Time is an essential yet finite resource that businesses have. Despite this, a majority of companies spend most of their time on tasks that can be automated through digital platforms. Nearly 40% of the employees spend about 25% of their weekly work hours on manual tasks like data entry, as per a Smartsheet report.
Businesses need to trim down the time wasted on repetitive manual tasks to ensure sustainability in the current, competitive market. One major chunk of business that can be automated is expense management. The majority of companies still use manual processes, which delays reimbursements, as per the Amex report. Because of this, managing employee expenses is becoming a major operational overhead. To save time and subsequent costs, there needs to be a shift towards expense management online.
Challenges of manual expense approval flow
Manual expense processes are inefficient much to the chagrin of every stakeholder involved. It creates uncomfortable financial strain on employees, while finance teams will find themselves reeling with ever-growing claims. By moving your expense management online, you can avoid these challenges. If you are wondering if you need an expense management system, check if you have the below-listed issues:
Your expense claim process is paper-based
Managing company expenses is essential for any organization. That’s why a well-defined expense approval system is crucial. It sets clear rules, prevents unauthorized spending, and ensures money is used effectively.
Every company purchase starts with an employee spending, but the journey to reimbursement doesn’t end there. An expense approval system acts as a gatekeeper, ensuring each expenditure aligns with company policies and prevents any financial fraud. It all starts when an employee incurs an expense on behalf of the organization, triggering the crucial workflow of verification and authorization.
If your expense approval system involves employees submitting paperwork to report claims, it will lead to inefficiency. Handling paper-based receipts is tough as they can be damaged or lost rather easily. Employees try to recreate lookalike receipts when they lose originals, creating an unwanted experience for all. Also, paper-based submissions are easy to tamper with, which will lead to fraudulent claims.
Approving expenses is a tedious process
As much as your finance team wants to be efficient and avoid cash leakages, no one enjoys reviewing expense claims. If you don’t have your expense management online, your team will have to go through each paper receipt and form associated manually. It will eat away at their operational time and drain resources considerably.
Managing approvals manually causes mayhem
Once an employee submits their expense claims within the expense approval system, they expect reimbursement in a week, if not days. However, in reality, and with manual processes, a claim submitted goes into a black hole and disappears for weeks together. Finance teams cannot be blamed here, since going through multiple claims and verifying them is a huge task.
Payment processing takes forever
You would think that once the claim verification is completed, it is only a matter of payment getting processed. But things are never that simple in manual expense approval cycles. Even if the management clears the payment, it begins yet another cycle of workflow for employees or suppliers to receive the amount.
Difference that the expense management system brings
By moving your entire expense management online, you can trim down days off your expense approval process. It will equip your finance teams with all the necessary functionalities to automate verification and approval within no time. One major benefit of the expense management system is that it allows you to enforce expense policy and compliance regulations for hiccup-free expense management.
Easy access: If your expense management software is cloud-based, all the stakeholders can access the platform from anywhere. Your employees can submit the bills right when they are making the payments for a streamlined flow.
Reduced human intervention: The platform will eliminate tasks like manual data entry, forwarding expense claims for approvals, and so on, as it automates a major chunk of your tasks based on the rules you define.
Minimal turnaround time: By automating major chunks of your expense approval process, you can cut down the time your employees have to wait for their reimbursements.
Alert mechanism: With the expense management system, you can configure custom notifications and alerts that will keep your entire expense approval workflow in sync. If there are any hold-ups with expense management online, the platform will trigger reminders.
Control your expense management online with ease
Investing in an expense management system can be a huge plus for your financial operations. It will create transparent workflows when dealing with claims reporting and reimbursement. However, you need to pick the right tool to ensure efficient automation of expense approvals. By integrating your expense management with Zaggle EMS, you can eliminate the hassle of managing expenses, and save significant time and resources in tracking and approving expenses instantaneously. Zaggle EMS offers you features like
- Dashboard for comprehensive visibility into your expenses
- Digital receipts for faster claim submissions
- Seamless implementation of expense policies
- Creating reports and analytics for expense optimization
Try it out today.
