Vial and Airbase by Paylocity: Managing Clinical Trials with Growth Plan

Unique Operational Needs — Met

Vial is a contract research organization (CRO) that helps people find clinical trials and serves as a Site Management Organization (SMO), offering financial management to trial site operators. 

That’s a huge scope of financial responsibility and operations — visibility and control are essential. Additionally, such a nuanced cash flow demands an agile spend solution. Airbase by Paylocity allows Vial to deploy secure, compliant, and documented funds across sites easily.

Melissa De La Torre, Former Clinical Research Billing Manager at Vial, took some time to share how Airbase by Paylocity is simplifying multi-faceted billing and expenses at Vial.

Responsible for day-to-day expenses of 20-30 entities, Melissa spends only 4 hours a week reviewing spend thanks to Airbase by Paylocity. Across AP, benefits of the platform are being felt.

Virtual Cards — a New Frontier

Previously, Vial used physical cards to manage site expenses. As their network grew, they could see that virtual cards were the way forward.

Melissa, who arrived after Airbase by Paylocity​ had been implemented, was totally new to virtual cards — and was awed.

“I was really fascinated by them. I thought they were really cool idea.”

Onboarding sponsors, or anyone who requires a card, is a breeze according to Melissa.

“It’s honestly so intuitive that the training is very minimal. It’s just a matter of creating an account for them, which then sends them the invite email to Airbase.”

Easy-to-use virtual cards are then issued quickly and as necessary. Auto-lock, spend controls, approvals, audit trails, and spend details are all at Vial Heath’s fingertips. Melissa can approve requested spend right from within Slack.

Vendor-specific virtual cards also mean that Vial employees can “all use the same card, which can make managing certain recurring expenses easier.”

Reformed Reimbursements and Software-Enabled Physical Cards

Vial still uses Airbase by Paylocity ​physical cards for some on-sites, travel, and sales expenses.

“Airbase really facilitates added visibility into all the transactions that are made with physical cards on-site.”

Like with virtual cards, users can receive departmental approval before Melissa finalizes approval — all through Slack.

“As our company has been growing and there’s been more and more departments and uses, spend limits have definitely been useful. Users are notified as they approach that limit.”

While certain site managers or employees are still using physical cards, Melissa shares that “everybody else is using virtual cards or reimbursements.” Regardless of how spend is executed, Melissa is feeling the benefits of Airbase by Paylocity ​across the board.

Handling Booking Details at the Approval Stage Provides New Efficiency

This is “definitely” a beneficial feature according to Melissa. Creating categorizations within Airbase by Paylocity ​is also helping Melissa keep track of card spend as it flows directly to the GL

“I’m able to filter specific categories to help me manage expenses, rather than having to go through card statements and manually verify what different expenses are.”

Once a week, Melissa carries out a budget review of spend. The rest of the time, Airbase by Paylocity’s control and customizable spend settings automatically assure that spend is on track.

An Overall Improved Spend Culture

In her time at Vial, Melissa has already observed a safer, improved spend culture thanks to Airbase by Paylocity​ virtual cards, vendor-specific cards, and so on. Whether it’s how expenses are filtered as they flow to the ledger, automated approval workflows that support scale, or using various spend and card types to facilitate its nuanced operational requirements, Vial is reaping the rewards of choosing Airbase by Paylocity.