How Knauf Streamlined Global Expense Management 

The challenge

In the past, Knauf faced significant hurdles in aligning travel global expense processes. Knauf was:  

• Serving 117 entities around the world. 
• Dealing with diverse legal requirements in different countries
• Relying on an Excel-based expense management process.
• Needing a common tool for members across the globe.  

The company’s previous reliance on Excel for managing expenses proved too complicated and time-consuming for their complex global operations. This led to inefficiencies and high administrative burdens.  

The solution 

What is an expense management solution?  

An expense management solution is a system designed to streamline the process of tracking and controlling business expenses. This ensures that expenses are recorded accurately, comply with internal policies, and are reimbursed efficiently. 

During this project, a "Blueprint" was developed by Knauf in collaboration with Mobilexpense. This “Blueprint” serves as the baseline for each new entity within the organisation. 

Knauf's aim was to establish a harmonised approach that would be consistent across all countries and companies, ensuring a standardised process regardless of location. In today's world, standardisation is a necessity. It provides a clear framework for a step-by-step rollout, allowing for efficient and uniform implementation across the board. 

From the get-go, this comprehensive process highlighted the collaborative effort between the two parties.

The key reasons the company chose Mobilexpense include:  

• Knauf could maximise automation to save resources and ensure document accuracy. 
• Mobilexpense would advise on best industry practices, fostering a mutually beneficial relationship. 
• Mobilexpense provided a standardised, user-friendly platform facilitating the harmonisation of processes and compliance with legal requirements.  

Knauf could now keep it simple. 

The results 

To overcome their challenges, Knauf's finance team decided to implement Mobilexpense as their global expense management solution. The business transition to our platform was done in stages. It began with Knauf Insulation and then later expanded to other Knauf entities.  

This implementation yielded several significant benefits for Knauf:  

• Harmonised processes: Adopting Mobilexpense led to standardised processes across global subsidiaries. Which simplified job rotations and enhanced user familiarity. 
• Efficiency gains: Transitioning from drowning in manual documents to seamlessly attaching digital documents in SAP reduced administrative burdens and improved resource utilisation. 
• Cost reduction: The cost per report for invoice processing decreased, positively impacting their financial performance. 
• Enhanced communication: Regular meetings and continuous collaboration with Mobilexpense representatives improved process improvements and compliance. 
• Flexible card implementation: Knauf's new ability to implement multiple kinds of cards into an expense platform like Mobilexpense, including integrated lodge cards and privately funded cards, provided flexibility and tailored solutions for various business needs.
• User satisfaction: The end users highlighted the convenience of Mobilexpense's mobile app and web services. They especially enjoy being able to take photos of receipts during business trips.  

Additionally, Knauf uses Mobilexpense to send copies of the receipts along with their Accounting Files, and they are stored directly in the ERP system (optical archive). This detail significantly streamlines Knauf finance team’s work. This removes the tedious task of searching for receipts. 

Knauf also recently launched a new initiative, they are excited to have activated OCR (Optical Character Recognition). This new integration extracts important information from receipts and invoices after scanning them which removes the need to manually input the values in the fields.  

Key outcomes 

Knauf's collaboration with Mobilexpense improved efficiency, cost savings, and enhanced global operational alignment.  

The continuous improvement process, proactive customer support, and user-centric design of Mobilexpense played crucial roles in achieving these outcomes. Günter Müller expressed his satisfaction with Mobilexpense, recommending it for its ease of use and collaborative support.  

Implementing Mobilexpense at Knauf has highlighted the value of streamlined processes, effective communication, and continuous enhancement.  

Knauf now understands what it means to achieve operational excellence through finance and expense management.