How Parallel Goods gave every buyer a card

Parallel Goods is a homeware retailer with 14 stores and a fast-growing online shop. Its buyers travel constantly, visiting trade fairs, workshops and suppliers, and they need to commit to purchases on the spot. For years, that meant one shared company card and a lot of trust.

The shared-card problem

With one card passed between eight buyers, nobody could tell who had spent what until the statement arrived. Receipts went missing, budgets were overspent by the time anyone noticed and a lost card stopped every buyer at once.

A card for every buyer

Parallel issued a physical Saro card to each buyer, plus virtual cards for online suppliers. Every card has a monthly limit tied to that buyer’s category budget, so the homeware buyer can’t accidentally spend the textiles budget.

Budgets that update in real time

Each buyer sees their remaining budget in the Saro app before they commit to an order. Category managers see the same view for their whole team. Overspending went from a monthly surprise to something that rarely happens at all.

Receipts on the spot

Buyers snap a photo of the receipt after each purchase, and Saro matches it to the transaction automatically. Trade-fair purchases in other currencies are converted at the mid-market rate and recorded in the right category without anyone touching a spreadsheet.

Results

• Budget overruns: down 85% in the first two quarters.

• Missing receipts: under 1%.

• Expense reports: eliminated entirely for buyers.

“Our buyers used to come back from a fair with a bag of receipts. Now they come back with nothing to do.”

What other retailers can learn

Parallel’s finance director credits the success to giving buyers more freedom, not less. With clear limits and real-time budgets, buyers no longer had to ask permission for routine purchases, and finance no longer had to police a shared card.

• Tie every card to a budget owner and a category.

• Show remaining budget at the moment of purchase, not at month end.

• Make receipts a ten-second task on a phone, not an end-of-trip chore.

This year, Parallel is extending cards to store managers for local maintenance and supplies, with the same budgets and controls.