An expense management solution helps Habanero Foods simplify petty cash management across outlets
Started in 2011, Habanero Foods is one of India’s first authentic restaurants to introduce the vibrant flavours of Texan-Mexican cuisine to the Indian audience. Habanero currently has three outlets in Bengaluru, and one in both Chennai and Hyderabad.
The company was facing serious operational challenges with petty cash management across its outlets because it relied on manual methods for distribution, reporting and accounting of petty cash expenses. There were several issues. For petty cash distribution, there was no instant way to transfer cash. The head of administration distributed petty cash funds physically to each outlet. This process was slow and there was always the risk of loss or theft. If additional funds were required, they were transferred via NEFT to the store manager’s bank account. Day-to-day cash handling was also a pain. Store managers were overloaded with requests from employees needing money for buying ingredients, equipment or making repairs. Managers had to make a manual entry for all cash advances given to employees. Once purchases were made, they had to enter receipt data manually into their accounting system. This process was tedious and error-prone. Sometimes funds were insufficient to meet the number of requests. Expenses had to be incurred either out of pocket or had to be delayed. At the end of the day, there were piles of receipts to be reconciled and at times, the accounts didn’t match.
How it works
To eliminate the hassles of cash handling and reconciliation, Habanero signed up for Happay’s cashless and paperless Expense Management solution. Each Habanero outlet is issued Happay Prepaid Cards for routine expenses. The head of administration instantly transfers petty cash funds to Happay Cards from Happay’s web or mobile dashboard. Outlet managers can request money for funds right from their Happay mobile app. Every time employees spend on the Happay Card, expense details are auto captured on mobile. They can take a quick picture of the receipts and send expenses for approval within seconds.
With Happay, petty cash disbursements are quick and easy. Habanero store managers and company administrators have visibility into all employee purchases, in real-time. They are notified when balances are low on cards and can make sure that their employees always have the funds to keep the business going. Employees don’t need to handle paper receipts anymore and accounting is fast and error free.
“As a CEO, I’m faced with the conflict of wanting to empower my distributed team while having to maintain tight expense control – Happay enables this perfectly! We have been using Happay Cards with the integrated mobile and web dashboard for three months now in our outlets. All disbursements and expenses are automatically recorded and verified, and hence they can directly be imported into accounting. The team has also been great and their support is excellent – all key requirements for business users like me. Several minor changes we requested were implemented immediately. I would recommend this application to other CEOs,” says Griffith David, MD and CEO, Bread Basket (Habanero).