Haynes and Boone increased control, gained efficiency, and expedited payments

Challenge

Haynes and Boone’s manual expense and invoice management involved a labor-intensive two-step process. Employees entered data into a spreadsheet and then sent it through interoffice mail for approval. Once approved, the spreadsheet was forwarded to AP for entry into the firm’s financial management system.

The firm wanted to automate these processes. Goals included increasing efficiency, simplifying expense and invoice management, and gaining a digital audit trail for all approvals. After evaluating Emburse and Concur, the firm selected Emburse because of its extensive expertise with legal industry clients. Another factor was Emburse’s ability to easily integrate with the firm’s other systems, including Elite, Interaction CRM, Global Exchange foreign payment processing, and American Express.

Emburse solution

Since implementing Emburse, Haynes and Boone’s expense reports are automatically checked for policy compliance and flagged if they fall outside the firm’s guidelines. Expenses and invoices are automatically routed to the appropriate approver, who can review the details online or via mobile device. Enforcing adherence to policies empowers the firm to require greater accountability for expenses and their associated budgets. Users can track where an expense or invoice is in the workflow process, giving them greater visibility and ownership.

Haynes and Boone met its goal of reducing the time it takes to approve and pay invoices and expenses. Emburse enabled the firm to minimize turnaround from the time an expense is incurred to the time it is reimbursed, billed, and collected, which allows the firm to recover costs more quickly, reduce write-offs, and improve employee satisfaction. In addition, the firm reduced costs associated with the purchase and storage of paper, thanks to a paperless system that provides an electronic audit trail.

Now, the firm can flexibly configure many functions on its own without assistance, including adding GL accounts, mapping to GL accounts, adding vendors, and reassigning approval roles. As Haynes and Boone continues to evolve, it can frequently and easily modify approval levels and routing rules within its Emburse solutions to adapt to changing business needs.

Result

Download the full story detailing how Haynes and Boone drove ROI with Emburse.

• Implemented a 100% paperless system
• Recovered costs faster and reduced write-offs
• Expedited approval and payment processes
• Improved compliance and enforced responsible spending
• Gained visibility, control, and a digital audit trail