How using expense management software saves you time and money

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It’s more straightforward to start and run a business in today’s modern world with all the digital tools that all business owners can enjoy. Moreover, you can reach more consumers these days through the power of the World Wide Web.
You can choose from an assortment of tools depending on your company’s needs and goals. One aspect that remains crucial, though, is managing your finances. After all, you started a business to earn a profit and steady income from it, so it only makes sense that you should monitor your revenue carefully.
That’s why you should invest in expense management software, which allows you to record, track, and approve payments and expenses incurred by your team. This technology can come as a standalone app or it can be integrated into a larger system, just like this specialized plumbing software from Jobber.
Unfortunately, 43% of companies still manage their operational expenses manually. The delays that entail manual processing of payments often actually make your operations more expensive and time-consuming. (1)
If you’re still on the fence about spending money on this type of software, here are ways it can help you save time and money:
- Streamlines operations
Automation is a business owner’s best friend. An expense management tool can help you save time and money by automating processes.
Something as tedious as totaling the prices of products that you used for each project can be made more convenient for you and your team through a software program. This includes the amount that you need to pay your employees, which is useful when you outsource some tasks.
In the same vein, having a centralized system can help you streamline the process of printing paper, attaching receipts, and submitting and getting approvals from the manager. This tool enables you and your staff to upload the necessary documents and click a few buttons to verify reimbursement.
Some valuable features and capabilities of expense management software are:
- tracking and capturing receipts,
- uploading files in a dashboard,
- implementing spending limits and company policies,
- managing expense requests,
- routing receipts to the proper managers, and
- scheduling reimbursements.
- Reduces manual errors

analyzing the work Accounting on Laptop investment concept.
Automation also brings about another benefit, which is reducing manual errors. No matter how careful you are, recording and totaling expenses by hand increases the risk of miscalculations.
You don’t want to make mistakes, especially when dealing with your business finances. After all, even just an error in the comma placement for your expenses or revenue can lead to massive accounting problems.
Not only do manual errors delay the entire process, but they could also cost your company more when the mistake isn’t noticed immediately. Worse still, it could damage your relationship with customers and suppliers as well.
As such, it’s best to invest in a proper expense management app and save money in your business by preventing avoidable errors rather than lose funds over them.
- Speeds up payment
Having a centralized system ensures that progress for each project is tracked in real time. This means your team can upload receipts and request reimbursement seamlessly.
With that said, once a project has been completed, you can get a comprehensive view of its entire cost and bill your clients right away. Through this, you can ensure quick payments by reducing your waiting time, especially for business-to-business (B2B) transactions where payment requests have to go through several departments for approval.
- Improves policy compliance
One significant feature that expense management software has is allowing users to implement and edit policies according to the needs of the organization. Moreover, the tool also ensures compliance through the perimeters that you set. With this, you won’t have to worry about unauthorized requests being approved.
- Detects and prevents expense fraud
Expense fraud is a real threat to a business. While you don’t want to think negatively about people, you can’t go wrong being cautious about handling your finances. Fortunately, another key feature of expense management software is that newer programs are being equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), which could help detect and minimize fraudulent reports. (2)
This feature ensures that project expenses are documented accurately, and it also assures you you’re paying the correct costs and not inflated prices.
Takeaway
One vital tool that businesses should have is expense management software, to help you record, monitor, and approve reimbursement requests for your projects. The app streamlines your operations through automating tasks, and it also helps you save time and money by reducing manual errors as well as speeding up payment, particularly when requesting compensation from clients.
Additionally, an expense management system helps you implement expense policies efficiently and ensures compliance from your team. Lastly, AI-powered software can detect and prevent fraudulent reports so your company avoids any setbacks.
References
- “Top Expense Management Industry Trends in 2020”, Source: https://www.netsuite.com/portal/resource/articles/financial-management/expense-management-industry-trends.shtml
- “3 Key Trends Of Expense Management Software”, Source: https://finansys.com/blog/3-key-trends-of-expense-management-software/