How I got rid of the monthly receipt chase with Cardboard

It started with what should have been the most exciting chapter of my professional life.

While completing my Master's Thesis on Open Innovation at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, I was working at a cutting-edge startup delivering Virtual Reality to the AEC-industry (Architecture, Engineering & Construction). We were literally building the future, creating immersive visualizations of infrastructure projects before the shovel hit the ground.

But still, some work that I did always brought me back to the present.

The month that started with playing chase

Each month, it was the same. Every SaaS subscription in one place seemed impossible. I had an excel sheet to go through, and I was checking it twice. Person X in Column A, specific software in Column B, and Column C waiting for that checkmark confirming whether I had the receipt.

“Hey, I was wondering if you had the receipt for slack, Github, Miro, and

Atlassian, It hasn't been uploaded yet.”

Seen

”Hey, just a friendly reminder, if you could forward the receipts I asked for, that would be great.”

I knew he was busy with closing the current sprint they were working so intensely on, but now I had given him 3 days to respond, but still those receipts were missing.

Finally I almost had them all, but still I was missing a few big ones. Only problem was that the person having access to those were on holiday. Who wants to get an email from work asking you to upload receipts, on your time off.

That was when I realized that even in companies that lived and breathed innovation, managing SaaS costs and receipts was outdated. We needed a SaaS expense platform that could automate this repetitive chaos. Something that could offer receipt automation for subscriptions, and give us real-time control over spending without spreadsheets.

I was building the future, but still on Excel

I continued working for Dune, a company that enabled everyone to get valuable insight into the blockchain. “The Data Must Flow” was our motto. Another cutting-edge technology startup. And I love working for startups, you never have 2 days that are the same, everyone contributes to the best of their capabilities. In startups, every small effort matters for survival and success. Yet there I was again, facing the same monthly ritual: the spreadsheet, the outreach, the missing receipts.

The receipts were collected, and sent to accounting, a couple days went by, and the return message from accounting is “These specific receipts are in the wrong format, it doesn't show the supplier, we also need a few comments on these expenses, what is the reasoning for the purchase?”

Cutting-edge technology with stone-age finance

Every month reminded me that despite working with blockchain, our financial workflows were still in the past. I wanted all SaaS subscriptions in one place, a single dashboard showing every tool, every user, and every transaction; all tied neatly with receipt automation for subscriptions.

It was time for a change, and we started shopping for solutions. For this, we had a few criteria that had been shortlisted:

• Easily access an spend overview, with breakdown on cost for each month.
• Easily set up new services, create bank cards for that specific purpose, enabling us to keep the company card secure, and streamline the process of acquiring and testing new services.
• Automate the receipt collection, having the receipt directly tied to the transaction as soon as the transaction was completed.

Finding the SaaS spend management platform of my dreams

We tried some solutions but ended up with Cardboard, a Nordic SaaS expense platform, as its simplicity was soothing while it simultaneously packed a punch with the features we needed, and a bunch of good-to-have features on the side. Our accountants were quickly brought up to speed, and we started automating our accounting.

A month after this, we had a framework that worked wonders. Employees were able to quickly see their SaaS subscriptions in one place, read more about what services were used in each team, and could quickly be invited to a service or request a new card for a service needed for a specific project.

Suddenly, I had a few hours to spare each month, it was the same for our accountants. It was great. That’s when it hit me. Innovation is not just about big, flashy technologies like VR or blockchain. It’s about solving the everyday pain points that hold us back from doing our best work.

Those small, mundane tasks that seem inevitable? They don’t have to be.

With Cardboard, I realized what true efficiency could look like. No more endless back-and-forth emails, no more manual matching of receipts, and no more wasting precious time on repetitive tasks. Instead, I could focus on what really mattered: driving innovation and making an impact.

Stop chasing receipts. Start building what’s next.

If you are still stuck in the monthly grind of chasing receipts and juggling spreadsheets, let me assure you that it doesn't have to be this way. Stop letting outdated processes hold you back and start experiencing the future of seamless expense management.

The technologies of tomorrow shouldn't be hampered by the administrative tasks of yesterday. It's time to leave the busywork behind and reclaim your time, so you can focus on building what's next.

So, what could you build with all those hours back?