CHAGEE is a premium tea beverage brand that has rapidly expanded across Asia, with hundreds of new stores opening annually. Its manual expense processes could not keep pace with the expansion, creating administrative bottlenecks. By deploying Helios, CHAGEE achieved 90% digital adoption across all stores, reduced the reimbursement cycle to just 2 days, and cut weekly admin time by 50% — enabling the finance team to scale operations without adding headcount.
Standardizing Expense Management for Hundreds of Rapidly Growing Store Locations
01 90% Digital Adoption — Bringing Store Teams Online in Months
Helios was rolled out to all CHAGEE store locations in just 3 months, with every new store trained on the system as part of its pre-opening onboarding. The mobile app was designed for frontline users with limited time for administrative tasks. Store managers capture a photo of a receipt from their mobile device, and the system automatically extracts relevant information, fills out the expense form, and applies the correct policy rules for their region. This drove 90% digital adoption across all stores, transforming how frontline teams interact with expense management.
02 2-Day Reimbursement — From Paper to Payment in 48 Hours
Before Helios, store employees waited weeks for reimbursement due to manual paper handling and slow approval chains. The digital platform automated the entire reimbursement pipeline — from AI-powered receipt recognition to instant policy checking and electronic approval routing. The average reimbursement cycle was compressed to just 2 days, giving store teams fast access to their funds and significantly improving satisfaction among frontline workers.
03 50% Less Admin Time — Scaling Without Adding Finance Headcount
The finance team's weekly administrative time was reduced by 50% as Helios automated the majority of manual policy checks, data entry, and reconciliation tasks previously performed by finance staff. With standardized digital workflows across all locations, the team could manage a growing store network without proportional headcount increases. As the CFO noted, Helios allowed CHAGEE to scale operations without scaling the finance team.
Conclusion
Following the deployment of Helios, 90% of CHAGEE's store teams now use the digital expense platform, with an average reimbursement cycle of just 2 days. The finance team has reduced weekly administrative time by 50%, and standardized expense operations now support the company's continued expansion into new markets. The platform has become an essential operational layer enabling CHAGEE to grow its store network without increasing finance headcount.