Moving beyond legacy systems: Westernacher Consulting’s shift to smart expense management

As a trusted partner for mid-sized to large companies, Westernacher Consulting is known for its expertise in process and SAP consulting and in designing and implementing complex IT applications.

Operating globally and with offices in 25 countries, Westernacher Consulting is committed to improving its operations, including expense management. This commitment led the company to seek a modern solution to digitise processes and ensure consistency across its global operations.

Before adopting Rydoo, Westernacher Consulting’s global operations faced the challenge of standardising expense management. Most offices relied on a manual, Excel-based expense reporting system that lacked efficiency for both consultants and the back-office team.

In a typical week of travel, a consultant could generate up to 30 receipts for hotel stays, flights, taxis, and public transport. These receipts had to be physically mailed to the back office, manually entered into Excel spreadsheets, and then approved.

On the back-office side, this meant attaching receipts to invoices for rebilling clients, adding an extra layer of work. With over 100 consultants regularly travelling, processing over 3,000 receipts weekly quickly became unsustainable.

The lack of a consistent process across regions added a significant administrative burden, slowing the entire process from submission to reimbursement and invoicing. This challenge led Westernacher Consulting to seek a best-of-breed expense management solution to replace Excel and other legacy systems with a more efficient, standardised approach.

With each region handling expenses independently, Westernacher Consulting explored several solutions, including Concur, to overhaul its manual expense management. The company initially used a mix of systems, with the US relying on Concur while other countries operated independently. However, besides improving spend management, global operations had to be standardised.

After a detailed evaluation, the team considered Rydoo’s expense solution a better fit due to its flexibility, customisation options, and seamless integration with SAP. As of now, 21 subsidiaries are already using the platform, including the DACH region and key locations such as Canada, Sweden, Norway, France, Taiwan, and China.

The US entity also transitioned from Concur to Rydoo to align with the global rollout.

A direct integration with SAP, allowing for real-time, two-way data transfer, was essential for Westernacher Consulting. Since consultants frequently switched between projects, Rydoo needed to handle project code validation (WBS elements).  Custom fields were created to ensure that only active project codes were displayed. An automated process was also set up to transfer new project codes from SAP to Rydoo overnight.

Beyond going fully digital — eliminating paper receipts and manual data entry — Rydoo provided the customisation Westernacher Consulting needed. Its ability to integrate custom fields and manage complex workflows across regions enabled real-time data transfer and accurate project code validation within the company’s SAP-based system.

With Rydoo, consultants can now submit expenses via the mobile app, and the data automatically syncs with SAP.  This has reduced the administrative burden and sped up reimbursements, saving the consultants and back-office teams time to focus on other pressing tasks.

Rydoo made an immediate difference for Westernacher Consulting, with time savings being one of the most significant improvements. The team reported approximately a 75% reduction in the time spent on expense reporting. Tasks that previously took hours or days — manually logging expenses, mailing receipts, and waiting for approvals — can now be done in minutes.

The back-office team, responsible for processing expenses and invoicing clients, has also seen a major improvement. Rydoo’s automatic syncing with SAP improved the accuracy and speed of project accounting, allowing the team to issue invoices more promptly and reduce delays in client billing.

Cost savings were also significant. Consultants spent less time on non-billable tasks, allowing them to focus on client projects and saving administrative costs. The shift to a paperless system eliminated the need for physical storage space, such as filing cabinets or off-site storage facilities.

In addition to saving time and money, Rydoo improved operations overall. Reimbursements, which used to be processed monthly, were now issued weekly, increasing employee satisfaction. The approval process became more transparent, providing better oversight of expenses.

Although there was a natural initial resistance to the digital switch, consultants quickly adapted to Rydoo once they saw its ease, particularly the receipt OCR scanning capability.

Looking ahead, Westernacher Consulting is exploring ways to expand its use of Rydoo even further.

The company is considering upgrading to an Enterprise plan to unlock additional features, such as enhanced HR tool integration and advanced CO2 emissions tracking. Being carbon neutral since 2021, sustainability is a key focus for Westernacher, and Rydoo’s ability to provide detailed reports on travel-related emissions will help the company meet its environmental goals.

Westernacher Consulting is also working to roll out Rydoo’s advanced mileage and per diem logic in more regions, further streamlining expense management processes across its global operations.

For Westernacher Consulting, Rydoo has been a game-changer. The platform has improved expense management efficiency and helped the company save time and resources. With Rydoo, consultants can focus more on their core work, while the back-office teams benefit from greater accuracy and control over project accounting.