Case Study: Betterment achieves 2-day reimbursements and streamlined expense reporting with Abacus

How Betterment Made Their Expense Reporting Better

Betterment, a leading automated investing service launched in 2010 that has raised over $100M, experienced growing pains as headcount increased. Expense reporting started as receipts left on a desk and evolved into emailed photos that still required manual chasing and data entry; by 2014, with about 40 employees, the ad‑hoc process was no longer scalable and Lucy Babbage (Director of People) needed a simple solution that wouldn’t burden staff or discourage team social activities.

Betterment adopted Abacus in 2014 and quickly transitioned to an automated, low‑friction expense workflow that required minimal training. Employees submit expenses through Abacus and are reimbursed in about two days (7,000+ expenses submitted to date), while finance uses historical data and custom categories to set accurate social budgets—saving time and preserving company culture.

Betterment

Lucy Babbage

Director of People, Betterment