"We want to focus on the brand’s growth, not manual processes. Rho is instrumental in this. It has everything we need, and the automation will allow us to scale to a 100-person team without spending much more time on banking or expense management."
Founded by Tobias and Michelle Glienke, Munk Pack is a healthy snack company known for its tasty nut & seed and granola bars with only 1 gram of sugar. Seeing grocery store aisles packed with hyper-processed and sugary “health foods,” Munk Pack has grown a loyal following thanks to its decadent flavors and innovative use of allulose - a sweetener found naturally in maple syrup, figs, and raisins that have virtually no impact on blood sugar and insulin.
Propelled by word-of-mouth growth, Munk Pack has seen significant growth in online sales and expanded its brick-and-mortar product presence. The company’s sales team regularly travels nationwide to meet with leading grocery stores. Also, the size of the company’s team has doubled over the past few years.
Munk Pack now has 16 employees, but only one person running finance: Craig Bartlett, Director of Finance & Strategy, oversees accounting, expense management, accounts payable, and forecasting. As a 1-person finance team, Craig has regularly worked with an outsourced accounting firm and HR consultant to help with the company’s operations.
However, as Munk Pack has expanded its business, a few finance pain points - normal for a scaling company - presented themselves. First, the traveling sales team needed to focus on building new businesses instead of spending hours filing expense reports and reimbursement claims. With out-of-pocket reimbursements, Munk Pack previously processed them as part of its payroll cycle with the help of the HR consultant - a manual, inefficient process.
Second, having no streamlined expense management system translated to accounting delays when it came time for month-end close. While an outsourced accounting firm was engaged for additional help, the process was largely manual and time-intensive, and it became increasingly difficult as the company’s team grew. This traditional method needed more efficiency for a rapidly growing business like Munk Pack and further escalated the costs involved when additional external support was required.
Lastly, Craig needed a reliable banking service provider that could support easy transactions without adding significant fees that would eat into the company’s bottom line. As a 1-person finance team, Bartlett needed a unified finance solution to help Munk Pack boost its operational efficiency and profitability without having to cobble together 5 different finance apps.
Most importantly, Munk Pack needed a financial tool that could simplify the extensive range of financial processes, reducing manual work and enabling Craig to manage these operations single-handedly. The goal? To sustain the business's rapid growth without scaling up the finance team, preserving its lean, efficient framework.
The Rho platform provided Munk Pack with a comprehensive solution in three crucial areas:
Munk Pack considered Rho alongside other spend management solutions when evaluating solutions. “Rho stood out because it provided both banking and expense management services while other providers were limited to a single use case,” Bartlett said.
With Rho, Munk Pack found a reliable, multi-faceted platform that combined banking, expense management, and accounting services in one place. It provided a seamless, efficient experience that allowed Craig to single-handedly manage the financial operations without sacrificing accuracy, proving it to be a game-changing solution for the company's financial management.
Adopting Rho has helped Bartlett operate like a 10-person finance team, driving significant efficiencies that give him a full day back every month by eliminating manual tasks. “With Rho, I can process expenses and reimbursements in minutes instead of the hours it would have taken me otherwise. Those hourly consulting costs add up if you aren’t careful.”
Craig praises the exemplary support and responsiveness from Rho’s Client Service and the instant resolutions provided by the customer chat. He appreciates the convenience of fee-free ACH payments and checks through Rho, a task not guaranteed with other platforms. Plus, Rho Card transactions generate valuable cashback that helps the company’s bottom line.
Embracing Rho's platform has allowed Munk Pack to maintain a lean finance team while scaling the rest of the organization, embodying Munk Pack's strategic preference towards growing sales and marketing roles. With Rho, Craig performs with the efficiency of an entire 10-person finance team, driving productivity while keeping the team's size in check.
As Munk Pack moves forward with its ambitious goal to double its business, Rho remains a pivotal ally. "We want to focus on the brand’s growth, not manual processes. Rho is instrumental in this," Craig acknowledges. "It has everything we need, and the automation will allow us to scale to a 100-person team without spending much more time on banking or expense management."