Company

Empire Portfolio Group is a leading area franchisee of Orangetheory Fitness, a fast-growing brand known for its signature blend of science, coaching, and technology. Since 2013, Empire has been operating to deliver proven fitness results for a healthier world while supporting the dreams and goals of their members and team.

Challenge

Empire had been outsourcing its financial functions to third parties and using multiple cards and payment solutions, including Amex, Chase, Venmo, and Zelle — making it difficult to track spending.

As Empire grew, they decided it was time to build out their financial operations in house with a modern, integrated spend management solution that would help them run faster and with greater financial discipline across their Orangetheory Fitness locations.

Because Empire was starting from scratch, they needed more than a provider — they needed a partner that would quickly implement their new solution with high-touch service.

Solution

Empire started by issuing Brex cards to their employees and using the Empower budgets feature to delegate spending power to managers at each location with clear limits and expense policies — making it easy for teams to do the right thing for the business.

Next, Empire rolled out spend management tools for consolidated expense tracking and fast reimbursements. “There are so many great functionalities in Brex. After all the positive feedback from our employees, we accelerated the rollout of the spend management tools,” explained Tiffany Miller, Director of Accounts Payable, Empire Portfolio Group.

Now Empire’s controllers and managers have real-time visibility and easy control over spend across their Orangetheory Fitness locations in one place — via the Brex dashboard and mobile app — for greater accountability and transparency from anywhere.

“The beauty of Brex Empower is that we could get a corporate card program and employee reimbursements on the same platform. You can build a program that works for you.”

Outcome

Brex Empower quickly provided Empire with the integrated corporate card and spend management solution they needed to build a world-class in-house finance department. “We’ve seen a huge shift in accounts payable from being a back-office data entry function to a powerhouse of information that creates a decision maker and stakeholder,” Tiffany said.

The improved reporting from Empower enabled Empire to increase its overall financial discipline and performance. “Now we have the tools to easily run information to the C-Suite,” Tiffany said. “It’s why we needed Brex — to see in real time what’s being spent across multiple locations.”

With their new insights, Empire Portfolio Group is developing incentive programs to empower studio owners and improve business results. “Because we’re able to see spending at such a granular level, we’re now able to benchmark our studio locations against one another and truly understand the cost of running the most efficient studio.”