Receipts in 10 Mins: How Agape Saved Time with Digital Receipt Capture

Since 1978, Agape of Central Alabama has helped more than 2,500 children through foster care and over 275 children through adoption into safe, nurturing families.

At the heart of this work is a dedicated staff that spends a significant amount of time in the field.Executive Director Steve Duer needed a better way to oversee employee expenses.

The Challenges

Cumbersome Reconciliation Cycles

Every month, Agape’s office manager downloaded Visa statements and manually sorted transactions for 18 employee cards on spreadsheets. These were then sent to cardholders, who scanned and matched receipts for review.

The process was tedious, error-prone, and heavily dependent on employee's memory.

Manual Follow-ups

Receipts were submitted late, lost, or never turned in, resulting in month-end stress and manual follow-ups for the finance team.

Mileage Tracking Errors

In addition to corporate card expenses, most employees submitted monthly mileage reports and received cell phone stipends.

These were also managed through spreadsheets, which increased the risk of inconsistencies and errors.

Difficult for Field Teams to Submit Receipts

As a field-heavy team, employees needed an easy way to manage paper receipts for later scanning. With some receipts being credit card-sized and some being pages long, scanning and reviewing was a challenge.

Transformation with Fyle

Faced with these recurring challenges, Agape began searching for a solution that would:

• Work with their existing Chase Visa cards.
• Allow mobile-first receipt capture.
• Streamline mileage reimbursements.

Fyle stood out for its ease of use and real-time feeds with Visa.

Real Time Feed and Automated Reconciliation

With Fyle’s direct integration with Visa, transactions are automatically imported into Fyle as soon as a card is swiped, providing staff with real-time updates.

Easy Receipt Capture for Field Teams

Fyle’s text message feature enables field teams to capture receipts and expense details quickly and accurately.

Effortless Mileage Calculations

Once, inconsistent mileage calculations are now accurate and effortless.

Employees simply enter their start and end locations, while admins set custom mileage rates for different vehicle types. Fyle automatically calculates the reimbursable distance, eliminating any guesswork.

Streamlined Approval and Compliance

With Fyle’s two-level approval flow, every expense is first reviewed by a supervisor and then by Steve. Admins can also bulk approve clean reports or leave comments when necessary, all within the platform.

The finance manager can also set up custom expense policies to help enforce critical policies, such as mandatory receipts, setting spend limits, or flagging restricted purchases.

The Outcome

Agape transitioned from spreadsheets to a unified, real-time system designed for a busy nonprofit team.