The time-consuming work of managing reimbursements and travel expenses was becoming an increasing burden for DBU.
But instead of hiring more hands for the heavy administration, they passed the ball to Acubiz.
DBU
DBU stepped onto the scene in 1989 with one mission: to promote the sport of football in Denmark
Sports Industry
Acubiz Advanced
DBU had a clear goal: an expense management system that was intuitive and tailored to the different types of users in the organization.
“DBU is a complex organization with a recurring question: Should we buy a standard system or develop our own? Acubiz was a perfect match. We were met with a great willingness to adapt the setup, so employees access the system in one way, meeting participants in another, and players in a third,” explains Heidi Lüthje, IT Director.
“We used the already existing logic in the house. The dimensions, for example, ‘player’ – ‘team’ – ‘match’ and then a choice of, for example, 10 target numbers. It makes it easy and intuitive to navigate.”
Bettina Holm Tange Jensen
Accounting Assistant, DBU
To ensure a smooth implementation, users were divided into three groups: Employees – including instructors, referees, and volunteers – meeting participants, and football politicians and players.
“For each group, we assessed whether it made sense to set them up. Referees, for example, are not set up. Not yet, at least. But if it is an advantage for some referees in certain situations, we will set them up as users,” explains Bettina Holm Tange Jensen.
“On the other hand, there are situations where users for the first and only time have an expense of 14 DKK. In that case, the user takes a picture of the receipt, and then they are MobilePay’ed by another regular app user. It is then up to that person to upload the receipt in Acubiz One and get the money refunded,” explains Bo Grøn-Iversen, former CFO at DBU.
The three colleagues are aware that users come from different backgrounds and levels of technology understanding. Some are very young and tech-savvy, while others may not have had much experience with managing expenses – and there are even those who do not own smartphones.
“Our users are different. Some break into a cold sweat over pressing a button, while others just do it. But they will come to love it. When I present the solution to new employees, they all say ‘Wow, that’s smart,'” explains Bo Grøn-Iversen.
As part of the introduction, they developed user manuals for the different user groups. And the finance department was available for 2-3 weeks to answer questions between 11 am and 12 pm.
“Team leaders and committee secretaries received a separate intro, as they are spokespeople for the end-users. When you convince them, you convince the rest of the users,” says Bettina Holm Tange Jensen.
The implementation of the Expense Management System from Acubiz has been a game-changer in the day-to-day life of DBU. Previously, the binders took up two shelves per fiscal year – now they take up less than half of that. The overhaul is just one of many advantages that have transformed the entire work process.
“You quickly forget how difficult it was once. There are plenty of side effects: We no longer have cash registers, all users have a complete overview of their expenses, and all dimensions are updated every night with information from the financial system. We also experience very few rejections and questions,” explains Bettina Holm Tange Jensen, adding:
“Before Acubiz, we spent most of the day entering expense-related data into the financial system. Today, we spend about an hour each day on controlling. It will probably end up being one or two days a month. And when the auditors come, we just press ‘Print’ instead of finding the information in binders.”
Read more about DBU on their website.