In today’s volatile and fast‑scaling business environment, finance leaders are under pressure to gain real‑time visibility and tight control over their accounts payable (AP) operations while keeping headcount and costs in check. This FreeNow case examines how a high‑growth European mobility platform transformed a fragmented, manual AP function into a centralized, data‑driven operation. By leveraging Yooz AI, the company moved from weeks‑long invoice cycles and limited oversight to fast, transparent processing that supports confident decision‑making at scale
In this session, Kevin Appleby, COO & Podcast Host at GrowCFO, moderates a discussion between Becky Glover, Board Director & Growth Strategist and Fintech CFO at Mazuma, and Shelsea Adrian, AP Automation Expert at Yooz. Together they unpack how FreeNow centralized AP across 10 countries in just six months, reduced invoice processing lead times from one–two weeks to three–four days, and achieved productivity gains of around 70% alongside 60–80% cost reductions. The case study underlines a pragmatic blueprint for finance leaders: simplify and standardize processes first, then apply AI‑driven automation to unlock scale, control, and insight—without adding headcount
Highlights:
- FreeNow centralized and automated AP across 10 countries in six months, starting with a lower‑volume country (Austria) before scaling to higher‑volume markets, minimizing operational risk and disruption
- Invoice processing times were reduced from 1–2 weeks to 3–4 days, giving finance teams far greater visibility over liabilities and cash requirements
- Automation with Yooz AI delivered around 70% productivity improvement and 60–80% reductions in AP processing costs, enabling FreeNow to support growth without proportional increases in staff
- Digitization and centralization of invoices improved traceability, auditability, and real‑time insight, allowing leadership to make faster, better‑informed decisions
- Becky Glover emphasizes that success depended on simplifying and standardizing processes, securing buy‑in from AP and finance teams, and managing change thoughtfully, not just deploying new technology
- Shelsea Adrian demonstrates how Yooz’s AI‑driven platform supports unlimited entities and licenses with an intuitive interface, enabling growing organizations to extend automation and reporting without complexity
