As finance professionals, let's face the music: it's a difficult task getting an employee to file their expense report at the end of the month. As a result, it causes delays to:
It is a lengthy exercise for the finance teams at the office and becomes laborious for employees and the CFO.
When employees need to be growing the business, the admin time of filing expense reports eats away at that valuable time. Would this still be true if a more organised and effortless way existed? Not at all!
What if there was a better way where you could put an end to manual data entry for your expenses?
Businesses, just like yours, have started automating and seen a world of difference in their company performance, business culture and increased productivity of employees.
By automating your process for expense reports, some of the benefits are:
To find out more about how else expense automation can help your business, book a demo with ExpenseOnDemand.
Starting today, let's understand how you can go from manual data entry to automation.
Expense automation involves using technology to streamline and optimise the tracking, approval, and reimbursement processes.
Employees can submit expense reports quickly and easily using software platforms or apps, and managers can review and approve them immediately.
Expense automation may include additional features such as automatic receipt capture, integration with accounting systems, and real-time reporting and analysis.
By automating expense management tasks, businesses can reduce the time and resources they spend managing expenses, improve accuracy and compliance, and gain better insights into their overall costs.
As a business, an excellent first step is understanding your pain points within your current expense management process.
Make an extensive list of these. The bigger the list, the better expense management automation software like ExpenseOnDemand can help.
We've put together a helpful template for you to use to identify what you're doing well and where you could put some effort into improving. It follows the analysis map known as SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
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If you need help identifying areas of weakness and finding opportunities, book a demo with ExpenseOnDemand.
With the right tool, you can eliminate manual data entry for your expenses. ExpenseOnDemand is the only offering that allows a modular approach.
It keeps the automation software price low by allowing you to individually pick the features that work for you and those that don't.
It's essential to do your research, but to save you time, let us take a moment to highlight the core benefits of using ExpenseOnDemand:
Old school habits suggest that manual expense processes include keeping physical ledgers in your desk drawer or an extensive spreadsheet with expense data, but running this process is risky too.
We've highlighted the risk you should be aware of when using manual data entry as your approach:
People can make mistakes when entering expense data by hand, and correcting these mistakes is time-consuming.
For instance, a person might need to read a receipt, leading to incorrect data input and storage.
It's easy to lose or damage receipts, leaving records incomplete.
For example, if an employee loses their receipt for a business lunch, there is no way to enter the expense into the system, resulting in an incomplete record.
Manual approvals can be slow and delay employee reimbursements, leading to frustration and dissatisfaction.
For instance, if an employee submits a reimbursement request, several days could pass before the expense gets reviewed, approved and processed, resulting in a delay in the employee receiving their funds.
If you have manual processes, you might be unable to enforce company policies and ensure you comply with taxes.
For example, if an employee fills out a reimbursement form incorrectly, the manual approval process may not be able to catch the errors, leading to incorrect payment.
Employees can inflate expenses to make personal gains using manual processes.
For instance, an employee could submit a receipt for a higher amount than what was paid and pocket the difference.
It's easier to get an accurate picture of overall spending and identify areas of cost savings with automated reports.
For instance, manual processes can make it challenging to identify duplicate payments or flag suspicious transactions quickly.
Manual processes can make it hard to control spending.
For instance, employees may need more visibility over their spending limits, resulting in overspending or incorrect budget allocations.
Manual processes take time.
For example, manually reconciling receipts or manually inputting expenses into spreadsheets can take hours or even days, detracting the team from tasks of higher importance and better business gain.
Manual data entry tasks for expenses can make tracking expenses across departments and projects complex, which leads to confusion and misallocation.
For instance, if there is a lack of detailed tracking, businesses can end up with multiple copies of the same invoice without deciphering which one is accurate or up-to-date.
Time and resources to a business are essential, and manual processes put that essentialism at the bottom of the list. It's to start prioritising what truly matters, where you can save time and how you can grow.
For instance, manual data entry can take up to five times as long as automated entry, leading to costly errors.
Whilst your employees may use an expense report template provided by your company in print form, there is a way to automate expense reports too. Automating expense reports touches the surface of automated expense management systems like ExpenseOnDemand.
A great way to use the SWOT analysis template and compare it to the risk list can provide ideas on where you see room for improvement and opportunities.
Most tools out there are complex. It's like you need to have a PhD to use them. Ridiculous right?
Added frustration is the last thing you need.
Whatever happened to the days of keeping things simple whilst seeing the incremental growth lines for your business?
It's ironic because while there is sophistication in many expense management tools, they can, unfortunately, create added stress too, which you want to avoid.
So, if you're running your business using manual expense processes, some preliminaries help you choose the best-fit solution for your company.
Here is a list of things to look out for when choosing a solution:
Start to eliminate manual data entry by considering the factors above. As a result, you will be able to pick the right tool to suit your needs, and your business should be able to start saving money and time.
In today's business climate, out-of-the-box solutions are no longer adequate. Businesses are evolving, have custom needs, and need their tools to respond fast while being modular.
ExpenseOnDemand recognised all these things earlier, and our solution is fully customisable for your business needs. Whether you're a 3-man band or a growing business, ExpenseOnDemand is all you'll need to solve all expense management-related issues.
While understanding your business's needs, you may have realised very quickly how critical it is that your financial systems stay connected for the data to flow cohesively.
ExpenseOnDemand provides seamless integrations with Xero, , Tally and Sage accounting software. After a 1-click setup, you can get going with ease. There are no discrepancies in the financial data and no double entries either.
It's a total game-changer. You can try it out yourself today with a 30-day free trial! Get in touch, and we'll:
Introducing new solutions can be tricky. We understand that some businesses need more time for substantial learning curves, and they need to allocate their resources to pick it up too.
Naturally, there is a slight learning curve when you're looking at something new. But, with a simple-to-use and powerful UI, you'll quickly feel at ease with ExpenseOnDemand.
Moreover, we've recorded a series of training videos to get you up and running in no time. They're easily accessible; you and your team can watch them anytime. And, if you need more than that, you can jump on a Teams or Zoom call with a professional from our team, and we will walk you through the system and set you up even if you're trialling.
Sound good? Book a demo and get started.
Whilst you're new to the journey of expense automation, there are areas which you can continuously optimise and enhance. Whether this is the expense category you've introduced or need to update some information on your expense policy, ExpenseOnDemand will help you make this a breeze.
The intelligent AI behind our system can learn how you use the software. It allows it to recommend better ways for doing expense-related tasks and optimises your workflow within your organisation.
It's hard to do that when you're not using an automated working method.
Now that you've got the gist of expense automation, its benefits and what you can do to get started today, feel free to contact our professionals, and we'll guide you along the way. Start using ExpenseOnDemand.
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