Winner: 2024 Best Run Concur
The Mushroom Group: Driving drives efficiencies with Concur Expense, increasing visibility of spend, enhancing employee experience and improving data accuracy. Download the DocumentSAP Australia and New Zealand
Best Run Awards 2024
Best Run Awards 2024
Best Run SAP
Industry WebsiteProduct and Services Featured SAP Solutions
Music & Entertainment https://mushroomgroup.com/Recording and publishing music
label. Artist and talent management,
merchandising, creative and
marketing services, venues,
exhibition and event production, film
and podcast production.
Concur Expense, SAP ByDesign
The Mushroom Group are a growing company, with a growing volume of transactions and a limited amount of human resource to support the expense
management process. The organisation required an expense solution that could support their complex workflow structure and policy compliance, provide greater
transparency on expenses as well as timeous delivery to better support decision making.
The Group was also looking for a solution that could offer efficiencies, including integration with their ERP system, SAP ByDesign, and third-party apps for travel
and credit card feeds.
Enhanced reporting was also a huge metric during the transformation as they searched for a solution with a robust and mature catalogue of reports that required
little to no customisation.
The Mushroom Group drives efficiencies with Concur Expense,
increasing visibility of spend, enhancing employee experience and
improving data accuracy, while integrating with SAP ByDesign.
Intelligent Spend & Business Networks – SAP Concur
Industry WebsiteProduct and Services Featured SAP Solutions
Music & Entertainment https://mushroomgroup.com/Recording and publishing music
label. Artist and talent management,
merchandising, creative and
marketing services, venues,
exhibition and event production, film
and podcast production.
Concur Expense, SAP ByDesign
The Mushroom Group are a growing company, with a growing volume of transactions and a limited amount of human resource to support the expense
management process. The organisation required an expense solution that could support their complex workflow structure and policy compliance, provide greater
transparency on expenses as well as timeous delivery to better support decision making.
The Group was also looking for a solution that could offer efficiencies, including integration with their ERP system, SAP ByDesign, and third-party apps for travel
and credit card feeds.
Enhanced reporting was also a huge metric during the transformation as they searched for a solution with a robust and mature catalogue of reports that required
little to no customisation.
The Mushroom Group drives efficiencies with Concur Expense,
increasing visibility of spend, enhancing employee experience and
improving data accuracy, while integrating with SAP ByDesign.
Intelligent Spend & Business Networks – SAP Concur
Challenges
In 2021 we implemented SAP ByDesign, we were running an expense management tool, which did not support an
API connection with SAP ByDesign and had to “bridge” our broken process with a manual export that 99% of the
time loaded with multiple exceptions due to our complex structure. This cost us many hours of development,
testing and processing.
We had no ability to integrate our credit card feeds, resorting to manually uploading credit card transactions
monthly leading to a delays in the cards being reconciled. Impacted our project reporting timeframes and in some
cases our reporting to customers/external stakeholders. Manually loading card transactions exposed us to risk.
We were always playing “catch up”.
Since we are multiple companies that often work in synergy on projects, our staff often would require the option to
allocate costs to another company within the group, there is no formal logic on who can allocate where, which
posed some challenges for our legacy EMS tool. This meant that onus was falling on Accounts payable to seek
approval at the payment stage instead of approval being sought at the submission stage. This not only caused a
delay in processing, impacted project reporting and cash flow it also impacted timely reimbursements.
In some cases, Business managers couldn’t fully own their results as they had no control over the allocations they
were receiving until they were reading them in their result.
In 2021 we implemented SAP ByDesign, we were running an expense management tool, which did not support an
API connection with SAP ByDesign and had to “bridge” our broken process with a manual export that 99% of the
time loaded with multiple exceptions due to our complex structure. This cost us many hours of development,
testing and processing.
We had no ability to integrate our credit card feeds, resorting to manually uploading credit card transactions
monthly leading to a delays in the cards being reconciled. Impacted our project reporting timeframes and in some
cases our reporting to customers/external stakeholders. Manually loading card transactions exposed us to risk.
We were always playing “catch up”.
Since we are multiple companies that often work in synergy on projects, our staff often would require the option to
allocate costs to another company within the group, there is no formal logic on who can allocate where, which
posed some challenges for our legacy EMS tool. This meant that onus was falling on Accounts payable to seek
approval at the payment stage instead of approval being sought at the submission stage. This not only caused a
delay in processing, impacted project reporting and cash flow it also impacted timely reimbursements.
In some cases, Business managers couldn’t fully own their results as they had no control over the allocations they
were receiving until they were reading them in their result.
Solution
We chose to implement Concur Expense because it could offer us an interface with our ERP, SAP ByDesign,
allowing us to seamlessly integrate, enhancing data accuracy and completely removing the need for manual data
transfers between systems.
Integration of our corporate credit card feed into Concur Expense has reduced the lead time of card holders
reconciling cards, combined with the expense Assistant function and OCR the amount of manual intervention is
reduced considerably.
We were able to deploy a cost object approver workflow which enables the approval of intercompany
allocations before they reach the processing stage, making the financial result more transparent to the Business
mangers & saving the finance team many hours. We were able to customise the configuration to include our
project coding, giving us better visibility of spend to budget, supporting the decision-making process more
efficiently.
We chose to implement Concur Expense because it could offer us an interface with our ERP, SAP ByDesign,
allowing us to seamlessly integrate, enhancing data accuracy and completely removing the need for manual data
transfers between systems.
Integration of our corporate credit card feed into Concur Expense has reduced the lead time of card holders
reconciling cards, combined with the expense Assistant function and OCR the amount of manual intervention is
reduced considerably.
We were able to deploy a cost object approver workflow which enables the approval of intercompany
allocations before they reach the processing stage, making the financial result more transparent to the Business
mangers & saving the finance team many hours. We were able to customise the configuration to include our
project coding, giving us better visibility of spend to budget, supporting the decision-making process more
efficiently.
Impact
Up to 30 days saved on
credit card reconciliation
14 hours saved doing
intercompany recharges
9 day saving in expense
reimbursement processing
(14 days>5 days)
The impact of Concur Expense goes beyond just making our lives easier. The cost savings are quite apparent. The reduction in
manual processing has not only saved time but also reduced the risk of errors. It's impressive to see how much paper usage
we've eliminated, aligning with our sustainability goals.
One of the qualitative achievements we have noticed is the improved accuracy and compliance. A decline in errors related to
policy violations, contributing to a more organised and transparent expense management process. Seeing a high adoption rate
among my colleagues is a testament to the success of this implementation. We've embraced SAP Concur, and it has become an
integral part of our daily routine.
On the stakeholder front, the smoother financial processes have led to more accurate settlements, contributing to stronger
relationships with our clients. I believe these improvements play a significant role in their overall satisfaction with our services.
Data insights provided by SAP Concur have opened new doors for strategic decision-making. Having access to clear and
comprehensive reports empowers us to allocate resources more effectively and make informed business choices.
In a nutshell, the implementation of SAP Concur has not only optimised our processes but has also improved our work
experience and relationships with customers and partners. It's a win-win situation that demonstrates the organisation's
commitment to innovation and efficiency..
Up to 30 days saved on
credit card reconciliation
14 hours saved doing
intercompany recharges
9 day saving in expense
reimbursement processing
(14 days>5 days)
The impact of Concur Expense goes beyond just making our lives easier. The cost savings are quite apparent. The reduction in
manual processing has not only saved time but also reduced the risk of errors. It's impressive to see how much paper usage
we've eliminated, aligning with our sustainability goals.
One of the qualitative achievements we have noticed is the improved accuracy and compliance. A decline in errors related to
policy violations, contributing to a more organised and transparent expense management process. Seeing a high adoption rate
among my colleagues is a testament to the success of this implementation. We've embraced SAP Concur, and it has become an
integral part of our daily routine.
On the stakeholder front, the smoother financial processes have led to more accurate settlements, contributing to stronger
relationships with our clients. I believe these improvements play a significant role in their overall satisfaction with our services.
Data insights provided by SAP Concur have opened new doors for strategic decision-making. Having access to clear and
comprehensive reports empowers us to allocate resources more effectively and make informed business choices.
In a nutshell, the implementation of SAP Concur has not only optimised our processes but has also improved our work
experience and relationships with customers and partners. It's a win-win situation that demonstrates the organisation's
commitment to innovation and efficiency..
“”"The cost savings are quite apparent. The reduction in manual
processing has not only saved time but also reduced the risk of
errors. It’s impressive to see how much paper usage we’ve
eliminated, aligning with our sustainability goals.”
Candice Thomason, Head of Business Intelligence and Data at The Mushroom Group
processing has not only saved time but also reduced the risk of
errors. It’s impressive to see how much paper usage we’ve
eliminated, aligning with our sustainability goals.”
Candice Thomason, Head of Business Intelligence and Data at The Mushroom Group