How Mountain Safe Exteriors Saves Countless Admin Hours

Mountain Safe Exteriors is a premier residential exterior renovation company serving Denver and Colorado’s mountain communities. Protecting homes from harsh mountain weather requires fast-paced execution, with 24 card-holding employees relying heavily on corporate charge cards for daily job-site materials and specialized tools.

For Staff Accountant Kaden Comish, keeping accurate records is vital to business health. However, tracking spending across dozens of cardholders created a massive administrative burden.

The Challenges

Manual Expense Management

Expenses were managed through a patchwork of paper receipts, emailed invoices, and manual follow-ups. Without a centralized system, collecting and tracking documentation across employees was inconsistent and time-intensive.

Time Spent Chasing Receipts

With employees making frequent purchases of daily job-site materials and specialized tools, store receipts were routinely lost on-site, while vendor invoices remained buried in email threads. The finance team spent countless hours following up on missing receipts to confirm purchase details.

Approval Delays

Project managers and finance teams relied on email chains and in-person check-ins to review expenses. Without a structured approval process, many reports remained pending for days, slowing month-end close.

Manual Accounting Work

Every card transaction had to be manually entered into QuickBooks Online, with general ledger accounts, classes, and job codes assigned to each transaction one at a time. This manual process increased the risk of coding errors.

The Transformation

Mountain Safe Exteriors needed a solution that streamlined expense management and fit seamlessly into its existing processes. The team was looking for:

• Direct integration with existing American Express cards
• Receipt capture for both physical and online purchases
• Multi-stage approval workflows
• Automated sync into QuickBooks Online with mandatory class and job dimensions

Sage Expense Management stood out because it connected directly with American Express card networks, allowing Mountain Safe Exteriors to automate their expense reporting while keeping their existing cards.

The Results

Streamlined Expense Management

Sage Expense Management connects directly with the company's existing American Express cards, automatically importing transactions and matching them with receipts. This eliminates manual reconciliation and simplifies expense management across the business.

The time required to reconcile receipts with card transactions decreased from 10+ hours per month to 3 hours per month.

Easy Expense Capture from Anywhere

With user-friendly mobile and email submission options, employees can easily file expenses on the go, leading to faster reporting.

Sage Expense Management’s intuitive mobile app has simplified the expense capture process for employees. Employees can forward e-receipts directly from their inboxes and easily create an expense.

Faster Approvals, Better Visibility

With automated multi-stage workflows in Sage Expense Management, reports now route seamlessly from site managers directly to finance for review.

Today, nearly half of all expense reports are approved in under 48 hours, giving the finance team immediate spending oversight across all active charge cards.

Automated Sync with QuickBooks

Approved expense reports export directly to QuickBooks Online in real time, accurately mapping accounting classes, accounts, and project details without manual intervention.

The team now saves 8 hours each month previously spent on manual data entry, accelerating month-end close by 20%.

The Outcome

With Sage Expense Management, Mountain Safe Exteriors replaced manual expense administration with an automated workflow that delivers measurable results. Employees submit expenses faster, approvals move more quickly, transactions sync instantly to QuickBooks Online, and the finance team saves countless administrative hours.