Home Customer stories BMI Group saves two FTEs per month with ApprovalMax
BMI group
Case study
BMI Group saves two FTEs per month with ApprovalMax

Learn how BMI Group (Canada) uses ApprovalMax for time and cost savings.

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2 FTEs
saved for the company per month
16 hours
per month saved for each individual
CAD $200k
saved per annum

The BMI Group is an award-winning transformative real estate development company focused on reimagining, remediating, and redeveloping legacy properties. Its expertise transforms strategic properties into new industrial, commercial, residential, and hospitality opportunities.

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50+
Employees
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QuickBooks Online
Accounting Platform
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Construction
Industry
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Canada
Location
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8 reasons to bolster your financial controls for QuickBooks Online users
As businesses expand, they can benefit from stronger financial controls and approvals to prevent, detect, and correct any financial issues before they arise.
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The implementation was so straightforward that we were using ApprovalMax within days of signing up. It provided a simple, best-practice structure for processing purchase orders, bills, expenses, and vendor approvals. It hit all the key points and needs for our financial operations.
Fil Marinkovic
Fil Marinkovic
CFO at BMI Group
The challenge

Previously, the company managed its approvals entirely through email, which presented several challenges. The email-based system made it difficult to reference and audit the approval trail, and things often got lost, requiring follow-ups and pushbacks to get approval. Additionally, BMI Group’s governance structure required several approvals for virtually everything. This, coupled with the fact that each project was running under its own corporation and systems, made the approval process cumbersome and inefficient. It was clear that a better way to manage approvals, create visibility, and streamline financial operations was needed.

The solution

After assessing the business needs, BMI decided to implement ApprovalMax, a decision made easier by the fact that it integrated seamlessly with the business’ existing accounting software, QuickBooks Online. This integration was crucial as the team had no plans to switch from QuickBook Online and were looking to standardize and simplify the systems across the platform. ApprovalMax provided a single portal for a chain of approvals, matching bills to purchase orders, and providing backup for requests, bringing everything neatly into one place. The implementation was straightforward and BMI was able to start using ApprovalMax within days of signing up. It provided a simple, best-practice structure for processing purchase orders, bills, expenses, and vendor approvals, hitting all the key points and needs for financial operations.

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The results: saved a combined total of 60 hours per week, or 240 hours per month

Significant time has been saved by replacing email approvals, as well as a number of other key benefits.

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Time savings
Significant time was saved by eliminating the need to manage approvals through email. Fifteen key people involved in approvals across the organization saved approximately four hours each week. This equated to saving the equivalent of one or two full-time people each month in terms of processing approvals.
Cost savings
Prior to using ApprovalMax, work would sometimes need to start before all approvals were formally obtained due to the urgent nature of their operations. This sometimes resulted in receiving invoices that did not reference purchase order numbers, creating confusion. ApprovalMax eliminated this issue by bringing everything into proper sequence, ultimately saving, as estimated, hundreds of thousands of dollars by providing better purchasing management.
Improved oversight and compliance
ApprovalMax enforced a structured approval workflow, which ensured that 100% of purchasing was following the proper standard process, compared to only 50% before. This also meant that approvals could efficiently be obtained from operational team members, who were not formally part of the approval process before, leading to better oversight and compliance.
Streamlined workflows
The platform allowed for the creation of more granular and division-specific approval workflows, compared to the cumbersome manual distribution required before. This helped in adapting the workflows to be more aligned with the operational needs of the company.
Increased engagement
Portfolio operations folks, who were part of the chain but not part of the approval process before, were now engaged in the process, leading to a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to approvals.

Discover some of ApprovalMax’s most popular features

Approval Automation

Streamline your approval processes with automated workflows.

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Budget checking

Get a real-time overview of budgets during approvals.

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Bill-to-PO matching

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

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Audit trails

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

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Integration with any OCR

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

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