How Brainspring Automated Reimbursable Expenses With Sage Expense Management

Brainspring is a leading education company that provides professional development, multisensory instruction, and intervention programs rooted in the Orton-Gillingham methodology. With a focus on literacy and learning, they work with educators and schools across the country to deliver impactful, research-based solutions.

The Challenges

A Clunky, Manual Reimbursement Workflow

Employees would collect receipts > fill out spreadsheets > email them to managers > wait for manual approvals > and finally receive reimbursement through a separate ACH process.

This multi-step workflow was error-prone, time-consuming, and frustrating for everyone involved.

No Visibility Into Approvals

Once employees submitted expenses, there was no easy way to track where it stood. Managers couldn’t quickly view or approve expenses, and employees had no clarity on delays.

The lack of transparency made it hard to enforce accountability or improve turnaround times.

Disconnected From Sage Intacct

Even after approvals, every expense had to be manually entered and categorized in Sage Intacct. Without a native integration, Brainspring’s finance team had to double-handle data, increasing the chances of miscoding and delaying accurate reporting.

Policy Compliance Was Hard to Enforce

Brainspring had clear internal policies, but their tools couldn’t support automatic checks. Missing receipts, wrong categories, or overspending went unchecked, leading to inconsistent enforcement and unnecessary cleanup during the month-end.

How Sage Expense Management Transformed Brainspring’s Expense Management

UHY, Brainspring’s trusted accounting partner, recognized that the manual and error-prone process was holding them back. After evaluating their needs—tight integration with Sage Intacct, easier reimbursements, and better user experience—they knew SEM was the right fit.

One-Click Approvals and Zero Spreadsheet Chaos

No more chasing down email threads or reconciling spreadsheet-based reports. With SEM, employees submit expenses directly on the platform.

Brainspring’s finance team now saves approximately 4-5 hours every week previously spent reconciling mismatched reports.

Auto-Coded, Accurate Expense Data

Each expense is now auto-categorized and tagged with the right class, project, or department based on Sage Expense Management’s integration with Sage Intacct.

The finance team reduced coding errors by 85%, and reconciliations happen in a fraction of the time.

Hands-Off Reminders and Auto-Submission

Sage Expense Management takes care of the nagging for you—automated reminders prompt employees to upload receipts, and weekly auto-submission ensures finance isn’t chasing reports.

Over 90% of expense reports are now submitted on time without any manual follow-ups.

Effortless ACH Reimbursements

Before SEM, even reimbursed expenses required multiple tools and steps. Now, reimbursements are processed directly within SEM using ACH—seamless, fast, and trackable.

Turnaround time for reimbursements has improved by almost a week, and employees get paid back without delays.

Ready for Growth with Sage Intacct

With categories and coding pulled directly from Sage Intacct, Brainspring’s finance team doesn’t have to duplicate effort or risk mismatched data.

The Outcome

By partnering with UHY and adopting Sage Expense Management, Brainspring finally transformed a clunky, manual expense process into a streamlined, automated system that their employees actually enjoy using.

• Seamless integration with Sage Intacct
• Coding errors reduced by 85%
• Over 90% of expense reports are now submitted on time
• 4-5 hours saved every week on reconciliations

They’ve said goodbye to spreadsheets, outdated tools, and approval chaos — and hello to a faster, smarter way of managing expenses.