Turnkey + Decimal case study

At a Glance

Accounting package:

Favorite features:

• Receipt scanning
• QuickBooks Online integration
• Expense management

The best part:

• Saving hours and hours going through expenses and receipts
• Reimbursing contractors quickly– as fast as the next day

Customer since (Turnkey): 2020

Partner since (Decimal): 2020

Turnkey, a nationwide event management solutions partner that’s worked with the likes of Coca-Cola, Subaru, and Whole Foods, turned to Expensify in 2020 at the recommendation of their ExpensifyApproved! accounting partner, Decimal. 

With complex operations, internal staff, and external vendors and contractors, Turnkey needed a solution to keep them from drowning in expense reports and receipts so they could focus on what matters most: running the business. 

Check out how they’re tracking expenses easily by using Expensify. 

From chaos to streamlined efficiency

When Turnkey was a small and growing company, they used accounting software that didn’t cut it for ease of use, and lacked reporting that allowed them to have a macro view of everything. The system required manual entry for expenses and didn’t give them a clear overview of all of their financials. 

As their executive team likes to be extremely hands-on and “in” the business, they knew they needed a better solution beyond clunky software, Excel sheets with too many tabs, and manually entering receipts. 

So, they said goodbye to their days of collecting paper and turned to Expensify at the recommendation of their accounting partner, Decimal – part of the ExpensifyApproved! accountants program. 

In the words of Paul Baresh, Turnkey’s Operations & Account Services VP, “The biggest advantage about Expensify is the receipt scanning feature.” With so many contractors on the road at any given time, it’s incredibly challenging to expect them to mail in receipts to Turnkey’s headquarters, much less keep track of tiny pieces of paper. Now, paying staff back quickly is a breeze, thanks to the receipt scanning app. 

Saving hours of work – every day

Turnkey hired Decimal to help with their accounting, but because they’re so hands-on with the business, they wanted a tech stack that offered a clear view into their financial processes and business expense reconciliation. Moreover, Turnkey didn’t want to have to ask Decimal every time they needed a report. 

This is no easy feat when just about everything on the expense side is tracked on a project-by-project basis.

That’s why Turnkey loves that Expensify and its direct QuickBooks integration work together for expense management and reconciliation, giving them transparency over every step of the process.

Decimal helps Turnkey keep liabilities to a minimum, and Turnkey uses Expensify to cut down on hours of work by utilizing its automated expense management features.

Before using Expensify and all its features for expense management, Paul explained that just keeping track of receipts, manually entering them into an Excel sheet, and then trying to match them up with bank transactions was a nightmare. It was almost a full time job to make sure all the numbers added up. 

“Expensify saves me hours and hours of work.”

— Paul Baresh

A few of their favorite things

Besides the receipt scanning app, Turnkey appreciates Expensify’s user-friendly platform, made with an employee-first design. When Turnkey switched to Expensify for expense management, they were pleased to learn that most of their contractors on the road were already familiar with the app, meaning the onboarding process was quick, and their staff could get reimbursed right away while busy on the road. 

Turnkey holds events nationwide and has transportation staff driving truckloads of event assets to different locations for each project, resulting in piles of out-of-pocket expenses like fuel, toll fees, and food. Because of this, it was really important to Paul and the internal team at Turnkey to find a solution that would enable drivers to be reimbursed quickly, so they weren’t out of their own personal cash for essential travel expenses.

Along with Turnkey’s contractors, their internal team was able to onboard quickly to Expensify as well, and as a result, with everyone using the same tool, their financial processing kept running smoothly. 

“Everyone loves Expensify because it’s such an easy tool to use for capturing expenses and getting paid back. From our internal employees to our truck drivers on the ground, everyone loves how simple it is to capture their expenses and get reimbursed,” Paul told us.

According to Paul, Expensify “makes life easier because you can customize it to fit your needs. It takes all the headaches out of tracking expenses and reconciles with QuickBooks, which is a huge benefit for our small accounting team.” 

Being an ExpensifyApproved! accounting partner 

As Turnkey shared, Decimal does the more complicated aspect of Turnkey’s accounting. This involves gathering all the reports from QuickBooks (reconciled from Expensify) and making sure everything’s in compliance. 

Decimal knows that busy people like Paul don’t have time to waste and need an easy tool to track and manage expenses. That’s why they’ve partnered with Expensify and recommend the solution to their clients. 

Decimal’s Partnership Manager, Jared Duffin, told us, “Expensify is one of their top recommendations for expense management because of how much their clients, like Turnkey, enjoy the solution.” He continued, "For every client who uses it, it’s truly improved their entire expense management processes.” 

On top of that, Jared noted that Expensify allows Decimal to flex how each client wants their accounting done. Some are like Paul, who loves to be incredibly involved, whereas others never want to look at a spreadsheet again in their life. 

“It's been great working with Expensify. It's great being able to align with top-tier partners with whom we have good support and connections.”

— Jared Duffin

The final word from Turnkey

So, what’s the bottom line for Turnkey when it comes to using Expensify? We asked them to share a one-liner, and this is how they summed it up: 

“It actually allows you to run your business.” 

And for us, that’s a win every day.