Growth and Optimization
Putting out finance fires: How Coulson Aviation simplified spend management with SAP Concur
When your organization operates around the world, every minute counts.
For Coulson Aviation, a global aerial firefighting company headquartered in Port Alberni, British Columbia, the mission is clear. Their crews deploy aircraft and teams across Canada, the United States, Australia, and Chile to battle wildfires and protect communities.
But behind the scenes, another kind of fire was building.
Manual travel, expense, and accounts payable processes were creating bottlenecks for the finance team. As the organization grew, those workflows became harder to manage and more time consuming for employees and finance staff alike.
By implementing SAP Concur solutions, Coulson Aviation automated key processes, improved visibility into spending, and gave employees tools that work wherever their jobs take them.
The result? Fewer finance headaches and more time focused on the mission.
When manual processes start to slow things down
Before adopting SAP Concur solutions, Coulson’s finance processes relied heavily on email, spreadsheets, and paper documentation.
Receipts were tracked manually. Invoice approvals moved through long email chains, and finance staff spent valuable time tracking down documents and confirming approvals.
“Our processes were very manual and prone to error,” says Michael Halhead, VP of Finance at Coulson Aviation. “We didn’t have the tools to do the work in a consistent, repeatable way.”
As the company expanded globally, the volume of transactions grew quickly.
“At the time we had about 30 credit cards,” explains Courtney Schut, Assistant Controller at Coulson Aviation. “Now we’re well over 550. There’s no way we could keep up with that growth using manual processes.”
It’s a challenge many growing organizations face. As operations expand, financial complexity grows right along with them.
Without the right tools, finance teams can spend more time managing paperwork than helping the business move forward.
One platform for travel, expenses, and invoices
To get ahead of the problem, Coulson implemented a connected set of SAP Concur solutions:
Together, these solutions bring travel bookings, employee expenses, and supplier invoices into a single platform.
Instead of juggling disconnected systems and scattered data, Coulson’s finance team now has clearer visibility into spending and automated approval workflows.
Organizations that move to integrated spend management platforms often see measurable improvements, including:
- 10x greater efficiency in expense report processing¹
- 28% increase in policy compliance²
- 21% reduction in operational costs¹
This kind of automation isn’t just about convenience. It can deliver real business value.
Making expense reporting easier for employees
For teams constantly on the move, expense reporting can quickly become frustrating.
That’s why Coulson adopted ExpenseIt, the AI-powered receipt capture feature within the SAP Concur mobile app.
Instead of collecting receipts and filing reports later, employees simply snap a photo as they go. The system automatically converts the receipt into an expense entry.
For Coulson’s crews, who often operate in remote environments, that convenience matters. Halhead says real-time receipt capture helps employees stay organized so they can focus on their real job: putting out fires.
Bringing clarity to accounts payable
Coulson also implemented Concur Invoice to streamline its accounts payable workflows.
Previously, tracking the status of an invoice often meant digging through inboxes or spreadsheets. Approvals could easily get buried in email chains.
Today, the AP team can see exactly where each invoice sits in the process.
“We’re able to get real-time data out of that program and match invoices as we receive them, significantly cutting down on cycle times,” Halhead notes.
Schut says the biggest improvement is transparency.
“We can see exactly where a PO or invoice is in the process. Nothing gets lost in email anymore,” she adds.
That kind of visibility is a common outcome of automation. SAP Concur research shows organizations using automated spend management solutions report:
- 2.5x faster invoice processing³
- 2x higher satisfaction with visibility into expense data³
- 20% savings in annual T&E costs³
Giving finance teams time to focus on the bigger picture
One of the biggest benefits Coulson has seen from automation is the time it gives back to the finance team. Manual data entry, document tracking, and approval follow-ups have been dramatically reduced.
“When it’s set up right, the automation saves a lot of money, time, and frustration,” Halhead says.
That time savings allows the team to focus on more strategic work.
“Automation frees us up to focus on planning and where the company is headed,” Schut notes.
Coulson’s experience reflects a broader trend among finance leaders. According to a CFO Insights survey, 82% of CFOs say complex and manual processes are limiting their finance function’s effectiveness.4
A platform built to grow with the business
Looking ahead, Coulson Aviation plans to deepen its use of SAP Concur solutions.
The organization is exploring integrations with systems such as NetSuite and ADP Workforce Now, along with additional partner solutions that can extend automation even further.
“We’ve only scratched the surface,” Halhead adds.
For growing organizations, that scalability is key. SAP Concur connects with hundreds of ERP, HR, and finance systems, helping companies build a spend management foundation that evolves as they grow.
Fewer finance fires. More focus on the mission.
Coulson Aviation’s story is a reminder that finance processes can either slow a business down or help it move faster.
By bringing travel, expense, and invoice management into one connected platform, organizations can gain:
- Better visibility into spending
- Faster invoice and expense processing
- Stronger compliance and controls
- Less manual work for finance teams
For Coulson Aviation, that means fewer finance fires to put out and more focus on the mission that matters most.
To learn more about how Coulson Aviation gets ahead with SAP Concur solutions, read the full case study here.
Sources
- Building Efficiency, Targeting Growth, SAP Concur 2024 ROI Study
- SAP Concur ROI Research, Global & Regional Findings, Phronesis Partners, 2024
- SAP Concur Research, 2024
- Influencing from Within: How CFOs Tackle Internal Cost Pressures and Drive Efficiency, SAP Concur CFO Insights Survey, 2025.
