Expense Software 101: Know The Solution To Ease The Process Of Managing Expenses

Managing Expenses

Management of business expenses is an important concern for all companies. Not only is it important, but it is also challenging to orchestrate manual processes such as handwritten notes and paper receipts. To solve this problem, you can use expense management software. This software allows you to track and monitor employee spending, reduce errors, and facilitate faster distribution of reimbursements. Let’s dive to know more about the role of expense software in managing business expenses.

What is expense management?

Expense management refers to the process of documenting, approving, reimbursing, and auditing business expenses initiated by employees. The employees of any company incur expenses from time to time to keep it running smoothly. These expenses include office supplies, travel expenses, and entertainment expenses.

These expenses need to be reported by the employees, and all the relevant receipts and details need to be submitted to initiate the reimbursement process. In simple terms, expense management regulates employee-initiated business expenses and tracks their spending.

Why is expense management important for businesses?

There is no denying the fact that all companies must be able to clear their payments and bills on time to stay in business. Employee expenses are an important part of those bills. Expense management is extremely important for companies whose employees conduct business outside of the office. Even something meagre like a client’s lunch paid for by an employee outside the office needs to be documented, duly approved and reimbursed.

It is now possible for companies to issue those reimbursements quickly and accurately due to the availability of efficient expense software. After all, employees shouldn’t have to wait months for reimbursement after covering an expense.

Methods of expense management

Businesses use different ways to manage their expenses, including:

1. Paper tracking: This traditional way of managing expenses is obsolete now. It involves employees collecting paper receipts and physically going to the accounting department to submit those for approval. All this process consumes a lot of time and the reimbursement usually does not occur instantly.
2. Spreadsheets: Companies trying to reduce their dependence on paper sometimes use this method but it is not as efficient and accurate as expense management software.
3. Expense management software: With the advent of digital technology and advancements in every field, the method of managing expenses by companies has also changed. Expense management softwares simplify the expense management process by allowing employees to scan receipts and upload documents to be shared with the managers, alerting managers about the expenses that require approval, and allowing them to easily accept or reject the claim. Approved expenses are automatically redirected to the accounting department for reimbursement.

Downsides of managing expenses manually

Conventional expense management processes rely heavily on manual data entry and validation. With these processes, expense management becomes far more labour-intensive and time-consuming. There are also higher chances of erroneous reports, duplicate expenses, expense fraud, inaccurate reviews, missing information, and delayed approvals and reimbursements.

Ultimately, it creates many issues for the employees and the company’s finance team. The protracted approval process keeps the employees waiting for reimbursement while new expenses are racking up. The finance team also faces a lack of visibility into employee spending and expense fraud as they are unable to get their hands on real-time data and have to rely on the employees to submit their expense reports.

What is expense management software?

Expense management software refers to an application that simplifies expense management by automating much of the receipt-to-reimbursement process. This software helps companies automate expense report submission, manage travel bookings, accelerate reimbursements, streamline approvals, and track expense claims in real time. Every aspect of the expense management process is automated to eliminate the risks associated with conventional expense management.

How to choose the ideal expense management software?

Before you set your sights on a particular software, make sure it is capable of keeping up with your business’s requirements, is affordable, and offers solid customer support. Many expense management software are available currently but if you want to choose UK’s top expense software to manage your business expenses, following are the points to tick off.

• The ideal expense software should come with mobile accessibility with quick expense recording options for employees. It should be handy and you should be able to use it from anywhere.
• Should enable multiple ways of recording expenses, including receipt scan and email receipt forwarding.
• Should have online payment options for quick reimbursement.
• Customisable multi-level approval workflows.
• Should be able to integrate with relevant accounting platforms
• Powerful real-time analytics and reporting

Conclusion

Manual expense reporting wastes time and manpower, both of which are invaluable resources for any business. All these challenges are eliminated by efficient expense software that streamlines the whole process from end to end. Try using an expense management app for your business and stay on top of your expenses.