Managing expenses can be a tedious and error-prone process, especially for businesses with a high volume of transactions. From keeping track of receipts and invoices to manually inputting data into spreadsheets, expense management can consume a significant amount of time and resources.
Manual expense management also poses a significant risk of fraud. Employees may submit false receipts or overstate expenses, leading to financial losses for the business. Juniper Research states that the risk of expense fraud will increase as hybrid working grows since remote working provides the ideal environment for employees to submit fraudulent reports.
When the number of expense reports being submitted increases, it becomes even more difficult to process them efficiently and spot fraud attempts. Luckily, the solution to this problem is simple: expense automation. By automating the expense management process, businesses and individuals can streamline their workflows, reduce errors, save valuable time, and diminish the risk of fraud significantly.
This article delves into the topic of expense automation, covering its definition, the processes that can be automated, and the advantages it offers. Additionally, we’ll provide you with an expense automation solution for your business. If you’re tired of dealing with the hassle of manual expense reporting, let’s get started!
What is Expense Management Automation?
Expense management automation refers to the use of software and technologies to streamline and automate the process of managing and tracking expense reports incurred by an organization, reducing the need for manual input.
This technology-driven solution simplifies the process of expense management by automating tasks like capturing receipts, categorizing expenses, and generating reports. By removing the need for manual data entry, expense report automation streamlines the entire reporting process, reducing errors, saving time, and much more.
It’s a game-changer for businesses and their finance employees, providing a more efficient and effective way to manage expenses, including finance teams, CFOs, and accountants.
- Finance teams: Expense automation can significantly reduce the workload for finance teams, allowing them to focus on strategic initiatives and core business functions. By automating repetitive tasks like data entry and expense tracking, finance teams can free up valuable time and resources, improving productivity and much more.
- CFOs: CFOs can benefit from expense management automation by gaining real-time visibility into company expenses. Automated expense tracking and reporting can provide CFOs with accurate, up-to-date financial data, allowing them to make informed decisions and identify cost-saving opportunities.
- Accountants: For accountants, expense report automation can simplify the process of reconciling expenses, reducing the risk of errors and financial fraud. Automated expense categorization and tracking can also save accountants time and reduce the potential for mistakes.
However, expense management automation is not just beneficial for finance professionals, but also for employees and managers who deal with expense reporting on a daily basis.
Now that you know what expense management is and for whom it can be beneficial, it’s time to explore which aspects of expense management can be automated. In the next section, we’ll take a closer look at each of these processes.
Which Expense Management Processes can be automated?
As previously mentioned, expense management is an essential part of running a business, but it can be a time-consuming and frustrating process. Thankfully, with expense automation software, many of the most labor-intensive tasks can be automated. This allows various expense management processes to be automated, including:
- Automated submission of expense claims & filing
- Automated expense approval workflows
- Automated expense reimbursements
- Automated expense reporting
Automated expense submission & filing
Manual expense filing is often time-consuming and prone to errors, leading to frustration for employees and finance teams alike. With automated expense filing with data automation, employees can quickly capture receipts and upload data using a mobile app or web-based platform.
This means they spend less time on tedious tasks and more time focusing on their core responsibilities. For finance teams, automated expense filing can reduce the workload associated with manual data entry, ensuring accurate recording of expenses and reducing the risk of oversights.
Automated approval workflows
Manually reviewing and approving expenses can be slow, leading to delays in reimbursement and frustrated employees. With automated approval workflows, this process is much more simple, allowing expenses to be automatically routed through to the appropriate approver based on spending limits, department, or other criteria through set business rules.
This reduces the need for manual reviewing and forwarding, freeing up valuable time for managers and finance teams. Additionally, automated approval workflows can help ensure compliance with company policies, reducing the risk of fraudulent expenses.
Automated expense reimbursements
Late employee reimbursements can lead to unhappy employees. Furthermore, effort and costs are high due to the manual processing of paper checks. But with automated expense reimbursements, the process becomes quick and painless.
By automating reimbursement workflows, expenses are processed smoother and faster, making it easier for employees to get reimbursed in a timely manner. This also saves the company money by reducing the cost of processing and handling paper checks.
Automated expense reports
Manual expense reporting can be a daunting task, involving hours of data entry and analysis. Automated expense reports offer a simple solution that provides real-time visibility into a company’s expenses. This can be valuable for CFOs and other executives seeking to optimize spending by gaining insights into spending patterns and trends.
With automated expense reporting, expenses are automatically categorized and recorded, reducing errors and ensuring accuracy. This technology can also simplify tax compliance by generating reports that meet the requirements of tax authorities.
Benefits of Expense Automation
To automate expenses offers numerous benefits for businesses of all sizes. We already named a few before, but below we will sum up the most influential benefits and explain them in more detail.
- Faster reimbursements: Expense management automation ensures that employees are reimbursed quickly and accurately, eliminating the need for manual processing and reducing delays. This is especially relevant for employees who frequently incur travel or other expenses for their job, allowing them to be reimbursed in a timely manner which results in higher employee satisfaction.
- Reduced administrative costs: Expense automation reduces the administrative burden associated with managing expenses, allowing finance teams to focus on more strategic tasks. By automating manual processes such as data entry and approval workflows, companies can reduce the time and resources required to manage expenses, freeing up staff to focus on more value-added activities.
- Enhanced compliance: Automated expense management ensures that expenses are compliant with company policies and regulations, reducing the risk of violations and penalties. Automated expense reports can be configured to enforce spending limits, monitor spending across different departments, and flag expenses that require further scrutiny or approval.
- Improved accuracy: Companies reduce the risk of errors with expense automation, ensuring that expense reports are accurate and compliant with company policies. With automated workflows and real-time data, companies can identify and address issues quickly, reducing the risk of compliance violations or incorrect reporting.
- Real-time overview: Expense automation provides a real-time overview of company spending, allowing finance teams and executives to monitor expenses and identify areas for cost savings. With detailed reports and analytics, companies can quickly identify trends and patterns in spending, allowing them to make more informed decisions and optimize their spending.
With all the benefits that expense automation brings, it’s clear that implementing a digital and automated expense management system will have a significant positive impact on your business. However, with all the options available it is difficult to make the right decision to fulfill all the required capabilities.
Klippa SpendControl is in that case the perfect solution to help you achieve your goals thanks to its accuracy in data entry and high-end functionalities that improve the efficiency of your finance team. In the next section, we will tell you more about Klippa SpendControl and why it could be the perfect option for you.
Automate your Expense Management with SpendControl
Klippa SpendControl is an all-in-one expense management solution. The solution offers a fully digital and automated process for submitting, approving, and processing expenses through its web and mobile application. It also features OCR technology that eliminates the need for manual receipt entry, reducing processing time and data entry errors.
With Klippa SpendControl you can easily automate and streamline the entire expense report process. Employees can quickly and easily submit their claims using the mobile app, while budget holders can efficiently authorize them using the app or web. And with the numerous integration options, you can synchronize Klippa SpendControl with your preferred bookkeeping or ERP system.
Not only does this streamline the entire expense management process, it also ensures compliance with tax regulations, reduces the risk of fraudulent activity, and provides greater peace of mind for financial managers.
Say goodbye to manual receipt handling and easily submit and approve expenses in just a few clicks with Klippa SpendControl. Klippa’s expense management software allows you to:
- Automates data entry and prevents receipts from getting lost in the process.
- Submit expenses easily via the mobile application or web environment, individually or in bulk.
- Reduce data entry errors for more accurate financial reporting.
- Prevent fraud & duplicates with the built-in fraud detection analysis and duplicate detection to avoid paying reimbursements twice.
- Set up smart business rules according to your expense reporting policies and automate the approval process.
- Integrate the solution with your preferred accounting or ERP software, such as Exact Globe, NetSuite, and many more integrations.
Overall, Klippa SpendControl increases employee satisfaction by providing a hassle-free and prompt expense claim process, while enabling your company to streamline expense management procedures and gain visibility into all reported expenses.
Book an online demo or get in touch with our experts today to see how Klippa SpendControl can benefit your business!