Derive replaced Metro’s fragmented email-and-spreadsheet approach with a unified platform covering spend requests, vendor management, contracts and accounts payable, all integrated with their existing Xero environment.

1. Custom approval workflows 
Every purchase category, from software and hardware to services and consulting, was routed through finance-defined thresholds with the right approvers automatically embedded in each flow.

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2. Vendor and contract governance 
Spend requests now trigger vendor and contract reviews before any purchase order or invoice is created, ensuring every dollar is backed by a vetted vendor and valid agreement.

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3. Xero integration
Derive was fully integrated with Metro’s existing Xero environment within the four-week deployment window, synchronising vendor data, invoices and payment records in real time.

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4. Hands-on deployment 
Derive’s team guided workflow design, trained Metro’s finance team and broader business on adoption, and ensured the platform was production-ready within four weeks.

Metro Finance runs its accounting on Xero. While Xero handles general ledger, bank reconciliation and financial reporting well, it was never designed to manage procurement workflows, purchase authorisations or the upstream controls that sit before an invoice hits the system.

Rather than replacing Xero or migrating to a heavyweight ERP, Metro layered Derive on top. Derive creates a bridge between the operational side of spend, where purchase requests are raised, reviewed and authorised, and the accounting side, where invoices are coded, matched and paid.

The result is a complete procure-to-pay process. On the front end, Derive enforces pre-authorisation controls so that no purchase is made without the right approvals and budget checks. On the back end, approved invoices flow directly into Xero with the correct coding, ready for payment. Metro gets the governance layer it was missing without disrupting the accounting system the finance team already knows and trusts.

This approach also protects Metro’s existing investment in Xero. Instead of migrating to a larger platform, the finance team extended what they had, adding the procurement and AP controls that Xero doesn’t offer natively.

Within weeks of going live, Metro’s finance team moved from reactive reconciliation to proactive spend control. With all purchase requests, vendors and contracts under one roof, the team now has complete visibility into where every dollar goes.

Metro’s story is one Derive sees regularly across large SMBs and mid-market businesses in Australia. The finance team is capable, the accounting system works, and the business is growing. But somewhere between the purchase request and the payment run, visibility disappears, approvals get missed and risk creeps in. Most cloud accounting platforms were built for recording transactions after the fact, not for governing spend before it happens. That gap is where Derive sits. If your finance team is still managing purchase approvals through email, tracking commitments in spreadsheets or reconciling invoices without knowing whether they were ever authorised, Derive can close that gap in weeks, not months, without replacing the systems you already rely on.