From Paper Receipts to Mobile-First: Transforming Expense Management at the World's Largest Health & Beauty Retailer
01 100% Paperless Adoption — Full Digital Workflows Across 16,000+ Stores in 28 Markets
Before Helios, store managers and regional teams across AS Watson Group' 28 markets relied on paper forms and manual receipt handling for expense reporting. With over 16,000 stores generating thousands of expense claims daily, the administrative burden was immense. Helios replaced every paper-based workflow with a fully digital pipeline — from receipt capture and form submission to approval routing and reimbursement. The result was 100% paperless adoption across the entire global network, eliminating manual errors, lost receipts, and delayed approvals at every level of the organization.
02 60% Faster Reimbursement — From Weeks to Days
The shift from paper to digital had an immediate impact on reimbursement speed. With Helios automating the entire expense lifecycle — AI-powered receipt recognition, automated policy compliance checks, and instant digital approval routing — the average time from submission to reimbursement was cut by 60%. Store employees across all 28 markets now receive their reimbursements in days rather than weeks, significantly improving the employee experience for AS Watson Group' frontline retail teams who depend on timely expense settlements.
03 Mobile-First Unified Platform — One Standard, 28 Markets
AS Watson Group' global footprint spans diverse regulatory environments, currencies, and languages. The Helios platform was designed mobile-first, recognizing that store managers and regional staff rarely sit at a desk. From a smartphone, employees can photograph receipts, submit expenses, track approval status, and receive reimbursements — all within a single interface that works identically across all 28 markets. For finance teams, this unified platform provides real-time visibility into spending across the entire group, consistent policy enforcement, and standardized reporting that was previously impossible with fragmented offline systems.
Conclusion
By partnering with Helios, AS Watson Group eliminated paper from its global expense workflows, achieving 100% digital adoption across 16,000+ stores in 28 markets. Reimbursement cycles were accelerated by 60%, and the mobile-first unified platform gave headquarters real-time control over spending across the entire organization. The deployment demonstrates how a heritage retail brand can modernize its finance operations at global scale without compromising local flexibility — turning what was once a time-consuming manual task into a seamless digital experience for employees worldwide.