Image generated by Deeptech Times using Google Gemini
Step into a future where AI isn’t just a black box, but a transparent partner in financial operations. Summit, a Singapore-grown disruptor, is rewriting the rules of enterprise finance by making AI not only smart but auditable from the ground up.
The transparency mandate
Fintech is littered with ‘AI-powered’ platforms, but not all are created equal, especially when it comes to letting humans see under the hood.
As frameworks like Singapore’s IMDA AI Verify help tighten provenance and raise trust, Summit is staying ahead of the curve. Its platform threads transparency and control into code, empowering finance teams with a dashboard-ready view of every transaction and approval. The company learns your policies and flags outliers, but the final call? That’s still in human hands.
Jo-Ann Chung, CEO and founder of Summit and a finance veteran, doesn’t mince words: “If a CFO cannot clearly articulate a decision-making process, it jeopardises both trust and compliance.” That’s why Summit’s features, from sniffing out duplicate receipts to policing policy compliance, are engineered for human oversight and clear, auditable trails.
Summit’s smart expense management platform targets that sweet spot: small and mid-sized businesses that need robust controls but can’t afford bureaucratic drag. The result? Finance managers get rapid-fire insights, tighter controls and serious time savings.
Inside the machine: How Summit’s AI delivers
This isn’t just off-the-shelf automation. Summit’s proprietary AI capabilities are powered by a globally recognised model, which it can’t disclose due to the confidential terms of partnership. Optical character recognition deciphers receipts and PDFs, extracting vendor names, totals and dates without breaking a sweat.
The compliance engine cross-examines each transaction against your ruleset, flagging duplicate claims, suspicious expenses or missing paperwork. Meanwhile, Summit’s analytics surface trends, spot repeat offenders and uncover hidden cost-saving opportunities.
Data in Summit’s world is locked down – encrypted both in transit and at rest. The platform is built to comply with heavy-duty privacy laws like Singapore’s PDPA, and third-party auditors keep the system honest.
Efficiency gains that change the game
Automating the grind (data entry, approvals and quality checks) does more than save time. Finance teams are reclaiming 30 to 40 per cent of hours once lost to expense and invoice processing, all while keeping a razor-sharp eye on compliance and spend visibility.
Plug-and-play integration
Summit doesn’t just bolt onto your stack, it syncs natively with the likes of Xero, QuickBooks Online and NetSuite. Integration unfolds in three acts: first, linking up via secure API or file-based handshake; second, mapping your approval rules, cost centres and policies; third, unleashing Summit’s AI to automate capture, categorisation and compliance checks.
Once live, teams can sync transactions, route approvals through their org chart, and export reconciled data directly to their accounting system. Goodbye spreadsheet purgatory.
Proof in the numbers
The results? Arabica Coffee Malaysia slashed expense claim times from up to 15 minutes per claim to under two. Automation now chews through 90 per cent of expense claims and 80 per cent of vendor invoices, letting a small team handle nearly double the volume, without increased hiring.
Allport Cargo Services digitised its invoice approvals and said farewell to paper jams across regional offices. Real-time approval tracking sharpened payment visibility, sped up cycles, and lightened the admin load on finance staff.
Motion For Impact, a youth-focused social enterprise, herded all invoices, approvals and data onto Summit’s single platform. The standardised workflow supports lightning-fast, audited invoice approvals, often with payments sorted in under two minutes. With custom approval paths, oversight grows deeper as the organisation scales.
Looking forward, Summit is set to expand automation and intelligence throughout the finance process; covering everything from capturing and organising expenses to managing approvals, accounting, payments, and generating reports. Chung shares that they are ramping up investment in AI-powered solutions like intelligent data capture, automatic expense classification and advanced anomaly detection.
These innovations reflect Summit’s ongoing dedication to empowering finance teams to work more efficiently, uphold compliance standards, and achieve clearer insights into how and where money is being spent.
