Cape, an innovative expense management platform issuing corporate cards to Australia’s SMEs, recently partnered with Codat, the universal API for small business data, to automate accounting administrative tasks at scale.

Companies spend an estimated 520 hours a year on manual accounting and administrative tasks. Cape’s partnership with Codat will automate an estimated 50% of the tasks related to expense reconciliation, saving hundreds of hours a year for each business that uses it.

In the digital era, CFOs face a double-edged sword: scaling their teams operational capabilities while providing strategic advice to management. To meet these challenges, finance operations need to be streamlined through automation to mitigate and alleviate time-consuming, monotonous tasks.

Cape is taking advantage of two aspects of Codat’s service to achieve the above. Firstly, Cape will utilise a push integration with Codat to store users’ Chart of Accounts rules in Cape's platform and then automatically sync transactions with Xero and QuickBooks each time the customer makes a payment. Transactions will appear in the accounting platform pre- categorised, removing the need for manual intervention.

Secondly, a pull integration that allows Cape to attain and review financial data that its customers store in their accounting platform. This allows Cape to incorporate that data into its credit decisioning engine to expedite the onboarding process and get corporate cards in the hands of businesses faster.

Cape has a long-term goal of putting a billion dollars back into the pockets of SMEs - directly impacting the Australian economy by improving cash flow, increasing savings, and reducing fees for businesses. By automating thousands of mundane accounting tasks with Codat’s dynamic technology, Cape can pursue this goal with speed and empower finance leaders to take a more strategic position in their company.‍

Pete Lord, Co-Founder and CEO, Codat, commented:‍

“Integrations which automate repetitive and manual tasks don’t get the attention they deserve because they don’t have the media appeal of other technologies like artificial intelligence or blockchain. But the value they provide to small businesses is hugely under appreciated.

Better data connectivity is the key to increasing productivity, which is a main driver of improving living standards across the world.”

Ryan Edwards-Pritchard, Founder and CEO, Cape, commented:

“Cape's mission is to save growing business owners time and money.

Automating the customer onboarding process means businesses won't need to find and provide financial statements already in their accounting platform.

Similarly, by syncing transaction feeds between Cape and their accounting platform, they'll save further time and ensure one Chart of Accounts rules are in place to improve the categorisation of information and remove downstream headaches.

We’re thrilled to work with Codat and ensure we open up these benefits to all of our customers. A quick win that benefits everyone!”