Case Study: State of Play Hospitality gains real-time venue spend visibility with Payhawk

Analysing venue performance with spend categorisation at State of Play

State of Play Hospitality, an international entertainment and hospitality company operating venues across the UK and US, needed a better way to manage increasingly complex spend across multiple entities. As its portfolio grew, its finance team was stuck using traditional corporate cards plus disconnected tools like Bill.com and NetSuite, which meant limited visibility, manual processes, and slow approvals. Payhawk’s corporate cards, expense management, accounts payable, and multi-entity management were introduced to replace this fragmented setup.

With Payhawk, State of Play unified cards, expenses, and payables in one platform and integrated everything directly with NetSuite. Custom categorisation by venue and GL code gave the team real-time spend visibility and sharper control over budgets, while venue managers gained more autonomy with company cards and built-in limits. The result was faster decisions, quicker spotting of overspending, less manual reconciliation, and clearer insight into venue performance and profitability.

State of Play Hospitality

David Watson

Group Financial Controller