Al Barari

About

For anyone living in UAE, Al Barari is a household name. A family-owned developer with a proven track record, Al Barari started in 2005 and today offers thoughtfully designed villas (The Residences, The Reserve, and The Nest) and large-scale apartments (Ashjar, Seventh Heaven, and The Neighbourhood) in a verdant and unique residential community, making it an exceptional real estate investment.

With a range of leisure facilities including an alfresco, gourmet, restaurant (The Farm), an award-winning spa (Heart & Soul), a state-of-the-art health club (Body Language), a calendar of regular community events, and an upcoming vibrant retail component, Al Barari offers residents a rare sense of community in the heart of a sprawling metropolis.

We sat down with Murtuza Unchwaniwala, Chief Financial Officer of Al Barari Real Estate Group to understand how Alaan transformed the way company spend was undertaken in the group.

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Problem

A decentralized spend management system made end-of-month accounting and reimbursements difficult

Al Barari has always thrived on efficient processes and systems, this is something that has been a core principle since the initial days of operations and something they have embedded into the culture of the company.

“As time went by, we felt the pain of expense reimbursements throughout Al Barari. We had a lot of logistics, SaaS, and hardware spending that was handled on a manual basis, you know the usual ‘pay by card, get receipts, file expenses, and wait for reimbursements”

Managing spend across Al Barari’s multiple entities was a complex, unwieldy task. With multiple employees who needed to make purchases across multiple businesses, spend management for Al Barari had become burdensome. Murtuza and his team had to navigate multiple card systems, and a combination of personal and company cards made cash flow planning difficult.

Card management was cumbersome, reimbursement planning was challenging, and monthly accounting was time-consuming. Al Barari needed a better system.

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Solution

A centralized spend management platform that offered flexibility and simplicity

Al Barari partnered with Alaan to roll out a centralized spend management platform that could streamline workflows while maintaining separation across entities.

Now, multiple expenses ranging from utilities, hardware, and municipal payments are all handled on the Alaan card. Most importantly, Alaan worked hand in hand with Al Barari to ensure that all the previously followed accounting processes were replicated onto the Alaan Platform. With Alaan’s capability to populate transactions directly onto Oracle Netsuite, Al Barari now did not have to spend countless hours closing their books at month's end.

“Alaan was able to seamlessly integrate with our accounting systems, and made it feel like such a plug-and-play solution”

It’s easy for the finance team to promote company-wide compliance by making policy changes in bulk too. With Alaan’s built-in, customizable spend policy management, they can manage multiple cards with a predefined policy and easily configure limits and card settings for different roles within the company. They can even set custom approval rules.

“The fact that Alaan is completely approved by the authorities and regulated made us gain more confidence in using the system”

Al Barari’s staff were very quickly able to adapt to Alaan’s system and the new procedure of reimbursement - they weren’t resistant to the change and both Murtuza  personally and the staff have been extremely happy about the customer support received in case of any issues or questions that arises

Now, Alaan cards have become an essential part of Al Barari's daily finance function, and have transformed how expenses are handled daily.

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Like the sound of how Alaan transformed Al Barari's finance function? Schedule a demo with us and learn how we can make the life of your finance team easier - no matter the size.

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