Paper-based expense processes tend to break quietly. Receipts disappear. Approvals stall. Reimbursements lag. Over time, finance teams adapt to the friction instead of fixing it.
But across industries, the breaking point tends to arrive at the same moment: First, it's when the volume of spend increases. Next, expectations for speed rose. Then visibility matters more than ever. And paper? It simply cannot keep up.
These are the stories of how organizations replaced fragmented, manual workflows with Emburse Expense Intelligence, a system built for how finance actually works today.
Turning disconnected systems into one source of truth
At A+ Education Partnerships, finance teams were buried under duplication. Two financial systems meant closing the same books twice, reconciling data manually, and losing valuable time that should have been spent on planning.
Emburse replaced that patchwork with a single, unified expense workflow. Expenses, approvals, and reporting were consolidated into a single system, eliminating rework and making current financial data available as it happened.
That shift changed how Jenifer Glover, the organization's director of finance, could lead.
“We had two different platforms, which caused a lot of extra work,” Jenifer said. “When we went on Emburse, it sped things up quite a bit.”
With real-time visibility, finance stopped waiting for month-end answers.
“Now we can look at the data at any given time and know this is what we have to make decisions with. We can actually provide a financial outlook.” – Jenifer Glover, Director of Finance, A+ Education Partnerships
Replacing boxes of paper with instant access
At Venable LLP, invoices and expense documentation lived in filing cabinets and boxes. Finding support for a client charge often required manual searching, and delays directly affected billing and cash flow.
Emburse centralized invoice intake and digitized the entire workflow. Documents moved automatically through approvals, stayed searchable, and were accessible the moment they were needed.
For Lucius Jackson II, senior manager of accounts payable, the difference was immediate:
“When I came in, there were boxes of papers all over the place,” said Lucius. “If a client needed supporting documents, it was very difficult to find.”
With everything housed in one system, billing sped up. Paper no longer dictated the pace of revenue.
“Now we can pull up invoices within seconds. We bill clients faster and recover funds quicker.” – Lucius Jackson II, Sr. Manager, Accounts Payable, Venable LLP
Scaling operations without adding headcount
At Duane Morris LLP, growth across more than 20 offices would have strained any paper-based process. Filing, storage, and manual reporting all scale poorly.
By moving expense data into Emburse, the firm replaced physical storage and manual retrieval with searchable, real-time reporting. Leaders gained instant answers without adding administrative burden.
Akbar Hasan, senior project accountant for the firm, saw how that changed daily work.
“If someone asked for expense reports from the last two years, that used to be very difficult and costly,” Akbar said.
With Emburse, the answer was immediate – and for Duane Morris LLP, growth no longer required more paper or more people.
“With a push of a button, you can dig into anything,” said Akbar. “Can it be done? It’s done.” – Akbar Hasan, Sr. Project Accountant, Duane Morris LLP
Speeding reimbursement by fixing the process, not chasing it
“Before Emburse, we had a very paper-driven process. Wet signatures were required. Lots of paper. We just couldn’t track it,” said Lorrie Black, senior business analyst for the University of New Mexico.
At the university, expense reports moved slowly because of paper: Wet signatures, interoffice mail, and unclear status tracking stretched reimbursements into weeks.
Emburse replaced that with a digital workflow that guided employees through correct submission the first time and routed approvals automatically. That change reshaped the experience for faculty and staff.
“People saw how easy it was,” said Lorrie. “Their money was in their bank a lot faster.”
The turnaround speaks for itself – and when the process works, speed becomes the default.
“We went from two weeks to 10 hours.” – Lorrie Black, Sr. Business Analyst for the University of New Mexico
Shifting focus from manual review to meaningful insight
At PizzaExpress, expense oversight relied heavily on spreadsheets, email threads, and manual reviews. Finance teams spent time checking every record instead of focusing on what actually required attention.
By embedding automated audits and intelligent exception handling, Emburse surfaced only the items that warranted review. Routine spend moved through without friction, while anomalies stood out clearly.
For Olga Pavlova-Grebliauske, finance systems manager and a 2023 Emburse Champions Awards winner, that changed how the team evaluated work.
“Everything was very manual,” she said. “Reviewing it all became a burden.”
But after the shift, time once lost to low-value tasks was reclaimed for analysis and improvement.
“It changed the mindset. You focus on the exceptions instead of blindly reviewing every record.” – Olga Pavlova-Grebliauske, Finance Systems Manager, PizzaExpress
Leaving “arts and crafts” behind for good
At K. Hovnanian Homes, expense reporting once required spreadsheets, scanned receipts, and physical storage. Employees assembled reports manually before re-entering data into the ERP.
Stelios Kyprianou, principal business system analyst, remembers the paper chaos before the shift to Emburse.
“It was arts and crafts. Excel spreadsheets. Boxes of paper,” Stelios explained.
Emburse eliminated that duplication by capturing expenses digitally at the source and connecting them directly to financial systems. Receipts, data, and approvals lived in one place.
Today, the process is unrecognizable.
“Now everything is digital. No paper. No manual work. We have visibility and can manage our money better.” – Stelios Kyprianou, Principal Business System Analyst, K. Hovnanian Homes
What replacing paper actually unlocks
Across every organization, the transformation followed the same arc. Paper-based processes created delay, risk, and blind spots. Emburse replaced those gaps with connected workflows, real-time data, and systems designed for scale.
For finance teams, the result was faster, clearer expense reporting with greater confidence and control.
That is Emburse Expense Intelligence at work.
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