Overview

The Simonds Family have been involved in Australian construction and development for three generations, having founded ASX-listed company Simonds Homes in 1949. After listing the company in 2014, Simonds Consolidated was established.

Simonds Consolidated (SFO) encompasses a globally diversified portfolio that showcases their passion for property opportunities, health and wellness, education, and more. Simonds Consolidated is committed to excellence and passionate about innovation, integrity, and entrepreneurialism.

SFO use Budgetly for four of their businesses, “SFO Constructions”, “SFO Administration” and “SFO Developments”.

Prior to Budgetly, SFO were utilising credit cards in multiple people's names across multiple entities across multiple different financial institutions (directors' names across NAB, Westpac, ANZ etc). This came with several challenges:

Challenges

• Lack of real-time visibility: When transactions were made, we had no way of telling who had made the transaction and for what business. We had to try and figure that out before we could start the process of tracking down the receipt.
  
  

• Lack of spending accountability: Because of no real-time visibility on transactions, there was a lack of spending accountability. With a lack of accountability, this resulted in a number of unauthorised transactions across the businesses.
  
  

• Manual administration burden: If we were able to identify who spent the funds, the process of collecting the receipt and then entering this information into Xero began. We’d spend a significant amount of time chasing these and then attempting to find out what the transaction was for and in what context the money was spent so that we could code the transaction appropriately. 

Results

1. Complete transparency

We are now able to see all transactions, who is spending, from what business entity, and the corresponding budget the money has been spent from. It’s all instant and there are no delays. To top it off, the receipts are all attached to transactions for us to view with one click. 

“We no longer have to ask employees about who spent what. It’s all automatically tracked and presented to us whenever we want it.”

Kaitlyn Farrance, Bookkeeper

2. Complete accountability

Cards can be issued to staff who need them and virtual cards are instant if there are a few one-off purchases that need to be made by a casual staff member. All transactions are tracked per staff member and per business entity so we now have both transparency and accountability.

“There are now no more unauthorised transactions because we can see who’s spending what. They can’t overspend, because the ‘budgets’ function prevents that.”

Kaitlyn Farrance, Bookkeeper

3. Time and money saved

With the receipts captured and attached to the transaction for us instantly, and the realtime visibility mentioned above, SFO have saved a lot of time.

“We’ve saved two full days per week, not chasing receipts or employees for other transaction information.”

Kaitlyn Farrance, Bookkeeper

4. Huge improvement on support :)

Every Budgetly customer has unlimited free telephone support, 1 to 1 screen share video training email support and live chat support.

“The support is very responsive and detailed when we need it!”

Kaitlyn Farrance, Bookkeeper

How Simonds Family Office saved two days a week on their expense management by using Budgetly

Budgetly prepaid corporate debit cards are available in physical and digital formats, with virtual cards available instantly upon application. Staff can add Budgetly’s virtual cards to their mobile wallets and use them immediately in any location.

With Budgetly’s preloaded cards, Simonds Family Office staff can transact, capture their receipts using a smartphone, and upload them to the app. In addition, Budgetly’s expense management software automatically records transaction details such as vendor names and transaction amounts. 

Staff can also add notes to each transaction and assign them under categories and tags set by finance teams. This allows the team to easily filter and view relevant transactions based on project or location.

Finance teams can allocate budgets for each card and set spending limits to avoid overspending. Additionally, these budgets can be automated to reset or roll over every fortnight. 

Example of Budgetly’s budgeting functionalities

Requesting a money top-up is hassle-free on the app, and finance teams can approve them with a click of a button. In addition, all staff transactions can be viewed on the software, giving administrators more control over company budgets. 

Example of Budgetly’s budgeting functionalities

For more information on Budgetly and how we work for businesses, schedule a demo with us today, or watch a 10-minute recorded demo. 

Simonds Family Office

The Simonds Family have been involved in Australian construction and development for three generations, having founded ASX-listed company Simonds Homes in 1949. After listing the company in 2014, Simonds Consolidated was established.

Simonds Consolidated (SFO) encompasses a globally diversified portfolio that showcases their passion for property opportunities, health and wellness, education, and more. Simonds Consolidated is committed to excellence and passionate about innovation, integrity, and entrepreneurialism.

About Budgetly

Budgetly is an Australian prepaid corporate card and expense management software provider. We’re committed to making expense management easy for all companies and improving their expense processes. Our service is adopted by many NDIS providers, aged care providers, charities, and businesses across Australia.