Hoffman Beverage x Everlance: How a Beverage Distributor Saved Time and Money through an Enhanced Mileage Reimbursement Process

With Everlance Business, Hoffman Beverage:

• Saved hours of administrative time manually tracking mileage for both payroll and the sales force every month
• Transitioned from a patchwork process to a one-stop, cloud-based mileage system
• Provided up-to-date information to the organization to quickly analyze real-time data on over 50 employees
  

“Once Everlance was implemented, we had access to immediate real-time data that ended up saving everyone time and increased the accuracy of what data was being submitted.  We were also able to upload all of our store accounts to review route information which significantly increased visibility to our existing routes.  Having immediate access to the activity on Excel was a game-changer for our entire process.”

Archie Simmons
CFO, Hoffman Beverage

About Hoffman Beverage

Founded in 1919, Hoffman Beverage Co. is a leading beverage distributor. Their core focus is on beer distribution in Hampton Roads, Virginia. They equip brewers and retailers with the products and services they need.

Hoffman Beverage relies on a mobile workforce to serve 2,500 customer locations. Even though they have a large workforce serving thousands of locations, prior to Everlance, Hoffman Beverage was relying on manually tracking and reimbursement processes for mileage. Management expected employees to submit paper mileage logs for their sales routes to get reimbursed for driving costs.

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Challenges & Problems

Hoffman Beverage was encountering a variety of challenges using a manual mileage and expenses solution—primarily that it was requiring hours of manual administrative work to manage the patchwork process. 

• Unwieldy mileage without a system:
  Before they started using an app for mileage tracking, Hoffman Beverage management asked employees to submit manual mileage logs. Payroll used these logs to pay out each employee’s stipends. However, with so many employees, this process was burdensome for both payroll and drivers. 
• Patchwork process:
  Using manual driving logs not only created hours of manual administrative work, but it also lacked the ability to manage large amounts of data and monitor mileage for accuracy. 

Archie Simmons, CFO, came to Hoffman Beverage in 2018. He had a corporate auditing background and recognized that the current vehicle reimbursement model at Hoffman Beverage was outdated. However, with such a large workforce and large number of routes, Simmons needed to find a system that would not only be easy to use and manage, but would also allow them to access and analyze their mileage data.

Solution: Hoffman Beverage turns to Everlance Business to save time and money with accurate and automatic mileage tracking 

Hoffman Beverage found Everlance and immediately appreciated Everlance’s intuitive approach to mileage tracking and simple systems and processes. Other solutions were complicated and tried to cover too many areas. 

In addition, Everlance Business also combined accurate mileage logs created through automatic GPS tracking with a powerful admin dashboard. As a result, Hoffman could track their team’s mileage, get real-time data and results in Excel, and easily track, justify and review monthly mileage allowances for sales reps. 

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Everlance’s intuitive technology enables Hoffman to transition to a one-stop, cloud-based mileage system

With a significant workforce and more than 2,500 locations served, Hoffman needed a mileage reimbursement process that was a simple, system-based solution. Everlance’s intuitive technology and user interface is easy to use for drivers, managers and administrators. 

With Everlance, Hoffman now enjoys using a simple process that is streamlined across all areas of the business. Not only is it easier and saves time and money for the organization, but it also provides advanced data and accurate reporting that was previously impossible with manual tracking and reporting. 

“Everlance is simple and easy to use. The guys understand it.”

Archie Simmons
CFO, Hoffman Beverage

Hoffman saves money with Everlance’s powerful data 

Everlance provided accurate and detailed data by channel and route, allowing for deeper analysis. Using Everlance, Hoffman Beverage analyzed and modeled their mileage for each revenue channel. These revenue channels include convenience stores, bars and restaurants, and grocery stores. 

Now, Hoffman can ensure that the current stipend structure was appropriate and they can adjust where necessary. 

Everlance also reduced the risk of an employee over-reporting mileage. With Everlance, employee mileage records include customer locations. Each month, store numbers are reconciled with reported routes. This process limits any potential abuse and ability to overstate mileage.  

Everlance’s business-friendly features saves hours of administrative time each month

Everlance’s business-friendly features save time for both managers, administrators and drivers. Administrators no longer have to manually input and process mileage for payroll and sales force every month, and having a streamlined system allows them to easily manage the reimbursement process. 

But Hoffman Beverage serves a variety of customers. For sales reps, entering in every unique address and manually tracking miles would slow them down. 

The “Favorite Places” feature of Everlance Business is just one way that Everlance Business has saved time for Hoffman Beverage. Instead of having reps manually track each address they visit, Hoffman uploaded all 2,500 customer-named locations. With the “Favorite Places” feature, sales reps can find and identify their routes based on customer names, rather than addresses.

Even if trips need to be added manually (for example, if a sales reps’ phone battery dies), trips are much easier to enter with all of the customer names and locations automatically stored in Everlance. 

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“I like Favorite Places because it provides name recognition to my reps. When swiping or adding trips, our customer numbers show right there.”

Archie Simmons
CFO, Hoffman Beverage

The bottom line: 

Now that Hoffman Beverage is using Everlance Business to manage mileage and expenses, they’re able to: 

• Save hours of work every month for administrative staff and sales reps
• Improve accuracy and analytics around mileage with real-time data 
• Keep their mobile workforce focused on their clients (and not their mileage logs) through intuitive mileage tracking technology
• Save money with continual analysis of Everlance’s powerful data
  

What next? 

Interested in learning more about how Everlance Business can meet your team’s needs? 

Learn more about Everlance Business or schedule a meeting with Everlance