GrowthForce case study

GrowthForce case study

At a Glance

Accounting partner:

ExpensifyApproved!

Accounting package:

The competition:

  • Expensify vs. Concur vs. Tallie

GrowthForce accounts love:

  • Direct QBD & QBO connection
  • Ease of use

Clients love:

  • Expensing on-the-go with the mobile app and SmartScan

The best part:

  • Reducing human error
  • Speeding up processing times
  • Lowering costs for both admins and clients

Customer since: 2014

Since 2004, GrowthForce has led the industry in zero-entry accounting for growing businesses and nonprofits. As part of that movement, GrowthForce has selected Expensify as their preferred accounting management application for automating their clients’ receipt and expense management processes.

Learn how Expensify helps GrowthForce and their clients the front- and back-end tools to not only run their businesses efficiently but also to provide actionable intelligence needed to make data-driven decisions.

Choosing the right apps for creating a smart back office

GrowthForce provides bookkeeping, accounting, and controller services for growing companies and nonprofits. The GrowthForce team acts as advisors to their clients, providing them with accurate data in real time on spend and costs.

Because of this, vetting new apps before recommending the solution to clients is crucial. As with the case for many longtime Expensify users and partners, the GrowthForce team first learned of Expensify through a deep frustration with manual expense processes.

GrowthForce’s cofounder James Dougal started using Expensify personally to send reports in when he was a consultant. Once he started playing around with the app and understanding Expensify’s potential, he asked Marsha Gibb’s Onboarding Team to fully test and vet the app.

“There’s a list of must-have features we look for each time we evaluate a new app, but the most important feature is the quality of the QuickBooks integration for both Desktop and Online. Our firm standardizes on QuickBooks, so it is essential that all apps in our tech stack have a direct QuickBooks connection. No more CSV templates or manual uploading or downloading — all the data has to be transferred with the click of a button,” says Marsha. “Expensify passed our test with flying colors. Not only do they have a great QuickBooks integration, but their web and mobile apps are intuitive and easy to set up, which makes it super easy to recommend to our clients.”

Marsha and her team also list Expensify’s rapid reimbursement, affordable user-based pricing, straightforward mapping, and easy application and training as key reasons why they choose to recommend Expensify to clients. “Simply put, Expensify offers a lot of key functionality that gives us the ability to automate the most repetitive and mundane tasks, and we’re in turn able to provide key actionable insights to help our clients grow.”

CEO Stephen King sitting at his desk while holding his phone and sitting at his desk
Expensify offers a lot of key functionality that gives us the ability to automate the most repetitive and mundane tasks, and we’re in turn able to provide key actionable insights to help our clients grow.

Stephen King

CEO, GrowthForce

The perks of being an ExpensifyApproved! partner

GrowthForce has been a Silver tier partner in the ExpensifyApproved! program since 2014. Among the perks partners receive in this free program, including discounts, expedited support, and exclusive networking opportunities, the biggest advantage of joining the Approved! Program is having a dedicated account manager.

“We find Expensify works well with our startup clients, especially when they only have one or two staff needing to track expenses in the beginning,” says Marsha. “As our clients grow, we make sure to link Expensify with their QuickBooks setup, and both naturally become part of their business operations. It’s so great to have a dedicated person we can reach out to on the Expensify team whenever we have questions or issues and we love knowing that there’s always someone on the other side to help us out no matter how big or small the question.”

Last words

“Our goal at GrowthForce is to provide actionable financial intelligence to help our clients make data-driven decisions,” says co-founder James Dougal. “To do this, we’ve selected the best-in-breed expense management application for our tech stack, and we’re excited to continue to work together in the years ahead.”

James Dean

Michigan > Chicago > SF. Ghostwriter for Train. Waiting for the MySpace resurgence to recalibrate his Top 8. Loves takeout AND delivery. Personal goal: every Netflix session ends with "Are you still watching?".