Problem

T&E blind spots left the finance team struggling to monitor spend pre-payment

Owens Corning was grappling with significant expense management and auditing challenges. They had instituted corporate cards to leverage some control, but at the heart of their struggles was invisible T&E spend, which proved incredibly difficult to monitor. The lack of visibility left the company vulnerable to policy violations and potential misuse of funds across their 19,000 global employees. 

There was definitely a lot of what I would call ‘invisible spend’ in the T&E space. And it was really difficult to closely monitor.


Global Travel and Expense Manager at Owens Corning

Their finance team attempted to address these issues through post-payment analytics, but this highly manual approach proved time-consuming and largely ineffective. The sheer volume of transactions made achieving 100% audit coverage impossible without substantial cost and an unreasonable amount of time dedicated to the task. 

Further complicating matters were the limitations of their existing expense management system. While SAP Concur offered rules-based flagging, its effectiveness was severely hampered by a reliance on employee-entered data. If an employee intentionally or unintentionally miscategorized an expense, the system failed to flag it for review. Their only workaround was to use valuable auditor hours to manually find data that was not easily accessible. 

Perhaps most frustratingly, when issues were discovered after the fact, the company faced the uphill battle of recovering funds already paid out. This reactive approach created additional work for the finance team and strained employee relationships.

Solution

Intelligent automation elevated audit coverage and team focus

After using AppZen at her previous company, Merin Schrinel, Manager of Globel T&E at Owens Corning, made the case to invest in AppZen's Expense Audit solution to tackle expense management challenges head-on and revolutionize their auditing process. She shares, “I had the experience of seeing the immediate benefit in both the quality of the audits and the headcount allocated to auditing. So, it was a dual benefit.”

Leveraging AppZen’s seamless integration with SAP Concur, Owens Corning was able to smoothly transition, minimizing disruption to established workflows while significantly enhancing their capabilities.

The first step in their transformation journey was automating manual tasks. Using AppZen’s advanced AI technology to read and analyze receipts dramatically reduced the need for manual review, allowing their finance team to shift their focus to analytical work and better customer service. The system's ability to automatically flag high-risk expenses further streamlined the auditing process while fortifying stronger compliance standards pre-payment. 

Reflecting on the decision to implement AppZen, Merin Schrinel notes, "We did our due diligence, reviewed a few different options in the marketplace, and found that AppZen was the best fit for our needs." This careful consideration paid off, as AppZen's comprehensive solution addressed Owens Corning's challenges while providing a platform for future growth and optimization.

RESULT

Achieved same-day expense processing with a 74% auto-approval rate

AppZen's AI-powered solution transformed Owens Corning's expense management process and delivered benefits across multiple fronts. 

One of the most significant improvements was enhanced audit quality and coverage. With AppZen's AI-powered system, over 74% of expense reports are now auto-approved, dramatically reducing the auditing team's workload. This automation doesn't come at the cost of accuracy; on the contrary, the AI ensures consistent and precise receipt analysis, catching discrepancies that human reviewers might have missed.

Employees across Owens Corning have also reaped the benefits of an accelerated reimbursement process. Since implementing AppZen, their audit turnaround time has decreased by a full day. In many cases, reports are now processed the same day they're submitted, leading to faster reimbursements and increased employee satisfaction.

We shortened our turnaround time on most audits by a full day. And that is, honestly, our requirement. Typically reports are through in the same day that they come in, just because the exact expenses to review are highlighted and the process is just so quick and clean.

 

Manager of Global Travel and Expense at Owens Corning

The improved reporting and analytics capabilities have provided Owens Corning with unprecedented visibility into its spending patterns. This enhanced insight allows the finance team to proactively identify trends and potential issues, enabling more informed decision-making and strategic planning.

Reflecting on these transformative changes, Merin Schrinel emphasizes, “It not only reduced the amount of time spent on audits, but it also greatly increased the quality and coverage of those audits. It’s definitely been a game-changer in that space.” The cumulative impact of these improvements has been profound, elevating Owens Corning's expense management process from a time-consuming necessity to a streamlined, strategic asset for the company.

Owens Corning continues to optimize its expense and finance operations by exploring additional capabilities in the AppZen AppStore. The team is evaluating new functionalities to enhance their expense management system while investigating custom models tailored to their specific needs. As Merin Schrinel explains, "We're continuing to dig into the AppStore with AppZen, which I think is a super cool addition, as well as the potential for some custom models that we may need in the future, just to accommodate the needs that are very specific to us."

Looking ahead, the company remains focused on continuous improvement and implementing industry best practices to address evolving T&E trends. This dedication to ongoing innovation ensures Owens Corning maintains its cutting-edge expense management efficiency while creating a solution that aligns perfectly with their unique business processes and requirements.