AirDXB Group

About

The AirDXB Group is a property management company offering 360° services to investors and homeowners, including short-let rentals, real estate investments, and interiors services such as design & renovations, wrapping, flooring and other upgrades. Established in 2018 by CEO and Director, Gregory Lewis, The AirDXB Group has gone from strength-to-strength and is now home to over 150 employees, 600+ properties under management and over 500 completed interiors projects. With a commitment to excellence and innovation, they have created a trusted, award-winning platform for property investors and homeowners across Dubai, partnering with them across all of their real estate needs.

The problem

Challenges in managing petty cash and manual expense processes

As a property management company, AirDXB was managing multiple buildings, homes, and property managers. With over 40+ individuals across departments such as procurement, fit out, design & maintenance in charge of the daily needs of consumables and repairs at these locations, AirDXB was dealing with tedious manual processes to disburse cash and reconcile it at regular intervals. The management of petty cash was a huge challenge for the finance and accounting teams.

The CFO James Capper mentioned,

“My team was spending hours going through expense reports, chasing receipts, and manually making accounting entries.”

Implementing a system that enabled the elimination of redundant steps in financial processes, notably in the handling of receipts was crucial to allow the team to focus on strategic and important tasks like reporting, financial analysis and overall digital transformation at AirDXB. 

James implemented Alaan and subsequent spend controls to develop a process of expense management platform that worked for AirDXB. 

The solution

Replacing petty cash & manual reimbursements with an efficient and tech-driven expense management system

AirDXB issued cards with transaction limits and category controls to property managers and corporate spenders. This removed cash handling and ensured each property manager had access to funds at all points in time. The category and amount controls offered on the Alaan card reduced the risk of out of policy spends. Authorised card holders at building locations are able to expense furnishings and consumables directly while central corporate spend on PRO expenses was streamlined through PRO-specific cards. 

“We issue interior design spend cards specifically to designers and ones enabled only for T&E for BD reps. The controls allow our spend to automatically be in policy.”

The finance team now has visibility into spend on a real-time basis and this change improved AirDXB’s receipt compliance by 96%.

“Alaan’s simplified workflows have eliminated unnecessary steps, making our operations more efficient.”

In addition to simplifying payments, the Finance and Accounting Team has leveraged the seamless integration with Xero to save 45+ hours a week. Instead of spending time on manual accounting entries, the focus has shifted to improving controls, analytics and timely month-end reconciliation.

Alaan has enabled digital transformation within AirDXB, proving to be a transformational tool for both users and admins. The benefits have been prominent and are shifting the focus towards more efficient, technology-driven processes at AirDXB.

“I would love to adopt Alaan across our operations in several countries.”  

If you like the sound of saving time, automating tedious processes, and taking control of spend, just like AirDXB – then book a demo today!

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