Why automating expenses should be a priority for all NZ businesses

Finding a better way to manage expenses may not be a top priority for most organisations compared to other strategies.

However, some organisations don’t realise that getting expense management right will positively impact many other aspects of the business.

“Businesses are often resistant to change because they don’t want to risk replacing a system that works well enough with an unknown system that, in the end, could prove to be worse," says Marten Jagers, managing director – enterprise, Concur.

“However, moving from doing expense claims on an ad-hoc, manual basis to using an automated, cloud-based, mobile expense management solution provides value across the board.

"Supporting employees with better expense management tools can make a significant impact when it comes to efficiency and productivity.”

Four reasons automating expenses should be a priority for any organisation:

1. Reducing employee frustration

Employees have to put in a huge amount of effort to do their expenses and they are often frustrated by the tedious and time-consuming activity.

It can distract them from doing important work and, if reimbursements are delayed, morale can be affected.

2. Improving sales

The sales team doesn’t want the process of completing expenses to distract from the business at hand.

Automating expense management offers immediate access to travel itineraries, the ability to make changes as needed and the capacity to review and approve expense claims from anywhere at any time.

Because a cloud-based expense management solution integrates with popular tools such as Salesforce, it can also deliver visibility into the cost of acquiring a new client.

3. Decreasing the burden on IT

Cloud-based solutions require little from the IT department in terms of management and maintenance.

Cloud-based mobile apps provide ongoing system upgrades and software updates at no additional cost. They are supported by the right combination of trained staff, business processes, state-of-the-art technology and hosting facilities, security measures and audits.

4. Impacting the bottom line

When it comes to expenses and the bottom line, companies are looking for a complete picture of expenses and cash flow, reduced costs and risk, controlled discretionary spending, and increased compliance.

Automated expense management provides timely, accurate visibility into employee spending across the organisation and eliminates the need to track and manage paper receipts.

It automatically adds corporate card and travel purchases to expense claims, and detects and prevents fraud by proactively enforcing corporate spending policies and flagging non-compliant transactions.