Key results with Spendesk
A faster month-end close: Lucanet reduced its month-end close from roughly 10 working days to five.
One place for payments and payables: The team can pay suppliers, pay employees and see where each payable is in the process.
A more consistent global setup: Spendesk has been rolled out across most of Lucanet’s 20 entities.
More capacity for a growing business: Lucanet describes Spendesk as helping its Finance team do more with fewer people.
Faster payment processing: Payments can be made within 20 minutes when required.
Less time spent on Finance operations: Lucanet says Spendesk saves the team days, rather than hours, every month.
About Lucanet
Lucanet is a global financial software company helping finance teams manage everything from financial consolidation and planning to reporting and disclosure management.
Headquartered in Germany, the company has 20 entities worldwide. As Lucanet grew, its Finance team needed simpler, more connected processes to keep up with the business.
The challenge
Before Spendesk, Lucanet managed procurement, expenses and invoice approvals across separate tools. Because those systems did not speak to each other, the Finance team had limited visibility into what had been approved, what was still pending and where items were in the process.
As Lucanet grew, the limitations of disconnected tools became more significant. The Finance team needed to support more people, more entities and more activity without adding the same level of manual complexity to every process.
Key challenges
Procurement, expenses and invoice approvals managed in separate tools
Limited visibility into where items were in the process
Difficulty maintaining consistent processes across multiple entities
More operational pressure as the business continued to grow
Time-consuming Finance administration
“Life before Spendesk, we had a procurement tool, we had a expense tool, we had a invoice approval tool, and all of that, they didn't speak to each other.”
Carsten Gerger
VP of Finance
Before Spendesk
- Disconnected procurement, expense and invoice approval tools
- Limited visibility over payables
- Multiple places to manage Finance processes
- Delayed monthly closings
- Increasing operational pressure as the business scaled
After Spendesk
- One place to manage supplier and employee payments
- Clearer visibility into where payables are in the process
- Spendesk rolled out across most of Lucanet’s 20 entities
- A month-end close reduced from roughly 10 working days to five
- More capacity for the Finance team to support growth
The solution
Lucanet introduced Spendesk to bring more of its payment and payable workflows into one place.
The change gave the team a central view of supplier payments, employee payments and the progress of each payable. It also supported a more consistent approach across Lucanet’s growing international organisation.
For the Finance team, the value comes from being able to manage key processes in one place while giving colleagues visibility into what is happening.
“We have 20 entities all around the world, and we've now rolled out Spendesk for most of them.”
Carsten Gerger
VP of Finance
From disconnected workflows to greater capacity
Lucanet’s Finance team moved from a collection of tools that did not communicate with each other to a more joined-up way of managing payments and payables.
That visibility matters across a multi-entity organisation. Employees can see where a payable is in the process, while Finance has a clearer view of the work that needs to be completed.
The change also helped the team respond more quickly when payments needed to be made.
With less time spent moving between systems and looking for information, the Finance team has created more capacity to keep pace with the business.
“I have the function to pay things literally within 20 minutes. In reality, Spendesk saves us days, not hours, every month.”
Tarryn Shepherdson
Team Lead Accounting
Building a more connected Finance function
Lucanet’s plans extend beyond bringing existing workflows together. The team is also exploring how connected systems and AI can make financial information easier to access and act on.
For Lucanet, AI creates the most value when it works inside the systems that already hold the relevant data and context.
“That only works when the AI sits inside the system that already holds the data and the context, which is why we started with the tools we run on rather than building something alongside them.”
Carsten Gerger
VP of Finance
The results
A month-end close in five days: Lucanet reduced its month-end close from roughly 10 working days to five.
More capacity with fewer people: Lucanet describes Spendesk as helping the Finance team do more with fewer people.
A single place for payment processes: Supplier payments, employee payments and payable status are managed in one place, giving the wider team more visibility into progress.
Rollout across most of 20 entities: Spendesk is now live across most of Lucanet’s entities around the world, supporting a more consistent Finance setup as the organisation grows.
Days saved every month: Lucanet says Spendesk saves the Finance team days every month, freeing up capacity for higher-value work.
More responsive payment processing: When a payment needs to be made quickly, Lucanet can process it within 20 minutes.
“Spendesk would be the first thing that I implemented when joining an accounting team at any company.”
Tarryn Shepherdson
Finance Team Lead
Help your Finance team keep pace with growth
As your organisation expands across people, entities and markets, connected Finance processes can help your team maintain visibility and create more capacity.
Discover how Spendesk can help your team manage company spending with greater clarity and efficiency. Talk to an expert today.
