Inside the Expensify Brooklyn Nets partnership: 150 hours a month saved
An NBA franchise runs a finance operation that looks very little like a basketball team's. Player salary and the salary cap, arena operations, and a roster and support staff on the road for months all flow through the same books.
The Expensify Brooklyn Nets partnership, announced in November 2025, put a name on a working relationship that had already been running that operation for years.
"I think people think it's just a basketball team, but it's much more than that."
Andrew Pedowitz, Senior Director of Finance & Accounting, Brooklyn Nets
Before Expensify, the Nets’ travel expense management ran on paper. Two members of the Nets' finance leadership sat down on camera to talk about what changed. Check it out below.
Quick stats
| Before Expensify | With Expensify | |
|---|---|---|
| Expense reporting | Paper-based, physical stacks of receipts | Automated capture and coding |
| Finance department time saved | n/a | ~150 hours per month |
| Travel booking | Happening outside travel policy | Centralized in one platform |
| Travel review and approval | Manual | Within 24 hours |
How the Expensify Brooklyn Nets partnership started
In November 2025, Expensify announced a multi-year partnership with the Brooklyn Nets, naming it the team's official travel and expense management partner and marking Expensify's first deal with a professional sports franchise.
The deal covers in-arena branding at Barclays Center and co-branded content across Nets digital channels through the 2025-26 NBA season.
The announcement was less a beginning than a formalization. The Nets, through Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the Nets, the New York Liberty, and Barclays Center, had already been running Expensify for years and were among the earliest adopters of Expensify Travel.
Catherine Carlson, Executive Vice President of Global Partnerships at BSE, put it as a next step rather than a new endorsement:
"As our organizations continue to grow together, we're excited to introduce Nets fans and business audiences to tools that streamline operations and boost everyday efficiency."
Nick Tooker, Head of IR & Strategic Partnerships at Expensify, framed it the same way, calling the Nets' adoption of Expensify Travel a sign of how forward-thinking organizations are unifying the back office in one place.
NBA finance is more complicated than it looks
Andrew Pedowitz, Senior Director of Finance & Accounting, speaks to the expense side of the operation. And Josue Napa, Senior Vice President of Finance, handles travel. Both started in the same place when asked what outsiders misunderstand about the work.
"People don't understand the complexities that go into it. It is very complex, with the players and different departments." – Andrew Pedowitz, Senior Director of Finance & Accounting, Brooklyn Nets
"What people don't understand is that finance inside of an NBA franchise can look similar to other companies, and there are other aspects that are very unique, such as player salary and costs that involve the basketball team traveling across the country." – Josue Napa, Senior Vice President of Finance, Brooklyn Nets
Player salary and the salary cap carry compliance weight that most companies never deal with. Travel volume is relentless in a way a normal corporate calendar isn't, with the team, the scouts, and the support staff all on the move for months at a stretch.
Before Expensify: Physical stacks of receipts
The old process had no automation in it. Andrew Pedowitz explained:
"Before Expensify, everything was paper-based. They would have a stack of all their receipts, and the automation that we have now makes everything much better."
Paper is slow in a way that compounds. Receipts get lost, coding happens by hand, and every approval waits on a physical document reaching the right desk. For a finance team working against a month-end close, that is time nobody has.
After Expensify: Automation instead of paper
Expensify replaces the paper trail with capture at the source. Receipt scanning with SmartScan reads a photographed receipt and codes it automatically, so the expense report arrives already categorized instead of arriving as raw paper to be processed. Approvals stop being data entry.
Pedowitz put a number on what that gives back.
"If I had to put some hard numbers into it, I would say it is probably about 150 hours per month in savings, just due to the automated features of Expensify."
The travel problem: Bookings happening outside policy
On Napa's side, the issue was never about speed, but control. He says:
"The main problem the Nets were trying to solve was looking for a travel solution. A lot of people were booking outside of our travel policy."
Off-policy booking costs more than the rate difference. It fragments the data finance needs, removes any pricing leverage the organization has negotiated, and leaves spend invisible until it shows up after the trip.
A corporate travel booking tool only fixes that if travelers actually use it, which means the controls cannot come at the cost of convenience.
"When team members need to travel, they can go into the Expensify platform, look for convenient flights at the best pricing, and get approved within a 24-hour period for their travel." – Josue Napa
What the Nets would tell another sports finance leader
Governance and ease usually trade against each other. Adding controls adds steps, and adding steps sends people back around the system. Napa's read is that the Nets did not have to choose.
"If I was talking to a CFO of another sports team, I would highlight that Expensify Travel is easy to use. You can book travel within the right governance and at the best price." – Josue Napa
What the Nets get beyond the product
Product access is one part of the arrangement. The rest is a support structure built around how the organization actually runs.
A dedicated account manager, as the single point of contact for anything day to day.
A dedicated partner manager, running the partnership itself.
Hands-on training, delivered to the team directly rather than left to documentation.
VIP travel support inside Expensify Travel.
Custom configuration, so the setup matches the way the Nets already work instead of a default template.
One platform for travel and expenses
The Nets' finance team didn't set out to buy simple software and call it a day. They set out to stop losing days to paper and stop losing travel spend to booking channels they couldn't see.
"Expensify Travel has dramatically reduced the time that it takes to process travel and expenses."
– Josue Napa
Paper receipts don't survive a full NBA season. Expensify Travel handles the trip so finance can handle the close. Click on the button below to get started.
FAQs about the Expensify x Brooklyn Nets partnership
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The Brooklyn Nets' finance team estimates about 150 hours saved per month, which Senior Director of Finance & Accounting Andrew Pedowitz attributes to Expensify's automated features replacing a fully paper-based process.
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Staff book inside the Expensify platform, where they can compare flights at negotiated pricing and get approved within roughly a 24-hour window, all within the organization's travel policy.
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Travel was being booked outside the team's travel policy. The Nets needed a centralized travel solution that held the right governance and pricing without making booking harder for the traveler.
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Yes. The multi-year partnership announced in November 2025 is Expensify's first with a professional sports franchise, though the Nets had already been Expensify customers and early Expensify Travel adopters for years beforehand.
