Family-owned group expands portfolio with launch of fintech company

Hull-based family group JR Rix & Sons has launched a new company to give businesses greater control and oversight of their expenditure, while helping them manage cash flow more effectively.

Expensemate is an expense management tool that gives full transparency over employee spend, ends the need for paper receipts and expense reports.

It consists of a pre-paid Mastercard® coupled with an online dashboard and mobile app which enables users to capture digital receipts, business owners to approve expenses on the go, and financial directors to instantly analyse spend.

The product’s origin dates back to Fuelmate director, Andy Smith, who was developing an idea for a fuel card that could be used at all forecourts across the UK.

But when Harry Rix – son of Rix Group chief executive Tim – joined the business, he realised the potential for the card to be extended to a broader range of employee spend.

He now leads the project, and said: “For employees, collecting paper receipts and compiling expense reports is an incredibly inefficient process. Waiting for reimbursement can cause huge friction between a business and its employees too.

“For a business owner, lack of oversight leaves you vulnerable to dishonest claims which can impact on cash flow, and whereas this ought to be detected by the financial department, using paper-based processes to manage expense claims requires hours of manual effort.

“With Expensemate, we’ve designed a solution that enables expense spend data to be fully transparent and available in real time, and one that removes hours of inefficient admin.

“The card can be used everywhere Mastercard® is accepted, but directors can tailor restrictions to the needs of individual employees.”

Rory Clarke, JR Rix & Son Group managing director, added the business employs a team of account managers in Hull to support companies in transitioning from a paper-based system to this online solution.

He said: “We have invested a lot of money in developing the software behind Expensemate.

“We’re here to help SMEs and larger companies realise all the benefits and efficiencies of online expense management by supporting them through every step of that journey.”