Imagine a situation where your finance team is spending excessive amounts of money processing simple reports, letting fraudulent expense claims go unnoticed, and unnecessarily wasting countless hours.
Sounds scary, right?
Companies that are still reliant on manual expense management processes don’t have to imagine. The nightmarish scenario that we described is a reality for them because finance teams can’t do with old-fashioned spreadsheets and still expect to be productive.
Study after study has confirmed this fact. For instance, the Global Business Travel Association estimates that 19% of expense reports contain errors.
More shockingly, the study found that processing a single expense report can cost as much as 58$! Another 52$ goes down the drain if the finance team has to make corrections to an expense report.
Add to this the trouble a company can get into during audit time if the expense reports are faulty, and you end up with a grim picture of how toothless your finance team is without a proper expense management system.
But how exactly does an automated expense management solution help? Here, we uncover the tangible benefits that an automated expense management system brings to a finance team.
- Highly streamlined and accurate expense processing and reimbursement
Since expense management software eliminates the need for receipts, finance teams no longer have to spend hours poring over old pieces of paper that are about to fall apart. The system automatically tells them whether an expense is policy compliant, meaning reimbursements will only take seconds.
Further, it lets finance teams to allow for reasonable policy violations, such as taking a big client out to a fancy dinner.
What’s more, the automation does away with the errors that often creep in when a long and tedious manual process is involved.
- Fraud prevention and policy compliance
When reimbursement is made on the merit of old receipts, there is a high chance of fraudulent claims. In the US alone, expense fraud costs companies a whopping $3 billion a year. If companies automate policy compliance, they can ensure that finance teams get expense reports free of fake, duplicated, or inflated receipts.
For instance, an automated system can detect within seconds if an employee is trying to pass off dinner with a family member as an outing with a prospect. Automated expense management will also come in handy for the finance team when it comes to rejecting expenses that have already been reimbursed.
Besides, expense management solutions allow you to set customized spending rules to the level of a single user, which makes the finance team’s job easier because they do not have to rifle through the employee handbook every single time before approving an expense.
- Superior regulatory compliance
Small financial irregularities can often lead to companies losing tons of money due to legal issues with regulators. An automated expense management system helps the finance team ensure that every instance of company spending follows national and international regulations and company policy without the need for complex and error-prone manual audits.
- Unparalleled visibility of company expenses
For the finance team, one of the key benefits of an expense management solution is that it allows them to generate comprehensive reports of company spending. With these reports and the visibility that comes with them, finance teams can identify the area where wasteful spending has occurred.
For instance, if the data shows a department purchasing flight tickets too late and incurring high prices, they can be informed to book tickets earlier, leading to massive savings for the company.
- Powerful third-party integrations
Expense management software can integrate well with third-party applications, such as corporate travel agencies, online booking tools, accounting software, and ERP solutions. Due to this capability, finance teams no longer have to spend countless hours loading data from one platform to another. Consequently, each platform ends up with updated and accurate information that enables the finance team to save time, reduce instances of fraud, and speed up reimbursements.
Conclusion
As you can see, an automated expense management system helps your finance team stay hyper-productive and effective when it comes to ensuring policy compliance in employee expenses. Moreover, they can quickly reimburse employees while maintaining high levels of spending visibility and data security. ExpenseOut is guaranteed to delight your finance team. Try it free now/ book a demo.
