How Stow is saving 97% more time with digital expensing

The Stow Group is a global leader in designing and manufacturing intelligent storage solutions that make warehouses run smoother and smarter. They have two strong brands under one roof: Stow Racking, known for high-quality racking systems, and Movu Robotics, a pioneer in bringing automation and robotics to the warehouse.

With a network of production facilities spread across Europe, Stow efficiently processes large volumes of steel (320,000 tonnes per year) and delivers products to customers in an economical and transport-friendly way.

Stow’s success hinges on its network of 20 sales branches and nearly 1,900 dedicated employees. However, managing expenses within this complex ecosystem of factories, teams, and different systems was a huge undertaking.

Relying on manual processes across multiple entities — each of them obliged to comply with specific local rules and regulations — led to some challenges. High processing costs due to time-consuming data entry, frequent loss of paper receipts and the difficulty of generating insightful reports were some of Stow’s major issues with their previous expensing process, so the team decided to invest in an expense management software solution to automate and streamline the entire process.

Rydoo’s adaptability, global reach and compliance, competitive pricing and compatibilities made it the perfect choice for Stow’s needs.

The group has a complex setup with different entities using different ERP systems and they needed a solution that could work across all of these systems, not just one. Compared with some competitors, Rydoo was ahead due to its seamless integrations, regardless of the existing ERP system.

In addition, while most entities in Stow use SAP, again, some have different systems. Rydoo can handle both standard and custom setups. Rydoo also offers custom data export features, a major advantage for Stow because it allows them to extract and analyse data in the way they need.

Finally, Rydoo offered a competitive price and having a dedicated contact in Belgium to ensure local support was also important as the Belgian and French branches were the starting point.

The plan was to first roll out the tool in Belgium and France, two of Stow’s largest entities. A successful implementation and experience in these two branches would pave the way for the rest of the company to follow. Today, the expense management software is almost entirely implemented throughout the Stow Group, with 15 countries already using Rydoo.

The process went smoothly thanks to some key factors:

• Flexible support

Stow’s team invested in an additional onboarding support package so they could have a dedicated point of contact from Rydoo throughout the whole process. As they started onboarding during the summer months, this meant not all employees would be using the software immediately since they were on holiday.

For that, and to make the process effortless for everyone to be enrolled, Rydoo agreed to offer a flexible onboarding plan, extending their support until all employees were fully onboarded.

• Involving multiple teams from day 1

Pieter Goossens, Stow’s Business Analyst Finance, focused on getting everyone involved and contacting Stow employees, while Rydoo’s team set up tests and the background work of loading user information and accounts into the system. These efforts made the process much smoother for everyone involved.

• Multilingual training

Rydoo provided high-quality training and, where necessary, training in local languages, such as German, to ensure that everyone received clear instructions in their native language.

Stow’s implementation of Rydoo has transformed expense management across the organisation, delivering significant benefits to both employees and the finance team.

Employees, especially those who travel frequently, are particularly happy with the mobile app as it allows them to easily track and record expenses on the go, eliminating lost receipts and ensuring accurate expense allocation. This is particularly helpful for expenses such as meals while working abroad or special cold-weather clothing required for specific projects.

As a result, paperwork has been significantly reduced and replaced with a convenient and easy-to-use software that saves time and resources required to manage expenses manually. The accounting team reported that “uploading and checking information now takes 5 minutes, compared to a full day of manual data entry in the past”. This translates into an approximately 97% saving in hours of manual data entry.

Rydoo has also established a more standardised approach to expense management across the entire group. This, combined with the ease of generating reports and filtering data, gives Stow valuable insights into spending patterns. This information is critical to managing costs effectively, especially in challenging economic times.

With a separate robotics unit, Stow appreciates Rydoo’s ability to accommodate to different approval structures. If an employee is based out of France and the approver is in Belgium, they do not need to log in to the French entity’s account to approve the expenses, it can all be conveniently done in one single platform. This simplifies the approval process and makes reimbursements faster for employees.

Another benefit is how easy it is to store data. Instead of storing paper receipts, Stow uses Rydoo’s unique ID system to create a central archive. This ensures easy access to past expense records for audits or other purposes, streamlining processes and improving overall visibility.

Stow has successfully implemented Rydoo in 15 units, with Portugal and Spain on the horizon for future integration.

Stow is applying the lessons learned from the initial rollout to ensure a smooth transition: a well-defined roadmap is essential for a successful implementation across multiple entities. This roadmap should be tailored to the specific needs of each entity and involve key stakeholders such as HR and country managers.

In addition, establishing clear approval workflows and setting realistic timelines while maintaining open communication channels is critical to minimise delays and ensure everyone understands their role in the process.

The overall benefits of Rydoo are clear: the solution has improved efficiency, reduced costs and provided valuable insights for more accurate financial decision-making.