Gordon James Realty case study
At a Glance
Favorite features:
- Expensify Card
- Salesforce integration
- Expensify API
- Smart Limits
- Real time notifications
The best part:
- Seamless setup and around 10 minutes to train new employees
- Reduced labor costs thanks to fewer follow ups needed
- Compliance rate increased from 25% to almost 100%
Partner since: 2011
Streamlining real estate agent expenses leads to increased efficiencies
Gordon James, a property management company, adopted Expensify in 2018 to streamline tracking their real estate expenses with the Expensify Card. Since then, they’ve leveraged multiple features, including integrating with Salesforce using the Expensify API, resulting in increased efficiency, accuracy, and compliance for their real estate agent expenses.
Increasing efficiency with the Expensify API
To reduce wasted time spent on manually entering expense data, the team at Gordon James Realty took advantage of the Expensify API to automate various aspects of their expense management process, including tag updating, automated expense report submission and record creation, and facilitated seamless receipt attachment to enhance their expense management capabilities.
Reducing labor costs and increasing compliance with Expensify’s integrations
In addition to customizing their process with the API, the team loves that Expensify can integrate with their preferred workflow platforms.
“One of our favorite features is Expensify's ability to seamlessly integrate with our other business-critical platforms like Salesforce and Accounting Seed,” says Jenna Sinise, Director at Gordon James Realty. “This has allowed us to synchronize our expense data across platforms, reducing manual data entry and enabling us to maintain a comprehensive view of our financial information. [Not only that, but] the seamless roll-out and effortless integration led to increased compliance and a significant reduction in labor costs.”
How the Expensify Card elevates Gordon James’ internal compliance
The team also appreciates how the Expensify Card provides real-time notifications, is easy to use, and allows them to customize reports to their specifications, all of which ensure their company is compliant with all financial regulations and requirements. The team loves Smart Limits, a feature that gives admins the ability to easily and quickly update card limits when needed, as well as the 1% cash back from every card purchase.
“Thanks to the Expensify Card, we’re able to maintain greater compliance with our internal expense policies and reduce the need for extensive follow-ups with employees for missing receipts,” Sinise recounts.
The implementation process was smooth, with employee training typically taking around 10 minutes. On the admin side, the Gordon James team was able to get everything set up in Expensify and Salesforce within a few hours, ensuring a seamless transition from their previous corporate card program. “Our previous card provider was falling short in offering a streamlined and integrated solution for linking expenses to client accounts, causing additional complexity and confusion,” Sinise says.
Increase compliance with contractors to almost 100%
The real time notifications immediately remind employees and contractors to add receipts, simplifying the process for both our finance team and our employees and helping us ensure policy compliance and expense tracking accuracy. The team recognized the benefits of using Expensify and the Expensify Card for their contractors in the field.
Sinise explains, “With our previous system, contractors had to keep track of physical receipts, remember to upload them separately, and recall which property each expense related to. This process was prone to inaccuracies and delays. With the immediate notification of a new charge, they can quickly assign the receipt to the appropriate property and submit the expense. Implementing Expensify improved our compliance rate, jumping from around 25% to almost 100%.”
It always comes down to time, cost, and efficiency
Overseeing and organizing real estate expenses can be a pain. Expensify alleviated the Gordon James team’s efficiency concerns, corporate card requirements, and integration needs, all while improving contractor expense management, reducing costs, and automating approval workflows. At the end of the day however, the bottom line improved when they implemented Expensify.
Sinise says, “Moving to Expensify has led to a noticeable reduction in our labor costs. Less time and effort are now spent on follow-ups with cardholders and manual expense report checks. Now that expenses can be accurately linked back to a client property and work order, we have improved our ability to bill clients accurately for each expense, an area we struggled with previously. Expensify's automated approval workflows have made the report review and approval process more efficient. It reduces the turnaround time for expense reimbursements and helps us maintain better control over our expenses.”
Employee feedback and overall experience
Gordon James' experience with the Expensify Card has resulted in improved efficiency, compliance, and cost reduction in their real estate expenses. The seamless integration, customization capabilities, and ease of use have transformed their processes, making spend management and reporting a streamlined and effortless task.
“Since moving away from Concur and implementing Expensify 7+ years ago alongside Salesforce, we have experienced significant improvements in efficiency and have been able to deliver a uniquely unparalleled customer experience within our industry,” says Thomas Carcone, Managing Partner at Gordon James Realty. “Expensify has transformed our expense reporting process, striking a balance between functionality, customization, and simplicity. With its user-friendly design, our team quickly adapted to Expensify, enhancing the efficiency of tracking expenses back to clients and work orders. This hasn't just saved us cost, it's fundamentally restructured our approach to managing expenses.”
