Boston Ballet: 4x faster expenses and full visibility with Brex.

Shared corporate cards and manual expenses, with limited visibility

Boston Ballet had used American Express and Bank of America’s corporate cards, but neither could effectively support the company’s decentralized budget approach. Further, manual expense reports and outdated admin tools slowed both employees and finance.

“Our previous card programs were clunky and outdated in all the ways you’d expect,” said Ming Min Hui, Executive Director and former CFO of Boston Ballet. “Employees had to paste receipts into their expense reports, and then finance had to process them all manually. The interfaces also made it hard to do routine things like add or remove cards or users, adjust limits, and analyze spend.”

Cards were typically held by department heads, who were expected to make purchases on behalf of their entire teams. In practice, cards were shared, introducing security and compliance risks. Meanwhile, finance had little real-time visibility into department-level spending, making it difficult to manage and track budgets.

“As an arts nonprofit, visibility into expenses is really important,” said Chris Byrnes, Boston Ballet’s CFO. “But we’re a decentralized organization, with each team managing its own budget. We needed a solution that gave us a cohesive view of spend across the organization.”

Employee cards and expense management, auto-synced to NetSuite

Boston Ballet moved to Brex’s integrated corporate cards and expense management platform. While Ming’s relationship with Brex’s former COO helped open the door, the decision came down to Brex solving real operational pain. “Brex was the corporate card 2.0 compared to the others,” Ming said.

Brex cards gave every department secure, individual access to spend with custom limits, guardrails, and approval workflows, and Brex’s NetSuite integration syncs expenses automatically. “We went from having department leaders sharing cards to everyone having their own,” Ming added. “Brex really improved how we track and manage spend — everything from large vendor payments down to coffee with donors.”

“Employees used to spend an hour a month on expenses, but it’s 15 minutes max with Brex.”

— Chris Byrnes, CFO, Boston Ballet

5x less time managing cards and 75% faster expenses

Boston Ballet transformed card and expense management from a security and compliance drag into a highly efficient, low-touch process. With employees coding their own expenses and automatic syncing to NetSuite, finance eliminated manual data entry and accelerated the month-end close. What used to take hours now takes minutes.

“If I spent 10% of my time thinking about cards before, I spend 2% now,” Chris said. “And employees used to spend an hour a month on expenses, but it’s 15 minutes max with Brex.”

That time savings scales across the organization, from dancers and educators to marketers and fundraisers, freeing teams to focus on their craft. Real-time visibility and self-serve controls empower budget owners to manage spend independently, while finance maintains oversight. “With Brex, we have everything we need to control and monitor spend in one place,” Chris said.

Brex also helped Boston Ballet uncover over $1 million in vendor payments that could move from ACH to card, unlocking significant cash back and more flexible working capital. “The Brex team even helped us design a points redemption strategy that works best for our spend profile,” Chris said. “Our incentives are 100% aligned with our business.”

For a nonprofit with tight margins, Brex’s free tier was another major advantage. “Other vendors always led with pricing,” Chris added. “With Brex, we get a free platform that keeps evolving to solve new problems. That’s huge for us.

“Brex feels like the Mint app, but for business. It all just works, and it’s clear the team is always striving to improve the functionality. We are confident we can grow with Brex.”