Home Customer stories Archangel Accounting increased its payment run speeds by 95%

Case study

How Archangel Accounting uses ApprovalMax Pay Wallets to transform its payment processes

Learn how this accountancy company has achieved 95% faster payments for UK and international suppliers using ApprovalMax.

Archangel Accounting is a UK/US-based specialist accountancy firm serving the Life Science and Tech sectors.

It provides outsourced accountancy support, including CFO-level services, to high-growth startups, biotech companies, and investment-backed businesses.

Employees

Xero

Accounting Platform

Accounting and financial services

Industry

UK & US

Location

Archangel Accounting provides traditional accountancy services with an innovative approach. They deliver a range of outsourced finance services that includes providing an internal finance function for many of its clients - involving the need for securing appropriate payment approvals and executing payments on their behalf.

While this model provides streamlined efficiency for clients, it is not without its unique operational challenges. For Archangel, these include:

Clients generating high volumes of invoices and purchase orders
Suppliers that are both UK-based and international
Directors needing to approve spend quickly, often on mobile
Strict requirements around controls, audit trails, and fraud prevention
Growth without adding operational complexity or junior headcount

After enhancing and streamlining the capture and approval processes using ApprovalMax, the next priority became increasing the efficiencies of payments. International payments, in particular, were slow, manual and prone to bank delays and fraud checks.

Ultimately, Archangel needed a single workflow for money leaving clients’ businesses - from invoice capture to global payment - without as much cumbersome manual payment processing.

The solution: ApprovalMax as an end-to-end platform to control money leaving the business

Archangel implemented ApprovalMax in 2020, easily integrating it with its ERP without disrupting existing systems or workflows.

Initially, it was brought on to introduce approval controls. But over time, it evolved into a core platform for managing Archangel’s entire process for funds leaving clients’ businesses - from invoice capture to approval before executing payment and providing a full audit trail.

Today, ApprovalMax underpins Archangel’s end-to-end finance workflows for its client base, and has helped the firm and its clients to scale without adding operational complexity.

Having a system that controls funds leaving the businesses it serves has provided many benefits, including:

1. Faster, smarter payments with ApprovalMax Pay Wallets

“We use GBP, US dollar and euro wallets for our client base - and a Danish wallet for one specific client too”

ApprovalMax Pay Wallets is where the firm saw the biggest transformation.

Once invoices are approved, payments are executed directly within ApprovalMax - removing the need to login to bank portals, upload files, or manage payments one by one.

Using the multi-currency Pay Wallets, Archangel can now pay suppliers in GBP, USD, EUR, DKK, and CHF.

Prior to ApprovalMax Pay, most payments had to be handled manually, one by one, and 40 payments would take around two-and-a-half hours to process via bank portals - and sometimes much longer.

With ApprovalMax, the same payment run now takes under 10 minutes without compromising the security around making payments.

For the Archangel team, the difference has been a gamechanger. “The time saving is huge. That’s the biggest benefit for us, by far.”

2. Scaling payment responsibilities with security and control

Anyone making payments traditionally needs direct access to the bank. This can be a big sticking point in the process, leading to lengthy bank mandate applications, the streamlined involvement of directors, and delays that slow operations down.

With ApprovalMax Pay Wallets, Archangel can safely facilitate payment responsibilities in moments, without needing direct bank access. Each payment still requires the appropriate client approvals, while dual internal checks and a full audit trail ensure transparency and compliance at every step.

“Before ApprovalMax, anyone making payments needed direct access to the bank, and getting someone onto a bank mandate isn’t always easy. It depends on the bank and the systems you’re using. With ApprovalMax, we can add or remove people from the payment process quickly and efficiently, while maintaining control and security over every transaction.”

By combining efficiency with robust safeguards, Archangel can scale its finance operations, delegate payment duties confidently, and maintain trust with clients, without ever compromising on security.

3. ApprovalMax Capture removes friction before payment

Even before the payment stage, ApprovalMax Capture supports the payment workflow by processing invoices quickly and accurately.

Using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to efficiently route invoices automatically through approval workflows, Approval Max Capture reduces errors and manual effort. This one feature alone:

Reduced invoice processing time from around 4 minutes down to 1-2 minutes
Allows ApprovalMax to more efficiently process invoices for Archangel's clients
Helps systems run smoothly, minimising client time

Capture has been well received by Archangel’s employees. “Our team feedback is consistent. It’s saving huge amounts of time.”

4. Effective secure controls and low risk

“The security and streamlined management of company bank accounts is a key aspect of our work. ApprovalMax helps us to efficiently implement robust banking controls with our clients that fit the stage of the company and board requirements.”

While Archangel and its clients experience faster payments and simpler workflows through ApprovalMax, its already robust controls remain firmly in place.

Now, every payment is fully approved, tracked and auditable on the same platform and clients retain final sign-off, without slowing down operations.

This system helps reduce the risk of fraud, ensures robust banking controls, and protects both Archangel and its clients.

The result

ApprovalMax began as an additional approvals system for Archangel but has become a key factor in streamlining the processing of invoices and payments for its clients. By combining Capture, Approvals, and Pay Wallets in a single platform, Archangel can work smarter for its clients and provide a service that is efficient, controlled, and scalable.

Archangel solved a problem every growing accounting firm faces: how to manage payments at scale without added complexity, cost, or risk.

ApprovalMax made that possible by turning payments into a controlled, efficient, end-to-end workflow - from invoice capture to global execution.

Archangel Accounting’s success demonstrates the impact of a truly connected workflow for funds leaving businesses. Invoices flow seamlessly from capture and approval through to UK and international payments, without the inefficiencies of traditional high street banks. The end result is a visible, efficient, and fully controlled payment process that can scale in line with business growth.

If payment inefficiencies, manual approval processes and invoice bottlenecks are slowing your finance team down, book a demo to see how ApprovalMax can help.

Approval Automation

Streamline your approval processes with automated workflows.

Budget checking

Get a real-time overview of budgets during approvals.

Bill-to-PO matching

Easily match bills to purchase orders for accurate record-keeping.

Audit trails

Track all approval activity at any time for greater transparency and compliance.

Integration with any OCR

Pair ApprovalMax with any OCR tool to save time and reduce errors.

Never miss a thing

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What is Money Out?

The solution: ApprovalMax as an end-to-end platform to control money leaving the business

1. Faster, smarter payments with ApprovalMax Pay Wallets

2. Scaling payment responsibilities with security and control

3. ApprovalMax Capture removes friction before payment