Many companies or organisations until today still fixate on manual expense management. You can usually envision a staff member going around their desk checking papers of receipts left and right, typing on their spreadsheets and collecting all sorts of data in one folder. If you find this idea exhausting and confusing, then maybe it’s time to switch to automated expense management software.

When companies do costs and reporting manually, employees in charge of finance and accounting may agree that covering expenses and expenditure through manual jobs are a headache. The process may seem to take longer than usual, especially for businesses and offices far from each other.

Manual management includes a stressful approval and reimbursement process that takes days to send. From obtaining clearance on cost claims to entering data into an accounting system, all of the steps add to the length of time it will take to reimburse employees, settle company card expenses, and charge clients.

It is becoming increasingly challenging for businesses to maintain track of their expenditure as employees spend money and receive approval longer than ever. How can you fix this problem? The answer is by investing in expense management software.

The Problem With Manual Approval

Before an employee receives their reimbursements, they make expense claims through approvals. Small businesses may find this process easy, but not for growing companies. The problem occurs with additional variables included in the process for a bigger firm with many employees.

Lengthy delays

Approval needs to take the paperwork process that you need to print, scan, photocopied and send by email to your head for the checking of the finance team. Furthermore, what happens if the amount of approvals required is greater than the limit set by the original approval employee? Without a business expense management software, every stage of the process increases the likelihood of lengthy delays. It constitutes errors if you have to keep track of a particular cost claim in the regulatory process.

Having expense management software helps automate the whole process where it notifies the finance team of each expense and expenditure claim and displays it to each member. As a result, you can immediately transmit claims for acceptance based on the parameters of the approval policies.

Complicated travel expense submissions

Although there are fixed amounts when employees are travelling, you may expect excess expenses under different circumstances. Travellers must keep receipts and input them in when they return to the workplace with manual cost claiming solutions. Since most frequent flyers know, organising and retrieving all receipts after a trip can be a daunting task.

It takes more time for an authorised person to look up the company’s T&E policy or sift through receipts when they have a question about a transaction. Assuming an approver has only a few requests to review, the process can soon become one massive time-eater.

But with expense management software, you can secure a smoother process where expense management solutions are pre-configured to suit even the most complex international regulations during the installation process. A corporate expense management software allows organisations to notify their employees before submitting an expenditure report if it’s not in line with company policy.

Provides no visible process

Employees can’t track the process manually, so they have no idea where they are in the approval process or why it takes longer. Employees usually have no previous update of the approval process when all details are kept only within the finance and approval team.

However, email and message alerts are sent to users when claims need more elaboration in advanced expense claim solutions with expense management software. They also allow consumers to check on the system at any moment to see where their request is in the course of business operations.

High possibility of risk and mistakes

It takes a lot of time and effort to keep track of and manage business spending. Each one has a fresh set of challenges that can lead to delays or blunders. Time and money can be wasted or inadequately wasted as a result of these mistakes and measurement errors.

In the majority of cases, these issues are:

Missing records and a long time to match up documents
Filling out expense reports incorrectly or not at all
Delays in submitting the expense report.
Inaccuracies and wasted time due to manual data entering
Fake invoices for the same expenses
Fraudulent

Comparing Manual To Automation

An expense management software can ease these problems by providing real-time management solutions by an automated process. With these problems that include manual reporting, here are the benefits of having business expense management software.

Increased compliance.
Enhances transparency among employees
There will be less expense theft, and there will be fewer duplicated submissions.
It creates a system precisely aligned with the spending management policies of your organisation.
There will be no more spreadsheets, nor will there be any paper records or audits.
An accountant can operate on more critical initiatives since they have more time.
It offers transparency into financial information for expenses reimbursed by the company promptly.
Identifying and correcting systemic causes, such as obsolete or unresponsive expense policies that workers continue to follow.
Employees prefer minimal burdens in dealing with piles of paperwork and receipts.
Integrate card programs
Check policy violations
Maintain all information in one platform for easy access for all employees

You can expect a better operations workflow with expense management software that allows easy transactions for all expenses and expenditures. It will, in return, benefit you and your employees’ long term.

Investing In The Right Expense Management Software

Today, many businesses are switching to automated expense management software to speed up and improve the process of cost tracking, authorisation, and reimbursement. They take advantage of flexible automated processes, which decreases the amount of work and the number of errors.

Volve Solutions is an expense management company that offers ideal finance tools such as expense management software for remote teams. Experience dynamic reporting with real-time updates to help you make better budgeting decisions that decrease incomplete claimed expenses.