How Navigate Virtual CFOs cut 15+ hours of admin each month with Weel

When your business manages finances for dozens of clients across industries and borders, efficiency isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s essential.

For Navigate Virtual CFOs, led by COO Alicia MacLeod and Accounts Administrator Kitrina Lendrem, that efficiency was being eroded by manual processes, slow reconciliations, and a never-ending chase for receipts.

“Before Weel, I would spend up to three hours a week, per client, just managing credit cards and chasing receipts,”
recalls Kitrina. “It became a constant cycle of emails, screenshots, and waiting for people to reply.”

The challenge: manual processes slowing everything down

Navigate Virtual CFOs supports growth-focused SMEs across Australia and New Zealand, from national sports organisations like Paddle Australia and Rowing Australia to fast-moving retail and logistics businesses.

But behind the scenes, their card management system was holding them back.

Physical cards had to be sent to the head office, then forwarded to users. Staff travelling overseas would often forget to upload receipts. Reconciliations took hours, and foreign transactions with mismatched merchant names made reporting a nightmare.

“Sometimes we’d get receipts in foreign languages or different currencies, and we’d just have to guess,”
says Kitrina. “It was frustrating and time-consuming.”

And every Thursday, on payday, there was the dreaded top-up ritual.

“I’d pull the credit card balances, email managers to ask if they needed more funds, wait for approvals, and then do the transfers. Sometimes I was just guessing who might need money,”
says Kitrina.

The impact added up quickly. Across clients, Navigate’s team was losing more than 15 hours every month to repetitive admin - time that could’ve been spent on strategic financial insight instead.

The turning point: finding a better way

When the Navigate team started exploring Weel, the goal was simple: eliminate the manual effort.

“We did the numbers,” says Alicia. “Even with the subscription cost, Weel made more sense, especially for clients spending overseas.”

The decision paid off almost immediately. With instant virtual cards, new users could be set up in minutes. Physical cards were available for those who needed them, but gone were the days of waiting weeks for them to arrive.

letsCardholders could now request top-ups directly in Weel, removing back-and-forth approvals and guesswork.

“It’s so much smoother now,” says Kitrina. “We don’t have to chase or predict anything; people just manage their own cards.”

Automation that actually sticks

One of Navigate’s biggest wins came from automating receipt collection, a process that had always been a source of friction.

“We’ve got the three-day card blocking rule in place,” explains Alicia. “If someone doesn’t upload their receipt within three days, their card gets locked. I was actually against it at first, but we haven’t had a single complaint. It’s been a game changer.”

The result? Zero chasing, zero reminders. Every receipt is uploaded on time, every time.

And with everyone using the same intuitive system, adoption came naturally.

“Weel’s interface is cleaner, simpler, and everything is where you expect it to be,” says Kitrina. “One client even emailed us to say how much easier it was, that’s when we knew we’d made the right choice.”

The results: time back, every month

Since moving to Weel, Navigate Virtual CFOs has seen measurable improvements across its client base:

• 15+ hours saved per client, per month in admin and reconciliation
• Month-end close shortened by at least 2 days
• No more chasing receipts or guessing top-ups
• Improved reporting accuracy and timeliness

“Having receipts come in on time means we can do our reporting on time,” says Kitrina. “That’s huge for us.”

What used to be a weekly time drain is now fully automated, controlled, and scalable. Navigate’s clients submit receipts on time, reporting runs smoothly, and the team can focus on higher-value financial work.

“We’ve saved at least 15 hours a month on one client alone,” says Kitrina. “Reporting is faster, and we don’t have to chase anyone for receipts anymore.”

A smarter way to manage spend

For Alicia and Kitrina, Weel isn’t just a tool, it’s become a key part of how they deliver modern, scalable finance operations for clients.

By removing friction and giving teams ownership over their spend, Navigate Virtual CFOs can do what they do best: help businesses grow with confidence.