Benefits of implementing an expense management system

If you are considering opting for an expense management system, but are wondering how to justify the purchase,here are some of the key benefits that the system offers to help organization achieve their business objectives.

Improves processing time – Provides more scalability and robustness in handling large amounts of data,reducing manual entry, thereby eliminating the chances of human error.

Reduces processing cost – Allows one to snap a photo of their receipts, reducing paper work, manual entry and input errors associated with it. Additionally, specifying the guidelines to the software will reduce the non-compliant expense report passing through the system.

Enhances productivity with OCR scanning – Lets you manage expenses with just a few clicks, reducing the time needed to fill out long forms and attach supporting documents to your expense reports. The real benefit is felt when Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is added to the process. OCR enables the expense management system to extract all relevant data from the receipt image, which is then used to create an expense item, ready for submission.

Streamlines processes – By following a standard process one can configure the approval flow for travel expense submissions followed by a company. Stakeholders will automatically know if there are any pending approvals in the dashboard.

Provides a comprehensive analysis – Gives you a broad view of the company’s spending patterns with an option to dive deeper and look into the smallest details to pinpoint possible loopholes.

Provides timely reimbursements – Notifies concerned authority on pending approvals. The cycle time for approvals is considerably reduced as the system can be accessed from anywhere.

In to the future:

One of the biggest concerns while moving to a new system is understanding what it brings to the table. An expense management software that can do away with the current system’s pitfalls such as lengthy paperwork, recording and storing expense data manually, etc., can be deemed as a good fit.

If the employees can submit the bills directly through the app on their smartphones to the concerned department as and when they are incurred, and if it can be reimbursed in a short span of time without wasting productive man hours in sorting and filtering them, such a system is bound to be a hit with the employees.

No matter how big or small the company’s operations are, an expense management system offers features that make it compelling for the company & the employees to use:

Real time expense update– No need to wait till end of the month to file expenses. The system can track expenses real-time, providing a reliable snapshot of employee spending.

Flexibility to customize spends– Not every employee needs access to the same funds. The expense management system offers the option of customizing the amount available to each person, also allowing what they can spend it on.

Easy document capture – Businesses spend a lot of time storing and processing documents like invoices, receipts and purchase orders. A good expense management system helps you capture and store these documents quickly and conveniently.

Additionally, expense management solutions that can seamlessly integrate with current accounting/finance systems would help in creating an operational link for project management, accounting and cost reporting.

It is important to remember that an expense management software is the key to control and manage daily business expenses. Having a solution that is easy to use for employees, accountants, auditors,finance heads and managers is essential to organize critical business information and to improve the bottom line.

Adopting an expense management system can bring significant changes in the organization unlocking business potential by digitizing spends.