At iROCKER, an outdoor sports and lifestyle brand specializing in inflatable paddle boards, the focus is on fun. Their mission is to change the way people experience the water—helping people get up close with nature and create fun moments worth remembering.
But when you’re wasting up to 20 hours a week managing expenses and dealing with difficult expense management software, it’s a lot harder to remember that the goal is to have fun.
They used a Mastercard expense management system through their local bank. With this system, “I’d personally waste 10 or 20 hours a week trying to manage the system,” says Jeri Behnam, Controller at iROCKER. “My AP specialist would spend another three or four hours just trying to get the transactions in the ERP system, downloading receipts, following up with users, and even resetting passwords. No one could figure it out. It was not user friendly. Ultimately, the former system caused a lot of added stress to our workday.”
Luckily, BILL Spend & Expense solved all of the company’s problems with spend and expense management—and then some. “We love BILL Spend & Expense” Behnam says.
Behnam joined iROCKER in March of 2021, and at the time they used a corporate card program through a local bank. “Our corporate card program was very difficult to use,” Behnam explains. “Adding users and getting cards were both really challenging processes. There were no virtual cards—if you wanted one, you would order a physical card and someone would hide it in their desk. It wasn’t very safe or controlled but there was no other option.”
It was also impossible to set limits and budgets. “Literally every part of the program was a challenge to manage and utilize within the company,” Behnam says. Because of this friction, managers weren’t using the program. In fact, they had trouble even signing into it.
“Our corporate card program was very difficult to use. Adding users and getting cards were both really challenging processes. And we had to manually download and archive receipts in a separate system.” — Jeri Behnam, Controller at iROCKER
The complaints were piling up. “There was no sync,” Behnam explains, “so we had to program
information by hand, which wasn’t easy. It was an overly complicated process to get data into our ERP system. And after all that, the receipts weren’t even in the system. We had to manually download and archive the receipts in a separate system.”
And if they had to prepare for an audit, it was a whole new headache. “It wasn't very easy to find any backup for when an audit would come around,” Behnam explains. “Backup for credit card spend was not attached to transactions in NetSuite consistent with other spend causing additional time and effort to retrieve support for audit requests.
They knew their existing system couldn’t work for them in the long term. “We were stuck with
that program,” Behnam says, “and we were evaluating other options.”
Behnam found an answer through a longtime friend and CFO of another company. He asked if she had ever heard of BILL Spend & Expense, and the rest was history. “BILL Spend & Expense is a breeze to use,” Behnam explains. “The managers like it, and the CFO sings its praises, saying ‘It’s so simple, I already took my pictures and automatically created my expense report.’”
Fast and easy are the names of the game with Spend & Expense. “It’s easy to turn a card on in a flash,” Behnam says. “It’s easy to turn it off. It’s easy to assign budgets. It’s easy to sync to NetSuite. I have no complaints. We’re very, very happy with BILL Spend & Expense. And we're obviously saving all that time that I would waste on the old system—maybe 20 or 30 hours trying to handle the backend.”
“It’s easy to turn a card on in a flash. It’s easy to turn it off. It’s easy to assign budgets. It’s easy to sync to NetSuite. We’re just very, very happy with BILL Spend & Expense.” —Jeri Behnam, Controller at iROCKER
And virtual cards have been a total game-changer at iROCKER. “Before, we had 10 cards with our bank,” Behnam says. “Now we have as many cards as we need. We have different cards for every vendor or subscription.”
Behnam especially likes how secure BILL Divvy Cards are, saying: “I appreciate that you can control where and how the BILL Divvy Cards are used. I can restrict purchase categories— for example you can’t use our ad spend card at Best Buy or a gas station, which helps prevent fraud. So I feel very comfortable with it. If I have to give a card number to a contractor or vendor, I feel very secure as well because I can simply limit the value and restrict the use to that particular vendor. If a card were compromised, I can disable the card right away and not worry about it impacting my other spend.”
And the on-the-go functionality of the mobile app is a game changer. Says Behnam, “It’s nice to be able to have the BILL Spend & Expense mobile app so I don’t have to be right by my computer. If I’m away from my office, I can just manage spend and expense on the fly.”
Behnam loves that Spend & Expense is user-friendly. “The BILL user interface is designed for this day and age,” she explains. “It's very graphic based, easy to use, and the navigation is intuitive.”
And the integration process has been a dream. “I really appreciate how BILL Spend & Expense integrates with NetSuite,” Behnam describes. It was a fully independent process. “I did not need my NetSuite administrator or anybody to help me set it up,” she says. “I walked through the steps provided, and it integrated without any issues.”
And once integration is complete, the software solutions make perfect sense together. “BILL Spend & Expense can read my chart of accounts, my general ledger, my departments, everything—and I did it all on my own,” Behnam explains.
“NetSuite is a very technical software and often requires an administrator to make those connections—but not with Spend & Expense. I can manage this on my own, which makes me feel more agile and secure. It makes me more comfortable that I have control over that feed and what data it’s looking at.”
What’s the most notable thing about Spend & Expense? It just works.
“With BILL Spend & Expense, managing expenses is just a normal, simple, smooth process,” Behnam describes. “We log in on Friday, we make sure all the expenses are approved, and sync them over, and it only takes a few minutes. When I want to check the balance or run a report, it’s all very user friendly.”
“If I were going to describe BILL Spend & Expense in three words, I would say: easy, supportive, and fun.” — Jeri Behnam, Controller at iROCKER
Spend & Expense has brought that element of fun back to expense management at iROCKER, and Behnam can definitely tell the difference. “If I were going to describe BILL Spend & Expense in three words, I would say: easy, supportive, and fun,” she says. “I just feel like it’s fun working with BILL Spend & Expense.”
Card issued by Cross River Bank, Member FDIC.
