Background: An extended finance team for organisations with a mission
Purpose Accounting is a boutique accounting and CFO advisory firm that works exclusively with not-for-profits and charities. The Sydney CPA practice runs bookkeeping, payroll, reporting and finance technology projects for for-purpose organisations across Australia, with more than $255 million in client budgets under its care.
The challenge: Three tools to pay one invoice
Before Weel, every invoice passed through a stack of tools. It went into a third-party OCR tool for data extraction, then into Xero, then into a payment batch that was uploaded to the bank and approved there. Payables ran on a set day, so anything urgent meant running the whole stack again for a single payment.
"There were many different steps. Getting the data from this external software for the extraction, then from there to Xero, Xero to the bank. So it was just going to three different places." - Ricardo Medeiros, Senior Finance Associate, Purpose Accounting
The bank as a fourth tool
For Purpose's clients, the bank sat at the end of the stack and set the rules:
- Hours of handling: the finance team reviewed and published every invoice to Xero by hand, then downloaded PDFs for the bank signatories.
- Waiting on the calendar: with bookkeeping done fortnightly, an urgent invoice could sit for up to two weeks.
- Approvals lost in inboxes: sign-off happened over forwarded emails.
- Locked to the bank: adding a new approver meant a slow, paper-heavy process with the bank every time someone changed roles.
The solution: Testing it on themselves first
Purpose already ran its cards on Weel, so it moved its own payables onto the same platform. The stack collapsed into one workflow that nobody has to chase: invoices arrive in Weel, approval policies route each one to the right person, payment goes out from Weel, and the transaction syncs to Xero ready to reconcile.
"Once the approval policies are all set up, it flows automatically. They simply send an invoice, and from there it gets paid. It was very intuitive and everyone embraced it really fast." - Ricardo Medeiros, Senior Finance Associate, Purpose Accounting
One workshop that unlocks clients
With the workflow proven in-house, Purpose started moving clients across. Some began on Weel AP from day one, setting their own approval flows and payment dates. Others are leaving the manual process behind to cut bookkeeping time and, with it, their accounting bill.
Each rollout gets a single launch session with the client's whole team.
The results: One platform instead of three
An invoice that once passed through seven manual handoffs now takes two: submit it, approve it. Payment and the Xero sync complete on their own, a 70% cut in touchpoints for every invoice. Project teams at client organisations submit invoices in the Weel app, add a description and coding, and send them for approval, and every sign-off is recorded against its invoice.
"It's the client being able to be more independent with the whole workflow, instead of us being the bottleneck in the process." - Ricardo Medeiros, Senior Finance Associate, Purpose Accounting
Paid the moment it's approved
Urgent invoices no longer wait for bookkeeping day. A client uploads the invoice, the approval triggers automatically, and payment goes out in real time as soon as the approver signs off. Projects, travel and supplier commitments keep moving.
What's next for Purpose
Purpose is now exploring batch payments for clients who approve invoices one by one, and another client is preparing to move its payables onto Weel. For a firm whose job is recommending systems, the order matters: Purpose proved Weel on its own books first, then put its name behind it with the organisations it serves.
Join Purpose Accounting and 4,000+ other businesses running their spend management on Weel. Book a demo or explore Weel for yourself.
