Connect CWS saves two days a week on admin with Budgetly

Overview

Connect CWS operates several residential homes for children across the Ipswich region, offering a safe and supportive environment where young people can grow and thrive.

With a dedicated team of over 80 employees, Connect CWS uses Budgetly to streamline financial management and ensure transparent, accountable use of every dollar, helping us focus more resources on delivering the best possible care and outcomes for the children we support.

Challenges

Before Budgetly, Connect CWS managed expenses using individual bank accounts and physical cards for each house they supported. Accounts were automatically topped up, with expenses logged in spreadsheets. Receipts were collected weekly, scanned, and manually uploaded into Xero before being reconciled — a process that was both tedious and error-prone.

“Each house had a bank account and physical card. Receipts were brought in weekly, scanned and manually added to Xero and manually reconciled” recalls Karen Christensen, the Finance Manager at Connect CWS. 

The finance team struggled with missing receipts and limited visibility into who spent what, and where.

Karen also shared the company’s concerns about having multiple accounts, scattered receipts, and a lack of clear oversight, explaining that “receipts were often missing, and it was a time-consuming process. Understanding where money was being spent and who spent it was difficult and manual,” which caused stress about potential issues during audits.

“There were concerns regarding audits — the process was a mess. Reconciling was being done without checking, so audits would have resulted in big trouble.” 

The lack of a clear, traceable system made it difficult to maintain financial accountability and transparency.

Solution

With Budgetly, Connect CWS completely transformed how they manage expenses. The platform eliminated manual processes, improved transparency, and made tracking spending simple and accurate.

“From an admin perspective, it’s 100% solved.”

Every card and transaction is now centrally managed and visible in real time, giving the finance team full control and confidence — especially during audits.

Results

Since switching to Budgetly, Connect CWS has saved approximately two full days per week in manual admin time. As the team continues to refine their process, they expect to save even more time.

“Time is being saved — and as the process gets better, even more time will be saved.” 

The organisation now enjoys:

• Full visibility over all spending
• Faster reconciliation
• Fewer missing receipts
• Greater accountability across the business

Karen also praises Budgetly’s customer support as the best she’s ever experienced, saying it's an “11 out of 10 — I’ve never had support this good before.” 

By replacing manual accounts and spreadsheets with Budgetly, Connect CWS has regained control, saved valuable time, and improved accountability across the organisation.

Budgetly has made expense management simpler, faster, and fully transparent — freeing the team to focus on what really matters: supporting their community.

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