Paynest Impact: JUNITEC’s formula for efficiency in expense management

About JUNITEC

JUNITEC is the oldest junior enterprise in Portugal. Founded in 1990 by a group of students from Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), a prestigious engineering university located in Lisbon, it was recently acknowledged by Junior Entreprises Europe as the “Junior Enterprise of the Year” among +90 junior companies across Europe.

Its mission is to bridge the gap between the student community and the job market, offering students the opportunity to apply their academic knowledge in real-world settings. Operating under the motto “Learn, Innovate, and Achieve”, JUNITEC drives innovation through technology consulting projects in collaboration with ecosystem partners. Additionally, every year, it organizes the largest university-level hackathon, which over the past seven years has brought together more than 600 students to develop impactful ideas.

With more than 75 active members and an extensive alumni network, IST’s junior enterprise has received several national and international awards for its engineering projects. Some of the partners working with JUNITEC include Hitachi, Galp, Vodafone, Brisa, SONAE, Mota-Engil, Unicorn Factory Lisbon, among others.

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“Paynest is revolutionizing our processes. Their platform has simplified and streamlined the reimbursement process, reducing errors and delays. Their team has provided exceptional support from the moment we started working with them.", Tomás Pedrosa, former CFO at Junitec.

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‍The challenge 

Before adopting Paynest, JUNITEC managed its expenses manually through Google Forms. Employees would submit their invoices there, filling in details manually such as the TIN, specifying whether the payment was made using company or personal funds, and assigning categories/subcategories for each expense.

This process was not only tedious and inefficient, but also highly prone to errors. The Financial Director then had to also manually sort the expenses and reimburse employees manually who had used their own money.

The main challenges included:

• Human errors: Manual data entry and sorting led to mistakes in reimbursements, which required handling wire transfers one by one.
• Slow reimbursements: The approval and reimbursement process took a long time and was centralized in the hands of the Financial Director, often causing delays for employees.
• Lack of visibility: Important documents were sometimes misplaced and there was no system to automatically ensure invoice compliance - meaning that invoices without the company’s TIN were occasionally accepted. This led to issues with accounting and potential problems with tax compliance.

These challenges not only consumed valuable time from the Financial Director but also created unnecessary friction, negatively impacting the overall efficiency of the finance department.

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The solution 

JUNITEC was looking for a solution that would reduce errors, speed up the reimbursement process, and integrate seamlessly with their existing accounting systems. Paynest provided exactly what they needed.

The transition to Paynest’s Expense Manager was smooth with a quick onboarding process that ensured employees could start using the platform with minimal disruption. The key features that stood out for JUNITEC included:

• Intuitive interface: Paynest makes it easy to categorize according to the company structure, track, and manage all expenses with peace of mind - across the dashboard and the app.
• Instant reimbursements: Paynest enables a quick, hassle-free experience with AI-powered OCR for effortless submissions and in-app approvals, making expense validation faster and convenient. Once approved, the reimbursement is automatically triggered via Paynest wallet.
• Integration with accounting systems: Paynest integrates with existing accounting systems to facilitate the implementation without any headaches.

On top of this, Paynest delivers real-time insights into spending patterns and generates expense reports tailored to each company's cost structure, offering full financial control.

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The results

With Paynest, JUNITEC saved approximately five hours per week, which translates to a 50% reduction in the time previously spent by the Financial Director on expense management related tasks.

Moreover, the platform significantly improved the employee experience, reducing delays in reimbursements and making the entire process more efficient and transparent. These operational improvements brought significant value to the Portuguese junior enterprise.

By choosing Paynest, JUNITEC transformed their expense management routine, eliminating several roadblocks, streamlining processes and workflows, and empowering their team with the right tools for enhanced agility and precision.