Why is Expense Management Automation Essential for Remote Teams?

Expense Management Automation Essential for Remote Teams

All businesses that have managed to cope with the transition to remote work state automation-driven technology played a crucial role. Thus companies must seriously consider the benefits of such software.

If you are a business owner having trouble with where to start, considering an expense management software to fix your expense management problems would be a good start.

An expense software manages and tracks business expenses while also ensuring no financial leaks in the system. It also gives your business financial stability by ensuring no expense fraud ever slips by—all this and more with zero manual efforts or time spent on it by Finance teams.

But there is more to expense automation than this. The article builds a use case as to why businesses must consider expense management automation. Additionally, it covers the top five benefits of automated expense management. So, let’s dive in!

How do remote organizations benefit from expense management automation?

Finance teams have been the worst hit since remote work as they can no longer physically meet other employees to get the job done. This leads them to have zero visibility and control over company expenses. This further translates into broken processes, incomplete or missing records, and potential cases of expense fraud.

Business owners and leadership teams must understand that such broken processes can develop a system that can severely hurt business continuity and finances. Thus, companies must consider switching to automation-driven tech to carry out operations while still abiding by IRS rules and regulations.

Five reasons businesses must consider expense management automation

1. Effortless expense management for employees

Most employee expenses come with receipts that can only be physical or digital. This makes it difficult for employees to store them in a separate box at home or their phone gallery. Additionally, these low-impact tasks often need all the attention of your employees to get through. So it’s only fair that employers make the process easy with their available resources.

An expense management software facilitates the easy submission and tracking of receipts from applications like G-Suite, Whatsapp, Slack, etc. The software also comes with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology that eliminates the need for manual data entry by auto-filling all the fields in expense reports. This plays a crucial role in simplifying the process of expense management for employees.

2. Automate error-prone and time-consuming tasks

Traditional expense management is synonymous with errors and being time and labor-intensive. In addition, every stakeholder has a list of problems that make the process even more difficult to close on time.

But an expense software answers all these challenges. It ensures none of these elements get in the way of work. As a result, it simplifies and automates all time-consuming tasks to ensure error-free expense management.

3. Easily enforce expense policy compliance

Employees either have to remember or manually verify expenses with related expense policies before submissions with traditional expense management. If they skip doing so, it may result in out-of-policy expenses and policy violations. This would mean back and forths with Finance teams and most probably delayed reimbursements.

An expense management software seamlessly enforces policy compliance by automating policy checks for all submitted expenses. This means the policy engine checks and flags all expenses that are non-compliant in real-time. It also provides employees with notifications of the necessary corrections as per set company expense policies. Employees can then make corresponding changes without any back and forths. Finance teams can also be rest assured that they only receive policy-compliant expenses.

The software also includes a detailed digital audit trail that documents all stakeholders’ actions on a particular expense or expense report. This drastically reduces the time put into expense management by Finance teams while also giving them enough control to manage business expenses efficiently.

4. Make intelligent data-driven decisions backed with advanced analytics

When Finance teams use traditional spreadsheet-based reporting, they need to collate and then independently work on heaps of reports to gather any meaningful data. If Finance teams do not have the time or required data to do so, they will be left with no actionable points to help make data-driven business decisions.

Most expense report software come with in-built advanced data analytics that provide Finance teams with real-time insights into spending patterns and trends across categories, departments, budgets, and other parameters. It also provides insight into top spenders, violators, frequently used vendors, hotel chains, and more.

Finance teams can access this information via a simple dashboard and then make cost optimizations accordingly. For instance, if your employees frequently associate with a particular vendor, Finance teams can crack deals and discounts with the vendors as part of cost-saving efforts. Finance teams can also use this data to make amends to expense policies and budgets to ensure cost cuts happen where required.

5. Save additional costs by curbing expense fraud

Companies across the U.S have seen a massive increase in expense fraud post the pandemic. Unfortunately, traditional expense management puts curbing these problems entirely in the hands of the Finance teams. This increases the risk of more fraudulent expenses slipping through or accidentally getting reimbursed. This would not only hurt your finances but also cause problems with the IRS during audits.

An expense software is the closest solution businesses can find to end expense fraud at the source of expense creation. The software brings in real-time policy checks that let employees submit only policy-compliant expense reports. In addition, the software identifies all types of mischaracterized, duplicate, and fraudulent expenses as it has centralized cloud storage for all submitted expense receipts. This makes duplicate detection a breeze and ensures employees only submit one receipt once.

Conclusion

Switching to an expense software is a wise choice for businesses looking to thrive irrespective of the times. The software makes all parts of expense management easy and seamless for all the stakeholders in the process. It also does all the heavy lifting regarding policy checks, expense verifications, and even the elimination of expense fraud.

Additionally, the software is an excellent addition to your team, given the whole remote work scenario. It not only bridges the gap between communication and collaboration between teams but also makes the process location independent. This translates to happy and productive employees and healthy business finances with no financial leaks.