How Sylvanvale Transformed Financial Management with Weel

The challenge

With almost 600 employees, including a large, distributed workforce of managers and support workers, they needed a smarter way to handle day-to-day expenses and ensure funds were available when and where they were needed. 

Before Weel, Sylvanvale relied on debit cards and petty cash at sites, and credit cards for senior management. This approach created ongoing issues:

• Card logistics headaches: Every time a manager left or changed roles, new debit cards had to be issued, causing delays and extra admin.
• Slow, manual reconciliations: Month-end reporting took weeks, with finance staff chasing missing receipts and paperwork.
• Limited spend visibility: Transactions could only be reviewed after month-end, reducing accountability.
• Compliance risk: Missing receipts and petty cash withdrawals made audits difficult.‍
• Time drain: Finance and managers were stuck in admin work instead of focusing on client care.

The solution

Sylvanvale implemented Weel across all sites, starting with credit card users and then rolling out to 40+ homes in four waves. Key elements of the setup included:

• Virtual card rollout: Site managers and support workers received digital cards linked to sites, allowing instant reallocation when staff changed roles.
• Tailored controls: Support workers were restricted to just four GL codes, while site managers and senior staff had broader access to ensure appropriate use.
• Approval workflows: Budget top-up requests are made in the app and routed directly to the CFO for approval, maintaining governance.
• Real-time oversight: Approvers and managers now view transactions live. Finance can check coding and receipts daily, instead of waiting until month-end.
• TechOne compatibility: Journal entries are exported monthly from Weel and uploaded to TechOne in hours, rather than weeks.

“What’s really great about Weel is the live data. We can see daily what’s happening, who’s buying what, and raise questions straight away instead of chasing at month end. The automated reminders and card blocking after ten days have also been a great control—it’s solved our biggest issue of staff not submitting receipts on time.”
- Deveena Naidoo, Accounts Payable Officer, Sylvanvale 

The results

Since implementing Weel, Sylvanvale has achieved:

• Seamless onboarding: New managers are set up in under a day, compared to weeks when waiting for debit cards.
• Faster reconciliations: Journal upload to TechOne now takes 2–3 hours each month, down from weeks.
• Proactive financial control: Managers and approvers review transactions daily, creating a cultural shift to accountability and real-time governance.
• Improved compliance: Automated reminders and card blocking after 10 days ensure receipts are submitted promptly, with near-perfect documentation rates.
• Staff empowerment: Digital cards and mobile access give support workers and site managers more flexibility, while maintaining strict financial control.

“Weel has been a highly successful solution, directly addressing the pain points we set out to resolve. It has not only saved us time and effort but has also improved oversight and control across the organisation.”
- Deveena Naidoo, Accounts Payable Officer, Sylvanvale

Why it matters

For organisations like Sylvanvale, where services span dozens of sites and rely on timely, controlled access to funds, Weel provides enhanced efficiency, accountability, and transparency. Processes that previously required significant time for receipt collection and reconciliation are now managed in real time, enabling staff to dedicate more attention to the people they support.