AppsFlyer automates compliance, expense categorization and approvals with Mesh

Managing expenses across 20 offices and a workforce of 1600 employees is challenging, especially for high growth companies like AppsFlyer. From controlling spend and inefficient approvals to missing receipts, complex regulatory compliance, and inefficient reconciliation, AppsFlyer wanted to streamline their finance team’s processes and make it easier for employees to spend responsibly.

“To control spending, we had just a couple corporate cards. While it worked to control spend, it made the end-of-month process for our team very difficult. We not only had to figure out which invoices matched which transactions, but also who made the purchases and if there was an associated PO,” says Ronlee Kane, Senior Controller – Finance Operations at AppsFlyer.

Without a formal expense management system, they had been tracking expenses in Excel. That made it easier to upload to their ERP, but required a lot of effort and was prone to human error. Once in the ERP, manually coding each transaction for accounting and compliance added even more hours of work.

Mesh consolidated AppsFlyer’s various expense and payment processes into a single, user-friendly platform. Mesh gave them the tools to automate and enforce spending globally, from managing complex approval workflows to coding and compliance, improving efficiency, improving reporting accuracy and compliance, and saving their team hours and hours of manual work. The platform gave them real-time visibility across their entire global spend, letting them monitor expenses closely and enforce company policies, as well as integrating directly with their ERP (NetSuite).

AppsFlyer also saw a significant increase in employee accountability, including less out-of-policy spending and compliance. Employees are now empowered to take ownership of their expenses, fostering a culture of responsibility and reducing the need for manual intervention.

Their finance team is saving significant time, especially when it comes to reconciliation every month, thanks to customizable spend categories, automated coding, and seamless integrations with other systems like their ERP and HRIS.

“There’s no manual work. At a click of a button, everything gets pulled into our system,” says Kane. “We don’t need to go into multiple systems to find information and then transfer it to our ERP. ”

Having everything in one system saves time and keeps everyone within policy. If they make changes to their expense policies, it’s updated across their entire T&E system so nothing slips through the cracks.

They aren’t just saving time, though — they’re saving money. “Mesh helped us map our expenses in a way that removed miscellaneous expenses because everything can be categorized,” Amir Perlman, Director of Finance adds. “Now, we have much better control over spend.”

Centralized, customized expense management

All expenses are now managed through a single platform, eliminating the need for multiple systems and manual data entry. In addition to connecting travel and expense management, Mesh helped AppsFlyer implement custom integrations for their ERP (NetSuite) and HRIS (Oracle). Now, the entire company is on the same page for T&E.

“There are a lot of tools on the market. Some focus solely on travel or expenses, while others combine them but tend to just offer off-the-shelf software with limited customization options,” explains Kane. “Mesh, on the other hand, provides a flexible platform that continuously evolves with new features and improvements. It stays current, innovative, and adapts to our changing needs.”

Simplified global operations

When AppsFlyer was looking for a T&E system, worldwide functionality was a crucial factor. They needed a system that everyone could use, even if it didn’t perfectly meet everyone’s individual needs.

Thankfully, Mesh allows AppsFlyer to manage their T&E differently for each entity to ensure that the solution works for everyone.

“As a global company, we need to meet all kinds of regulations — for example, some countries require a hard copy of an invoice, some countries need specific reports from tax authorities, some have VAT,” she adds. “So it was a challenge to meet the unique way that specific regions operate and Mesh lets us change how we manifest the system to meet those needs.”

Unparalleled customer service

Mesh provides AppsFlyer with a level of personalized customer service that just doesn’t happen with the big legacy expense management platforms.
“Every time we have an issue, they would respond within a few minutes,” Kane says. “And they’ll help us. It’s just very convenient. It feels like we’re family.”