Case Study

• Invoice approval times reduced by 70%
• Staff reimbursements processed 80% faster
• Over 60% of repetitive finance activity automated
• Real-time financial visibility restored for managers and executives
• Scalable, paperless workflows embedded to support future growth

Kids First Australia is a large, multi-site, Not-for-Profit organisation - independent national child, youth and families service provider and early education specialist, with approximately 300 staff with an annual turnover of approximately $40 million. I was engaged to stabilise and uplift finance workflows following a period of rapid growth, including a recent acquisition.

While the organisation had scaled its service delivery, its finance systems and approval processes had not kept pace. My role was to stabilise, streamline, and future-proof financial workflows so staff, managers, and executives could operate with confidence, visibility, and control.

The engagement focused on delivering a whole-of-organisation uplift in how financial activity was initiated, approved, tracked, and reported.

Key objectives were to:

Reduce organisation-wide friction caused by slow approvals

Improve turnaround times for reimbursements and invoice approvals

Establish transparent, auditable financial workflows

Strengthen controls while reducing manual effort

Embed scalable, paperless processes to support future growth

I combined process redesign, systems implementation, and change management, with a deliberate focus on adoption — not simply deploying new tools.

Two finance touchpoints were prioritised because they affected almost every staff member and manager:

Expenses and credit cards

Accounts payable

Once these were stabilised, I shifted focus to reporting and executive visibility.

I automated expense reimbursements and credit card acquittals using ExpenseMe to remove friction for frontline staff and managers. Staff could submit receipts immediately via mobile or desktop, with clear visibility of approval status. Managers could approve on the go, eliminating delays caused by email chains and manual follow-ups.

I automated invoice approvals using ProSpend, aligned to delegation of authority. Invoices were routed automatically to the correct approvers, with real-time visibility of approval status. This removed the repeated cycle of chasing approvals and reduced processing errors.

Invoice approval times reduced by 70%

Fewer errors and duplicate payments

Faster approvals improved operational flow

Improved operational flow across departments

With expenses and approvals stabilised, financial reporting and core finance processes were automated and standardised to improve visibility for managers and executives. Dashboards provided managers and executives with timely insight into budgets and cost centres, reducing reliance on finance teams for routine information and enabling faster, more confident decisions.

This transformation delivered benefits across the organisation because the workflows touched every level of the business.

Frontline staff experienced faster reimbursements and fewer delays.

Managers gained clarity, visibility, and time back from approval tracking.

Executives regained confidence in financial data quality and oversight.

Finance teams moved from reactive processing to controlled, scalable operations with stronger governance.

The result was a calmer, more predictable operating environment, with less time lost to administration and greater capacity for service delivery and strategic priorities.