Let’s take a step back. You’ve automated your accounts payable function, but employees are still manually filling out spreadsheets and keeping folders of receipts to claim back their expenses. It’s like buying a new car with manual windows, you just wouldn’t do it.
Employee expenses are much like your supplier invoices, except the business owes money to an employee rather than a supplier.
An Expense Management System is often used by busy finance teams who want to reimburse their employees faster, have a clearer overview of company spending and reduce mistakes due to manual entry. A report by Aberdeen Group showed companies that automate their expense processes save 30% on operational costs [1].
Reimbursing Employees Faster
Manual processes often cause lengthy delays in reimbursing your employees creating tension and fostering bad relationships. Implementing a solution that your teams are familiar with facilitates an easy transition. Approval workflows are fully automated which helps push claims down the funnel quicker.
Finance teams can monitor the status of claim submissions and prompt approvers if delayed. Throughout the process employees are notified on the status of their claim, keeping them in the loop and building more transparent relationships.
Overcoming Data Errors
A big challenge for finance teams is data discrepancy caused by manual entry or missing documents.
65% more errors occur in businesses that process expenses manually versus those that automate their processes [1].
With an automation tool, your employees can collect receipt images, upload them and store them online. Once uploaded the data is extracted, ready to be added to an expense report to be approved.
Adopting an expense management system ensures your employees are following the correct reimbursement processes. It helps overcome data errors by removing much of the manual processing.
Watch the Expenses launch webinar
Catch up on the launch webinar of our out-of-pocket expenses module. We'll cover:
- How to activate it in your account
- Setting up new users
- Submitting an expense
- Approval workflows
- Scheduling reimbursements
Improving Visibility & Forecasting
It’s often difficult to gain a clear insight into employee spending. It can be a time-consuming task to collate the data and analyse it effectively in real time. This can lead to mistakes in budgeting and resource allocation.
34% of businesses revealed that they lack visibility into their overall spending.
Using software to navigate and analyse employee spending can be beneficial for businesses managing large amounts of expense claims. It provides real-time and historical data for comparisons and spending forecasting, helping with cash flow management. With an all-in-one solution, finance teams have a clear overview of all money leaving the business in one place.
Implementing an expense management system doesn’t need to be a complex process. Rather than opting for an additional app to manage this process, investigate if your existing accounts payable software offers expense management. This will be beneficial to your finance team who can continue using a familiar system and your business's bottom line. The extra time given back to your finance teams can be used to undertake more strategic tasks.
Key Takeaways
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Additional Resources
Watch the Expenses Launch Webinar
Catch up on the launch of our new expenses feature.
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Calculate how much you would save by using an
all-in-one system.
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Find out all the information on expenses.
