companies to be the 19th employee and VP of Finance (and the only member of the Finance/Accounting/HR team). Today I’m the CFO (same job, different title) and we still keep our Finance team pretty small and we have a Director of HR, so things are looking up.
My free time is a little thin right now with all the exciting things happening at the office, but when I have it I dream of surfing in Hawaii and watch HGTV designer shows. (I mentioned I live in Seattle, where it’s cold and grey 10 months of the year?)
What were you using before Expensify?
OMG, where do I start?! Our biggest expense is payroll and we have few regular bills, so we pay most of our ad-hoc expenses with company credit cards. Wrangling receipts from 3 founders, marketing folks and anyone who travels can be exhausting not to mention time consuming. Worse, “discussions” over whether they were never turned in or got “lost” in the accounting in-box (ahem, please don’t put that piece of paper on my desk if you want to see it again) became a dreaded part of month-end close. In addition to the “just put it in the accounting in-box” method of recording and reconciling 12 credit cards each month, we have excel sheets for employee out-of-pocket expenses. When I finally hired an accountant to help, she dreaded that part of month-end close, too.
When did you start using Expensify?
December 2010, when my accountant was about to head out on maternity leave. (She’s finally back on Monday, by the way. Adorable baby girl named Emma)
Tell me about your relationship with Expensify.
Top 10 reasons to love Expensify:
- It’s easy! (100% of folks with accounts are using it successfully with no or minimal training)
- It’s fun! (yes, I’m a finance geek)
- Mobile apps!
- Best receipt management ever!
- My CEO loves it!
- My VPs use it!
- Print to pdf includes ALL receipts, a complete, portable package (Complete package of audit support can be saved to our internal finance drive).
- Import directly from the bank!
- Export to csv (entire month, all employees, in one fell swoop)!
- Affordable!
(Too many exclamation marks? I couldn’t help myself.)
What do your co-workers say about it?
They don’t – and that’s the best part about it. We went from a system where all they had to do was drop a receipt in the box, and they were complaining. Now, no complaints, and no comments. Just completed expense reports with no hassle. Awesome. (When people do comment, it’s generally to say they “love it!”.)
Has Expensify made their life easier? Harder? In what ways?
Easier. Everyone loves taking a picture of the receipt at a restaurant, uploading it through the app or forwarding via email, and being able to forget about it.
Thanks!
Thanks again for the opportunity to contribute. Keep up the good work.
Thank you Heidi! It’s always refreshing to listen to peek out of our computer screens and read about real live user adventures.
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