How Pepsi of Worcester closed their books 7x faster with 100% compliance using Rippling Spend

Month-end close was a chaotic and error-prone process, because Travis used three distinct systems to track spend across 200 employees and hundreds of vendors.

“There was a lot of mismatching data due to technical errors, and it became very frustrating over the last couple of years,” noted Travis. With company cards and bill pay on separate softwares, there were several points of failure. 

However, by consolidating company cards, invoice payment and expense management into Rippling, there is now one source of truth. “Every penny flows through Rippling company cards, so I know that our bank payment, the monthly company card bill and what’s imported to the general ledger will all match to the penny. It’s the same thing with Rippling Bill Pay. It’s working penny to penny.”

Travis further emphasised the value of consolidation, not just in finance, but across the business. He shared that “100%, my long-term plan is to incorporate every Rippling product that’s available. It’s not a matter of ‘if’. It’s a matter of ‘when’.”

Due to Amex and Bill.com’s limitations and lack of real-time visibility, Travis couldn’t start reconciling company spend until he had all the bills, receipts and paperwork at the end of the month. This inevitably meant that surprise expenses, loose ends and mismatches constantly reared their ugly heads. 

Now, Travis can reconcile spend as it happens, reviewing his Rippling dashboards in minutes to keep an eye on incoming expenses. This means he’s ahead of the curve when it comes time for the month-end close. 

Just one month after switching to Rippling, Travis said “I’ve gone from closing the prior month’s finances in 10 to 15 days to being able to do it in just two. And, honestly, I think it’ll be even faster this month as I get more familiar with Rippling.” Travis added that “The layout of Rippling lets me stay on top of spend as it happens. It’s saved me tremendous amounts of time. I’m able to actually get back to more important projects.”

Travis used to make bulk cheque runs twice per week to hundreds of vendors, but this process made cash outflows unpredictable. Travis mentioned that, during this process, “we were always kind of surprised by what the total pay-out was going to be for that day.” The lack of long-range visibility into payable invoices made it difficult to manage cash flows.

With Rippling Bill Pay, Travis can schedule payments two days in advance as far out as they need to, whether it’s 30, 60,or 90 days. This has massively improved cash flow predictability. “We can actually see what’s coming due rather than being surprised during our biweekly bulk cheque run. It gives us much better predictability into the cash out of the business.”

And if any invoices require investigation, Travis and his team can search by employee, vendor or invoice and instantly retrieve copies for auditing or accounting needs. “It’s completely transformed accounts payable for us,” said Travis.

Under Amex’s manual system, Pepsi faced frequent issues with missing receipts and non-compliant spending. Whenever the deadline arrived for submitting the previous month’s receipts, many employees claimed they had lost them, leaving the company with limited oversight. “I’d just have to accept it,” Travis explained.

Switching to Rippling renovated this process. Immediately after swiping their cards, employees now receive a text to upload a photo of their receipt, making the receipt instantly available for Travis to review. “Our compliance is at 100% now,” he noted. “It’s so easy to see everybody’s spend from the Rippling dashboard. If anything looks non-compliant, we address it immediately rather than waiting until the end of the month.”

Travis now also has greater control and flexibility in managing company cards strategically. For instance, because Amex cards can’t enforce expense policy in real time, Pepsi’s fleet drivers had to fill their petrol tanks up at one designated fuel station with a card on file. This caused countless logistical issues. With Rippling, Travis can issue cards that are restricted to fuel purchases, allowing fleet drivers to refuel wherever is convenient while guaranteeing compliance.