Introducing all-in-one corporate Visa cards and expense management software to your business is a great way to control spending and travel expenses and improve the efficiency of your finance processes. Many companies have now adopted cards and expense management solutions because of their many advantages over traditional ways of expense tracking, like Excel spreadsheets and manual receipt chasing. But these same companies often adopt multiple providers when they could have a better-connected experience and view overspending via an all-in-one spend management solution instead. 

Expense management automation is essential for finance teams to save time on admin and focus on endeavors that can help drive company growth and profitability. Has your company been wasting time manually reconciling receipts, chasing expenses, and trying to enforce compliance? Then you should consider using smart expense management software to improve your business systems for many good reasons, starting with the below. 

Say Goodbye To Outdated Expense Management Processes

Managing expenses can be a challenge for many companies. From chasing receipts to getting a real-time view of spend, these challenges are exacerbated by the fact that many different software platforms don’t connect with one another.  

Finding the right expense management automation solution can be a major benefit for companies and helps ensure they don’t exceed the budget. The right solution can also help businesses save money by helping identify fraud, inaccuracies, or waste in their spending patterns.

A good spend management solution features cards and connected expense management software and automates the process of tracking, checking, and chasing expenses incurred by employees or contractors. Solutions like Payhawk mean that you won’t need to spend time manually entering data into a spreadsheet or managing paper receipts. Your employees will also benefit from a streamlined process allowing them to pay for things for work via an app featuring custom in-built spend policies and no waiting for lengthy approval processes or reimbursements.

Benefits of Automated Expense Management Software

Expense management solutions have been around for some time, but they continue to improve in functionality and usability. These improvements mean businesses of all sizes can take advantage of them to help keep track of their spending and stay on top of their budgets.

Here are some benefits to consider when choosing an expense management automation tool:

•  Increased Spend Visibility

Improving spend visibility is a major driver for many companies investing in expense management software. By digitizing manual processes (like receipt capture) and consolidating fragmented data, companies can gain visibility into their spending in real time. Expense management software allows you to easily track and monitor where your money is going so that you can see where you can increase savings or make better use of your current spending.

•  Minimal Errors and Duplicate Entries

When you use expense management software, you don’t have to worry about entering information incorrectly. The software can also search for duplicates within your data and eliminate them, so your reports are accurate. Payhawk, for example, even includes subscription management software so businesses can ensure they aren’t doubling up or spending too much on recurring payments.

•  Simplified Reporting

You can generate easy-to-read reports for various purposes, such as auditing, compliance, and budgeting. Expense management software also allows you to view and manage all your spending in one place. It provides a real-time snapshot of your company’s finances and lets you track expenses by employee, project, or category.

•  Faster Employee Reimbursements and Approvals

Ideally, your employees will use the company cards included within your spend management solution; however, reimbursement is still super simple for those without cards. The software allows employees to submit their expenses online and get reimbursed quickly without manually filling out forms or submitting paper receipts. The OCR technology automates data collection. All the employee has to do is take a photo of the receipt and select the correct category (defined by the budget owners and finance) for the spend. These short steps can reduce the time it takes to approve employee expense reports by as much as 90%. 

• Create Standardized Policies Across Departments

Getting colleagues to stick to one or more expense policies can be difficult. However, smart expense management software like Payhawk, or other’s policies are built into the tool. Payhawk, for example, includes options to implement spend caps, daily spend limits, ATM withdrawal caps, multi-step approval workflows, and more. These controls can be set up in bulk (or individually) by the finance team and mean that the cardholder doesn’t have to try and memorize a policy to stay compliant – and that it’s almost impossible for a cardholder to overspend.  

•  Minimal Paper Trails

No need to keep track of paper receipts or search through stacks of expense policies, as everything is stored electronically. This digitization eliminates the need for lengthy paper trails, gives you a real-time view of spend (instead of only at the end of the month), and reduces the risk of errors occurring during entry or retrieval.

•  Better Fraud Protection

Expense management software allows you to track all charges from employees, vendors, and contractors in real time across multiple locations. It provides a detailed overview of your spending, so you can quickly identify any patterns or trends that may indicate an issue with fraud or misuse (and freeze cards whenever necessary).

•  Regulatory Compliance

Expense management software helps ensure that your company abides by specific finance-related laws and is audit-ready by automating the process of tracking expenses and record storing in an all-in-one platform (which also integrates with bookkeeping software and many ERPs). With a system like Payhawk in place, there are fewer chances to make an error while filling out paperwork or submitting an expense report — which can save you from dealing with costly fines down the road.

Key Takeaways

In today’s digital age, most businesses have adopted some form of cloud technology or automated tool to streamline and simplify their business processes. This fact is especially true when it comes to managing expenses. 

A smart expense management solution can help you reduce costs and stay within budget. But it also provides several other benefits, including real-time visibility into your company’s spend, convenient corporate company cards, improved cash flow management, and a more straightforward invoice payment process. You’ll be able to see where your money is going and what areas may be ripe for improvement. 

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