Zola Will Do Anything for Love (And Payments Automation)

The wedding industry is worth $72 billion dollars, and Zola is taking it on.

Like diamonds, light yogurt, and Canadian tourism, Millennials have “killed” the traditional ideas around love and marriage. Gone are the days of inefficient wedding spreadsheets—we’re in the age of photo booths, cupcake towers, and celebratory hashtags.

And Zola is at the forefront of society’s changing tastes. By offering a free suite of wedding planning tools and an extensive online registry, Zola is making it easy for 21st-century couples to ensure their big day is stress-free.

But what happens when #AnythingForLove becomes inundated by an inefficient payments process?

For Shayon Donaldson, the Accounts Payable Manager at Zola, the company’s rapid growth was anything but stress-free for their overworked finance team.

“[A need of the business was to] keep up with our workload without adding headcount…we needed to build a scalable infrastructure to avoid having to hire a large AP staff.”

Understanding the problem was the first step. The second was finding the right automated solution to match the increasing financial needs of the business.

Enter: Tipalti.

By implementing Tipalti, Zola was able to streamline their entire end-to-end AP workflow. With the adoption of the solution, they were also able to efficiently manage one of their highest priorities: Vendor payments.

“Our vendors are the heart of our business. The home goods market is a word-of-mouth industry—it’s important for us to [build great relationships].”

For Donaldson the benefits were significant, “Our staff doesn’t have to spend all day living in Tipalti. We can better allocate our time supporting the business as opposed to entering and coding invoices.”

And most importantly, they were able to accomplish their initial goal—not adding more headcount.

“Without Tipalti, we’d have 10 people in AP as opposed to the two people we have right now. And we can still close on the second day of the month.”

For Zola, the ROI was evident. With the implementation of Tipalti, the finance team was able to automate bill processing and payments for 600,000+ invoices annually, accelerate their monthly close without hiring additional AP staff, and future-proof their financial operations so that they can manage millions of invoices and payments on a global scale.

Now, without payments on their plate, Zola can focus on the defining mission of their business—providing a community that truly believes in #AnythingForLove.