TOCA Football Gains Purchasing Control and Eliminates Expense Reports Across 210+ Employees
How TOCA Football brought 99.5% of purchases across its sports entertainment venues under approval control and replaced company cards and expense reports with Order.co.
At a Glance
vendors managed in 1 platform
days to first order
employees’ purchasing standardized
The Challenge
A lack of standardized approvals led to duplicate orders and overstock
Placing orders required time-consuming back-and-forth with vendors
Teams used shared company cards, hindering spend visibility and control
In 2022, TOCA Football experienced rapid growth, acquiring existing soccer facilities and integrating them into their network of training centers. The expansion brought with it “a mishmash of processes,” according to Michael Nauman, Facilities Management & Operations Specialist. An overarching procurement process simply “didn’t exist”. Each regional director and manager had their own company card for purchases, but as more facilities opened, the ever-increasing number of expense reports became difficult to manage. "That was bulky and cumbersome,” Michael remarked.
Placing critical orders for TOCA Football's specialized training equipment, such as motherboards and parts for touch trainers, required time-consuming coordination between Michael, general managers, and vendors. Employee uniform orders followed a similar pattern, filtering through Michael and other employees before being sent to suppliers via email.
Without formal approval workflows, duplicate orders and overstock became recurring issues. For example, general managers would place orders for concession stand supplies directly through their beverage provider’s website, but the platform lacked controls to prevent over-ordering. "We'd end up with tons of overstock and out-of-date products, but there was no way around that," Michael noted.
Even routine replenishment orders required extra steps. Restocking TOCA Football's custom-branded soccer balls required logging into a separate Shopify account, coordinating with their California warehouse, and manually tracking shipments across dozens of facilities.
The Procurement Strategy Playbook for Modern Businesses
The Solution
TOCA Football onboarded Order.co to help standardize procure-to-pay processes across the organization. Dozens of individual company cards and vendor logins were replaced with a unified catalog, ensuring that teams could quickly find and purchase approved products from contracted suppliers. Within 20 days of launching Order.co, facilities were placing their first orders through the system.
Today, when new general managers join the team, learning the platform is simple. “We do a ten-minute call, and I share my screen and show them how you order,” Michael explained. “That implementation process is really easy.” As a result, GMs can start ordering the products they need for their facilities on day one rather than sending out purchase requests via email and navigating countless vendor logins.
The Outcome
Standardized purchasing across facilities
With Order.co, all of TOCA Football’s vendors and 2,600+ products are accessible through the platform, empowering managers to purchase everything they need for their facilities in one place.
Additionally, Michael created pre-approved product lists to ensure managers can easily find what they need for special events. “We use lists a lot for our GMs, especially around tournaments,” Michael described. For high-volume, routine purchases, Michael leveraged these lists to set up recurring orders. For example, custom-branded soccer balls now ship out automatically every four months, keeping all facilities stocked with the product that keeps them running. “I don't have to worry about it anymore, which is fantastic,” Michael expressed.
Ordering uniforms has also been streamlined. General managers can place orders for new team members using Michael’s curated list of employee sizes and styles without needing to go back and forth with suppliers. As a result, managers onboard new employees efficiently and dedicate their time to training rather than vendor communication.
Controlled spending through approval workflows
Configuring custom approval processes have helped Michael prevent unnecessary spending without slowing down operations. In one instance, a facility ordered $500 pop-up goals and LED lights, which deviated from their typical purchasing patterns. Michael forwarded the order to the regional director for review, and soon after, half the items were removed before approval. In another case, Michael noticed a general manager excessively ordering cleaning supplies every week and began denying the large orders, helping the facility stick to its allocated budget.
Approval workflows have also solved longstanding challenges with duplicate orders and overstock, like in the case of concession products. “Now, we can double-check [orders] and actually approve them before they're sent to [our beverage provider],” Michael explained. “If someone puts in a $2,000 order, I’ll go in and edit how many cases they’re ordering.”
Gained full spend visibility across facilities
Building custom, real-time budgets was another critical capability for the TOCA Football team. “It keeps [GMs] more cognizant of their facility spend,” Michael shared. “Many of them don't go over budget, but it just gives them an extra layer of accountability for what they're buying.” Rather than Michael manually tracking and communicating spend throughout each month, managers can see their remaining budget at any time and make informed purchasing decisions.
Budget visibility has proven especially valuable when planning around seasonal demand. With winter being TOCA Football's busiest season and roughly a third of annual facility spending concentrated in these peak months, having access to centralized reporting that breaks down purchasing by location, department, and product category helps Michael understand supply needs and prepare accordingly.
Eliminated time-consuming expense reports
Order.co pays vendors Net 1 on TOCA Football’s behalf for all transactions made on the platform across all facilities, giving their team an extra week to pay for purchases and enabling predictable cash flow. With all orders flowing through the platform, teams are no longer required to fill out individual expense reports, saving Michael countless hours on monthly reconciliation tasks. “It's so nice not having to worry about expense reports for each facility and paying for products from individual websites,” Michael expressed. “Order.co handles that for us every month.”
As TOCA Football continues to acquire new facilities and expand its TOCA Social entertainment venues, Michael can focus on supporting the company’s growth rather than managing repetitive procurement tasks. Order.co handles the busywork, ensuring that facilities are ready to effortlessly scale purchase-to-pay workflows for years to come.