8 Reasons Why You Should Invest in an Expense Management Solution Now

Managing business expenses is a vital task for companies of all sizes, yet it’s difficult to coordinate by using manual processes, paper receipts, and handwritten notes. By using software to monitor employee spending, companies can submit and track expense claims, increase compliance, and save time.

Here are 8 reasons why now is a better time than any to invest in an expense management solution.

1. Post Pandemic Preparation

While this period of slow growth, reduced customers, and closures has had a detrimental effect on many businesses, some are using it to their advantage. Thankfully, the pandemic won’t last forever, and once businesses are up and running as usual, they will suddenly be overloaded with work. Now is the perfect time to invest in an expense management solution and utilise it to get your financial health on track – particularly before the post-pandemic ‘storm’ arrives and business travel is back in full swing.

2. Utilise Current Downtime for Employee Training

The current downtime experienced by the pandemic is also the ideal time to get employees up to speed and trained on the new expense management solution without impacting business-as-usual. Doing so will make the process of expense reimbursement much easier, as each employee will understand their expense reporting obligations, as well as how to correctly use the software.

3. Additional Time to Examine Current Processes and Policies

The current downtime being experienced by most industries also allows businesses to think about processes and policies they usually don’t have time to assess. This might include tightening the expense policy, ensuring there is a proper auditing procedure, or guaranteeing proper compliance, for example. As you invest in an expense management solution, you can then rest assured that everything else is on track.

4. Keep up With the New Work-From-Home Structure

In the past year alone, more employees have begun working remotely from home than ever before. As we’ve all become accustomed to using remote technology such as Zoom, Slack, and Google Workspace, a cloud-based expense management solution is the next piece in this puzzle. It allows workers to submit their expense claims quickly and easily to the cloud, allowing better tracking and management for teams who are currently dispersed across several different locations.

5. Reduce the Departmental Silo Mentality

Have you noticed a difficulty in obtaining accurate reporting across different departments while working from home? In order to make it easier for finance teams to get the financial information they require, particularly when it comes to business and employee expenditures, a single expense management solution is the answer. This allows vital financial information to be stored in a single place, resulting in increased transparency and visibility over spend.

6. Ensure Everyone Feels Connected and on the Same Page

In any business, it’s vital for employees to feel as though they belong to a single team, all with the same goals and motivations. An effective expense management solution can help to foster this connection and ensure everyone is on the same page. It provides a single platform for each of them to log into and use, thus contributing to the overall financial health of the business.

7. Don’t Fall Behind

In today’s ‘convenience culture’, businesses must move quickly, big data is key, and real-time reporting is crucial for informed decisions and overall success. Now is the time to invest in a new expense management solution, implement streamlined systems, and align the new way your business works to the processes you have in place.

8. Now is the Time to Go Digital

Forget storing hundreds of receipts in cardboard boxes. We’re moving to a paperless society, and all for the right reasons. Not only is it more efficient to store expense related information in one place, but it also allows for better recording, integration with other systems, and a more positive environmental impact. Plus, with the new HMRC ‘Making Tax Digital’ initiative, now is a better time than ever before.