Team Visma | Lease a Bike Saves 1 FTE with Elari Cards

Team Visma | Lease a Bike is a cycling team sponsored by Visma and Lease a Bike, among others. This team has its priorities straight: sports and everything needed to make that possible. That means keeping track of the administrative records for 200 employees around the world. Quite a challenge, then. CFO Bastiaan and Controller Jet explain how Team Visma | Lease a Bike manages its expenses with a very small finance team and Elari Cards.

From a time-consuming task to a breeze

Before the then-Team Lotto-Jumbo began working with Visma in 2018, stacks of invoices were delivered to the accounting department in shoeboxes. Bank statements had to be copied, the corresponding invoices located, and credit cards manually mailed to employees. The statements were then collected by Finance staff and matched to receipts, if any were available at all. There were constant phone calls back and forth to verify data, and in the meantime, the status of transactions was impossible to track. For each credit card, it could easily take an hour before all expenditure data was correct and complete. In short: a cumbersome, labor-intensive, and confusing process. Obviously, there had to be a better way.

From personal debit cards to flexible payment cards

The expense process is now more manageable and less cumbersome. In the past, a new Rabo credit card had to be requested from the bank with a driver’s license and a power of attorney that had to be signed by the director. That could easily take two weeks. Now the Finance team handles it themselves and, so to speak, has the card in hand as early as the next business day.

“A number of our employees still make purchases with Rabo credit cards,” says Jet. “That approach isn’t feasible for all 130 debit cards we need. That’s because we’d have to search for receipts based on statements afterward. Not only is this far too labor-intensive, but working with Elari Cards is also much less risky. In Elari, we see much more detail about transactions. If a transaction fails, for example due to insufficient funds, we can often figure out the problem ourselves right away. And if we can’t, the support department is there to help. I’ve had very good experiences with them. The support staff think along with us and can usually find the information we need.”

An Elari Card for everyone, including freelancers

“It’s ideal to place the responsibility for categorizing expenses close to the source,” says CFO Bastiaan. With 130 Elari Cards spread across an organization of 200 employees with diverse specializations, you’ve got little choice. “Cyclists, chefs, massage therapists, drivers, mechanics. As a finance professional, I have no idea what supplies we need to fix a bike or how to prepare the perfect meal for a cyclist. It’s actually great that the employees from those specialized teams handle their own purchases and account for those costs. That way, we in Finance don’t have to chase them down. Elari Cards help enormously with this.”

Bastiaan explains: “When people regularly incur expenses for the team, they’re given an Elari Card. This also applies, for example, to independent contractors who work for us a certain number of days per year. This way, employees can categorize their own expenses using the software. As a result, the expenses are accurately recorded in the system, and we in Finance only need to review and make corrections. We really only use expense reports for exceptions, as little as possible. It simply takes us far too much time to figure out what’s being claimed and why. Elari is a real lifesaver in this regard.”

“Suppose you’re an employee who doesn’t feel very connected to the team yet,” Bastiaan continues. “In that case, it can be quite a hurdle to pay for expenses out of pocket. If you work with a lot of independent contractors, that’s definitely a factor to consider. With payment methods where expenses are charged directly to the team, you don’t have that problem. That’s also practical for bus drivers, who can easily spend 700 euros on gas. You wouldn’t just advance that kind of money out of the blue, of course.”

Controller Jet adds: “Employees really appreciate being able to immediately account for their expenses by taking a photo of the receipt with the Elari app. We’ve heard very positive feedback about this. They really like this process.”

Elari Cards over the most efficient expense reporting process

“An expense reporting process simply can’t keep up with our flow of 50 to 100 transactions a day,” says Jet. “Thanks to Elari, we now manage this with a very small Finance team. For example, at the end of the month, I personally review all transactions to ensure the correct cost codes and valid receipts. I’d go so far as to say that you’d need to dedicate a full-time employee to the process if all expenses were handled through expense reports. Otherwise, it’s just not feasible. The way Elari requires employees to select cost codes themselves saves a lot of work.”

“With 50 transactions a day, a standard expense report process isn’t realistic.”

Jet, Controller at Team Visma | Lease a Bike

Benefits felt by team managers and administration

Bastiaan explains: “For a multi-day race like Paris-Nice, we go with seven riders and twenty staff members. That naturally involves hotel stays and expenses for groceries and supplies for the mechanics. That’s at least three transactions per person per day that they make using Elari Cards. And we have races like that every week, sometimes with as many as three teams at once. In our general ledger system, employees can select a race themselves and upload their receipts. This provides an overview of what the race cost us, allowing us to generate a report on our net expenses per race. Very handy.”

“For a multi-day race like Paris-Nice, we go with seven riders and twenty staff members. Elari provides an overview of what the race cost us. Very handy.”

Bastiaan, CFO at Team Visma | Lease a Bike

The downside of the Elari Cards “luxury”

Fortunately, Bastiaan and Jet didn’t encounter any resistance from employees when rolling out Elari. Bastiaan explains: “The only thing I’ve noticed is that employees start to take the convenience of Elari Cards for granted, and that can be a challenge. It becomes completely normal for everyone that they don’t have to pay out of pocket or submit expense reports. But when it does become necessary, for example if they’ve exceeded their daily limit, we sometimes see a bit of frustration. Fortunately, such issues can be resolved quickly. For instance, we can adjust daily limits in real time, and that gets them back on track. Although we’re happy to support our employees with a card, we’ve noticed that they quickly get used to these fast solutions,” says Bastiaan with a wink. “At many other companies, you have to submit expense reports and wait a month for your money. Our employees no longer even notice that contrast.”

Curious what Elari can do for your team?

Whether it’s a cycling team or a healthcare team, Elari Cards are flexible enough to fit your organization’s workflow. We’d be happy to demonstrate the power of these smart employee payment cards during an online demo. Request one at your convenience and get personalized advice. We look forward to hearing from you.