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Key results with Spendesk
£20k annual savings: Halved accountancy costs from £40k to £20k per year.
Enabled £400k contract delivery: The contract would be impossible without Spendesk.
Team empowerment: Staff autonomy over budgets up to £60k with instant oversight.
Complex budget tracking: Multi-layered categorisation across universities, projects and funding sources.
Fraud protection: Complete visibility, preventing risk across large distributed budgets.
Seamless transaction volume: Managing 48 transactions monthly ranging from £5 to £25k.
Zero manual reconciliation: Direct Xero integration eliminates duplicate work.
About Trilogy
Trilogy Campus are experts in bringing places to life. Their Higher Education team brings vibrancy to university satellite locations, where institutions can’t provide full campus services. Operating at Republic in East London, Trilogy Campus serves 15,000 students across eight universities: delivering events and civic impact work. Their engagement programmes help students to build friendships, skills and fosters a strong sense of belonging.
The challenges
Before Spendesk, Trilogy Campus attempted to use a cheaper competitor platform that couldn't handle its complex operational requirements.
Core issues:
Previous platform couldn't handle invoice uploads or approvals.
No ability to allocate expenses across multiple budget categories simultaneously.
Required tracking across internal budgets (events, marketing, social impact) and sub-categories.
Needed to attribute costs to different stakeholders (landlord, universities, company).
Managing high transaction volume (48 monthly) with limited finance resources.
Staff needed autonomy over large budgets without compromising financial control.
Complex accountability requirements across eight universities.
Many banking apps can track staff expenditure, but that assumes staff are just buying a coffee or train ticket. Our operation is significantly more complex. We need to be able to allocate every item to distinct budgets and Spendesk allows us to do that easily.
May MoltenoBefore Spendesk
Competitor platform unable to handle invoices
No multi-layered budget categorisation
Manual accountability across stakeholders
Limited staff spending autonomy
High accountancy costs
No fraud protection mechanisms
After Spendesk
Seamless invoice management and approvals
Multi-dimensional budget tracking
Automated stakeholder reporting
Staff autonomy with instant oversight
Halved accountancy costs saving £20k per year
Complete fraud protection
The solution
Trilogy Campus implemented Spendesk to handle complex budget tracking while empowering its small team to deliver large-scale programmes.
Key features implemented:
Multi-layered budget categorisation across internal projects and external stakeholders.
Physical and virtual cards for team autonomy with approval thresholds.
Invoice management with mobile upload and email forwarding.
Xero integration for direct accounting system connection.
Automated receipt reminders with card blocking for non-compliance.
Real-time budget oversight across all spending categories.
Customisable approval workflows with thresholds per budget holder.
From limitation to empowerment
The transformation was immediate. What the previous platform couldn't handle at all, Spendesk managed seamlessly. The ability to allocate each transaction across multiple dimensions – internal budget category, sub-category, and funding source – provided Trilogy Campus with the accountability framework it needed across eight universities.
Staff gained autonomy over substantial budgets, with approval thresholds set at £2-3k, allowing them to make decisions quickly without bottlenecks. The finance team maintains instant oversight without micromanaging, creating an empowered team culture.
The comprehensive onboarding with dedicated support made the difference. Rather than struggling alone with online tutorials, the team had human guidance setting up complex budget structures, connecting to Xero, and training both internal staff and external accountants.
The training we had at the beginning was amazing. The fact that we had a human being talking through – many companies would make you do it all online first. It's one of your standout points of difference. For us, that makes an enormous difference.
May MoltenoThe results
Since adopting Spendesk, Trilogy Campus has transformed financial operations while delivering complex programmes:
£20k annual accounting savings: Halved costs from £40k to £20k per year.
Enabled £400k contract delivery: Contract would be impossible without Spendesk.
Team empowerment: Staff manage budgets up to £60k with autonomy.
Complete fraud protection: Instant visibility across all distributed spending.
Seamless transaction management: 48 monthly transactions handled effortlessly.
Multi-stakeholder accountability: Clear reporting across eight universities.
Zero reconciliation time: Direct Xero integration eliminates manual work.
High staff satisfaction: Team loves physical cards and ease of use.
I don't know if we would have been able to deliver the contract without Spendesk. It's substantially useful and the way it tracks is a democratising tool. It's hugely rigorous in terms of clear decision-making, but it's also very visible.
May MoltenoReady to empower your team with spend control?
Discover how Spendesk can help your organisation manage complex budgets, empower teams and reduce accounting costs. Talk to an expert today.
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