COMPANY NAME
Counto
COMPANY SIZE
11 - 50 employees
INDUSTRY
Virtual CFO and Accounting

Takeaways

• As an accounting services firm, Counto integrates with Spenmo’s advanced payments infrastructure to automate their clients’ payment process
• Using an expense management system like Spenmo for bill payments helped reduce the time spent and the cost of processing invoices
• Processing bulk invoice payments has never been easier with Spenmo thanks to its fast transactions and cheap local and overseas transfer rates
• Spenmo’s Smart Cards is a great value add to clients by giving them access to unlimited physical and virtual corporate cards
• Integrating the use of Spenmo in their clients’ payments workflow helped improve client relations and engagement

The Challenges

Counto is a purveyor of human assisted and AI powered accounting. The company specializes in virtual CFO, accounting and payments services in Singapore and uses technology to lower the accounting costs and eliminate manual processes for startups and small businesses.

Pain Point: Manual payment processes are costly, prone to error, and time-consuming for clients with large volumes of payables

Counto’s simplified bill payment system (also known as CountoPay) aims to provide a seamless experience for its clients with large volumes of payables. The goal is to automate the entire bills payment workflow from receipt of the invoice, processing the payment and reconciling the payables between the accounting and bank data.

However, Counto’s clients struggle with the existing manual payments process, which typically involves logging into multiple online banking applications and payment platforms or going to the bank itself to process the payment.

Moreover, outdated processes have resulted in a commingling of personal and business finances for Counto’s clients. Not only does this consume a lot of time, but this also increases the risk of fraudulent and erroneous payments.

”Most of our clients are still doing manual payment transactions and a lot of time is spent logging into online banking platforms to approve or modify the amount of the bill, which often resorts to us recreating the payment when an error is made” said Ishi, Managing Partner at Counto.

With the expansion of its services tailored to suit its clients’ needs, Counto’s clientele grows along with the amount of manual work to fulfill.

Ishi, the Managing Partner at Counto, noticed that his team of accountants was toggling across multiple payment platforms to do the same task for different clients.

”With our growing roster of clients, it was becoming unsustainable and inefficient to keep up with this cross-checking process”, Ishi exclaimed.

Aside from time-consuming manual processes, managing large volumes of payments made a huge dent in costs. Each biller would have its own preferred payment method and each bank would have it’s own transaction fee. While the rates are competitive when paid individually, the burden of the cost is usually felt when invoices are paid in bulk.

“We were looking for a solution that is cost-efficient and could trim down the payments workflow for our clients and our team of accounting experts.”

Due to the intense need for a seamless integration of payments, Counto opted to use Spenmo to optimise its clients’ AP workflow by:

• Streamlining the bill payment process by integrating their client bill payment system with Spenmo’s payments API
• Managing large volumes of invoice payments in a cost efficient manner
• Utilising Spenmo’s lowest rates for local and overseas bills payment
• Adding value to clients by providing them with instant access to corporate smart cards with pre-approved funds
• Giving business owners the ability to manage and control their employee spend.

The Solutions

Counto turned to Spenmo to automate their client’s bill payments with their seamless integration to our software API. As a result, the amount of time it takes to settle a bill has been reduced to just five (5) minutes compared to the 30 minutes typically spent to process payments manually.

The team can also update its clients on the status of the payment, ensuring that it has been received by the biller. Having real-time status updates alongside payments automation has contributed to improving overall client experience.

“With Spenmo, we’ve reduced the number of payment apps we use from 10+ to just one. Now, we can process multiple invoice payments from our clients’ local and international vendors at the cheapest rates.”

Counto’s clients used to spend too much time hunting for the best rates to accommodate their remittance requirements. With Spenmo, Counto and its clients enjoy the best overseas rates for bill payments – 0% FX markup based on Google rates.

Moreover, Counto’s team had the ability to log in to its clients’ Spenmo dashboards without breaching any security or privacy controls. Once inside the platform, accountants may view, download, and match receipts and invoices in real-time. This resulted in streamlined communication between Counto’s team and their clients, improving client engagement.

“The accountant login comes in handy. My team no longer has to chase multiple accounts for access; monitoring spend across multiple clients is now effortless.”

Meanwhile, Spenmo’s Smart Corporate Cards are a great value add to the many benfits Counto can provide its clients. Using Spenmo’s Smart Card, Counto’s clients no longer need to toggle between multiple platforms or incur out-of-pocket expenses for corporate use. Employees having access to unlimited physical and virtual corporate cards meant easier spending as Smart Cards are widely accepted by merchants that use Mastercard worldwide.

"Working in the accounting services industry is extremely hectic. Spenmo has empowered our accountants by automating the heavy-work, giving us time to come up with better financial solutions for our clients."

Objective Met

Processing bill payments have never been faster and more efficient since Counto’s integration with Spenmo’s payments infrastructure. The streamlining of expense management on the client’s side also meant that it was not long before productivity surged amongst his team.

Adopting Spenmo not only helped Ishi’s clients handle their business payments better, but also alleviated his team’s workload. Moreover, the bill pay automation and low transfer rates have contributed to massive cost savings for team Counto and its clients. Ishi soon began sharing about Spenmo with more of his clients.

Spenmo is more than an expense platform for Counto—it’s a modern way of managing business finances.

"More automation on our client’s end means less complications on our side. Spenmo has made the lives of our accountants way easier."