Interviews
Jobs-to-be-done: how finance teams manage spend today
Mark Thompson
As a founder, what do you need from a spend tool?
Visibility, mostly. I want to see where the money goes without asking finance every week.
How price-sensitive are you at your stage?
Pretty sensitive. I'll pay for simplicity, but I won't pay enterprise prices for features I won't use.
What would stop you adopting?
If it feels heavy or built for big finance teams. I want simple, fast, done.
Tomás García
What matters most to you when evaluating a new platform?
Compliance and reliability. We operate across markets, so controls and audit trails are non-negotiable.
How do you feel about switching from an established vendor?
Cautious. The incumbent is expensive and rigid, but it's proven. A newcomer has to earn that trust.
What would build that trust?
References from companies our size, strong security posture, and local support.
Daniel Roy
Where does your week go with the current process?
Manual reconciliation, mostly. Matching transactions to receipts by hand is slow and error-prone.
What would a better tool need to guarantee?
A clean audit trail. I can't adopt anything that makes an auditor's job harder.
How do you feel about new tools generally?
Careful. I like proof and documentation before I trust automation with the numbers.
Sarah Kim
Walk me through how your team handles expenses today.
It's a patchwork — cards, Expensify for receipts, then a lot of manual stitching at close. The reconciliation is where we lose days.
What would have to be true for you to switch tools?
A clean migration and a provable cut in close time. I'd need to bring a business case, so numbers matter more than features.
What worries you about switching?
Disruption during a close cycle. If onboarding drags into month-end, that's a real risk for us.
Aisha Bello
What's the most painful part of your current process?
Chasing receipts across spreadsheets. I spend far too long copying numbers that a tool should just capture.
How do you evaluate a new tool?
I sign up and try it myself the same day. If it doesn't remove manual steps in the first hour, I lose interest.
What would make you a champion internally?
Auto-categorisation that actually works, and a real-time view I can show my controller.
Executive summary
Across interviews, the shared job-to-be-done is eliminating manual reconciliation and getting real-time spend visibility, but priorities diverge by role: controllers and accountants want automation with a bullet-proof audit trail, founders want simplicity and visibility at a fair price, and CFOs gate everything on compliance and proof. Switching hinges on a low-risk migration that doesn't collide with the close cycle.
Key themes
Manual reconciliation is the universal pain
Every role loses time stitching receipts and transactions together at close.
“Chasing receipts across spreadsheets.” — Aisha Bello
“Matching transactions to receipts by hand is slow and error-prone.” — Daniel Roy
Priorities split by role
Founders want simple visibility; controllers want automation + audit trails; CFOs gate on compliance.
“Visibility, mostly.” — Mark Thompson
“Compliance and reliability... are non-negotiable.” — Tomás García
Switching risk centres on the close cycle
Onboarding must not collide with month-end, and needs a business case.
“If onboarding drags into month-end, that's a real risk.” — Sarah Kim
Recommendations
- Position around 'faster close', not just cards.
- Offer role-specific onboarding (founder vs controller vs CFO).
- Guarantee a migration window outside the close cycle.