Scentbird Uses Tropic to Reduce Manual Work and Improve Visibility in Procurement

About Scentbird

Scentbird provides a fragrance subscription service that lets people try multiple fragrances and beauty products from well-known and upcoming designers without the expensive commitment of purchasing full-size products. The New York-based company launched an elevated rebrand in 2022 and has grown to more than 195 employees working remotely across 17 different time zones. 

Amber Papp is Scentbird’s VP of Finance. Her extensive financial and accounting experience includes adhering to financial reporting and process for retail brands such as Bare Necessities. 

The Challenge

Be more proactive with financial processes and identify opportunities to scale efficiently

Supporting a fast-growing DTC company requires a lot of tools – Papp said Scentbird uses at least 100 software solutions to manage their business. She knew their previous ways of contract management were unsustainable and left Scentbird in a less-than-ideal negotiating position when contracts came up for renewal.

“A lot of our work is done on volume and all of a sudden you can be in a different usage tier very easily,” Papp notes. “That can lead to systems breaking or incurring overages on those items. I’m trying to centralize process so that I have the transparency to keep an eye on everything so we can be as proactive as possible.”

The Solution

Leverage Tropic to systematically track renewals and negotiate better with pricing data 

With Tropic, Papp can now access needed information in one consolidated system. Scentbird stores all of their contracts and documents within Tropic, and Papp is able to easily see which contracts are due for renewal with ample time to prepare for potential negotiations. 

As a VP of Finance, Papp reiterates that her focus is on building sustainable processes. Having access to pricing data, for example, reduces ambiguity and gives her the ability to negotiate more efficiently.

“The truth is, we don't have the data of the hundreds of other companies that Tropic has to know what everybody's really being charged. Any vendor is going to tell you they're giving you the absolute best pricing and make it sound like you're the best negotiator under the sun because that's what you want to hear,” Papp adds. “Tropic definitely has taken the burden of contract negotiation off of us.”

She adds that the platform is easy to use for all employees — including Scentbird’s executive team. Getting buy-in from the C-suite showed to other employees that streamlining their procurement process was an important endeavor for the company.

Integrate tools with Tropic to get more visibility into software spend and usage

Integrating their critical tools with Tropic has unlocked a level of visibility, such as the number of licenses permissioned, so Papp can compare it with actual usage. 

“I can hand out 50 licenses to NetSuite and at that time, everybody could be actively using it. But over time, maybe we find out that one or two people really don't need it anymore. I wouldn’t have the time to get into the weeds to reach out to all 50 people and ask if they’re still actively using this platform,” Papp says. 

“I have an integration with Tropic to very easily show me on a dashboard which people haven't been using the licenses recently. It’s not just about reporting the numbers, but also what we can do to improve the financials.” 

The integrations help give Papp the information she needs without the friction of jumping into multiple systems or flagging down team members for access. 

Scale financial operations by consolidating purchasing into one system

Papp’s advice to any finance leader with a rapidly growing business is to keep an open mindset, which has helped her identify opportunities that she may not have come across before. Scentbird continues to add new brand partners and launch new products, so it will be mission-critical to keep processes streamlined.

“With Tropic, we’re seeing there's a lot more opportunity than we realized,” she adds. “There's no way we would have that data, the leverage, to know exactly what everybody else is paying for contracts and what they're getting.”

She also appreciates the ongoing updates made to the Tropic platform, and expressed excitement to use Tropic for additional processes, like purchasing hardware for new employees. Paired with a “refreshing” onboarding experience, she feels that Tropic is helping reduce the time and stress of manual spend management. 

“There are so many more capabilities in there that can make our life easier in other areas that we didn't originally anticipate when onboarding with Tropic,” Papp says. “I am very grateful that Tropic continuously is evolving the platform and adding additional features and then making me realize all of what's possible.”