Building real-time visibility into software subscriptions
Sanna Baug Warholm, Data Scientist and Interim CFO at Economic Mind, shares how Cardboard transformed 3-month expense delays into real-time financial visibility.
About Economic Mind
Meet Economic Mind, the trailblazers crafting a bottom-up digital twin of the business world. They're not just about numbers; they're about empowering management consultants, private equity firms, and strategic decision-makers with precise market intelligence about any product market and geography of interest. Founded in January 2024, with users and partners in Oslo, they're on a mission to redefine commercial due diligence and strategy analyse using both public and purchased data.
“We are providing on-demand access to bottom-up market intelligence to power strategic market insights and decision-making. Gathering this information used to take weeks to manually collate and now it is accessible at the click of button,” says Sanna Baug Warholm, Data Scientist and Interim CFO at Economic Mind. With a background in BCG, Sanna has experienced the challenge of commercial due diligence herself.
Economic Mind has over 50 active subscriptions, including services like Cursor, GitHub, Google Cloud, and Notion. Each team member creates individual cards for subscriptions, operating on a full trust model without approval flows.
Challenges with software spend management
Employees at the company were using personal cards for hefty software expenses, leading to a time-consuming reimbursement process and sometimes a three-month lag in expense visibility. Subscription management was unpleasant, with manual tracking of who was responsible for what. Enter Cardboard, the no-nonsense solution to their subscription fatigue.
“Everyone makes one card for each subscription they have. Now we can easily see all our subscriptions,” says Sanna.
Improvements with Cardboard
Cardboard has improved Economic Mind's financial processes by providing real-time subscription spend visibility and reducing the administrative burden. This has resulted in an estimated time savings of five hours per month by automating receipt collection and matching, streamlined accounting and better visibility into spend insights.
While exact dollar savings are under wraps, the time saved speaks volumes. Five hours a month might not sound like much, but in startup land, that's gold. It's about freeing up cognitive space and letting the team innovate without the constant nag of expense tracking.
No private cards or reimbursements needed (yay!)
According to Sanna, employees were using their personal cards and submitting for reimbursements. Sometimes, the subscriptions were quite expensive and employees really preferred not to use their own cards for these. “We tried a company card across the team, but then we have to chase people for receipts, and also try to sort the subscription payments among other expenses on the card. This is was not ideal at all,” explains Sanna. She further says, “In Economic Mind, we trust people to know what tools will make them more efficient, and we want to give people access to these tools without delay.”
With Cardboard's virtual cards, employees don’t have to remember to submit expenses and wait for reimbursements, providing peace of mind and reducing cognitive load. With all that extra mindspace, they can focus on what they really want to do, i.e. build the product!
In addition, Cardboard’s straightforward approach aligns perfectly with Economic Mind's high-trust ethos. It's about maintaining control while fostering a culture of trust. As Sanna Warholm puts it, "Our employees really appreciate that they don't have to remember to add the expenses. While I appreciate the full visibility and control of our subscriptions costs."
Economic Mind advises other companies to consider solutions that reduce administrative burdens, allowing them to focus more on core business activities. They emphasize the importance of trust and simplicity in managing expenses. Trust your team, simplify your processes, and watch your business soar.
From 3-month delays to real-time visibility
Economic Mind has successfully "twinned" their subscription management - transforming a fragmented, three-month-delayed view into a real-time financial mirror. Just as they provide precise market intelligence to their clients, they now have precise visibility into their own software spending.
The results speak for themselves: 5 hours saved monthly, zero reimbursement headaches, and complete financial control without sacrificing team autonomy. By eliminating manual tracking and embracing automated subscription management , they've joined the ranks of forward-thinking companies who understand that spreadsheets and calendar reminders are no match for modern SaaS complexity.
Join Economic Mind and other tech companies who've already made the switch to Cardboard for managing their software subscriptions and online spend.
Your CFO (and your entire team) will thank you!