Customer Success
Higgins Coatings Gains Real-Time Control and Staff Efficiency with Archa
By replacing legacy bank cards with Archa, Australia’s leading commercial painting provider eliminated "blind spending" and unlocked valuable rewards.
The Challenge
Higgins Coatings operates on a massive scale, managing dispersed teams and high transaction volumes across 25 branches nationwide. For over a decade, the company successfully utilized SAP Concur Expense to manage their ledger. However, their incumbent bank-issued corporate cards created a significant disconnect in the workflow.
The legacy cards lacked real-time data, leaving staff unsure of their available balances. This forced the finance team into a reactive cycle of manually checking limits and updating staff to prevent card declines. Additionally, the bank cards offered no rewards program, meaning the company was missing out on significant value from their high operational spend.
"Before Archa, we would have to send staff updates telling them where they were at from a transactional point of view. For example, if they had some big expenses coming in, they weren’t sure where they were at with their card limit. They were running blind."
The Solution
To match the efficiency of their existing SAP Concur stack, Higgins needed a card program that offered seamless integration and instant visibility. They switched to Archa Business Credit Cards to empower their workforce with real-time data and a user-friendly mobile app.
The transition allowed the finance team to move from manual "top-ups" to instant limit adjustments. Implementation was surprisingly frictionless; the finance team utilized Archa’s onboarding materials to run internal sessions, helping staff link their new cards to their existing Concur profiles in minutes.
"With Archa, we can see it all and we can also change card limits, rather than put more money on the card, which is what we used to have to do. It’s just a lot easier. The guys have a lot more visibility on their spending and on a real-time basis too. It makes life easier for everybody. And the feedback has been really good."
The Results
The shift to Archa has transformed expense management from an administrative burden into a streamlined value driver. Staff no longer waste time reconciling incomplete statements; the live feed ensures every month ends with a complete data set.
Critically, the move has turned the finance function into a profit center through the Velocity Points program. By earning points on every transaction, Higgins is now generating tangible rewards that can be reinvested into business travel, adding a layer of ROI that the previous bank cards could not match.
"We were able to introduce Archa to employees as an efficiency improvement... our people can spend more time on their day-to-day roles, and less time managing admin."
