You probably are aware of the importance of tracking your business expenses. Being on the ball with tracking your business expenses can help to streamline accounting, monitor business growth, and more.
However, many small business owners struggle with expense management because of how tedious it is. It’s easy to be overwhelmed, especially if you’re handling a huge number of transactions every day. Oftentimes, small business owners use spreadsheets to track their expenses—probably not the most optimal method of expense management in our book.
If you have a few employees under your team, keeping up with the processing of expenses from multiple employees can also be tiring. This is why many business owners look for ways to automate expense management.
Businesses use expense management systems to process, pay and audit their business spend. Manual expense management has started to take a backseat with the rise of automated expense management systems available on the market.
Automating your expense management processes can help to cut down on the time and money spent on creating and sorting spreadsheets. Doing so will also whittle down the possibility of error, which means happier bosses and employees!
Here’s what expense management automation can do for your small business:
There are a variety of expense management softwares out in the market, but tracking down the right one for your business can get tricky. Here’s a few things you should take note of before settling on one:
Does this expense management software have a mobile application? As a small business owner, you’ll probably find yourself constantly on the go. This means that having your expense tracker on hand is the best way to make sure you wouldn’t miss logging in any transactions.
One feature small business owners look out for is a digital receipt reader. Some expense management software are able to identify information on receipts through photographs. Which means all it takes is a snap of a photo, and your receipts will be organised digitally.
Another feature many small business owners look for when automating their expense management systems is accounting integration. Having your expense management system integrated with an accounting system means you’ll have access to all your financial data in a single spot. This makes accounting at the end of every month a more streamlined task, and also helps keep things organised.
One of the top expense management automation systems on the market, Expensify offers easy management of expenses, invoices and payments within its dashboard.
It’s SmartScan technology captures details of every receipt, and transfers details such as merchants, dates and transaction amounts automatically into their records. It’s user-friendly interface also makes it a hit with younger, tech savvy business owners.
Another prominent tool in the market is SAP Concur. SAP Concur integrates real-time data so small business owners can see exactly what they’re spending on. All charges are collated and turned into expense reports.
Multiple employees can access the Concur app, snap photos of receipts and submit reimbursement requests.
Spenmo allows you to keep track of every dollar that comes out of your company budget. It provides personal cards to all employees in your company, with every purchase made using each card tracked and categorised. Employees can then snap photos of receipts to attach to each entry as proof.
This software also showcases real-time insights with a built in analytics function that helps pinpoint areas where your business could save on.
Say goodbye to rumpling through your wallet for week old receipts with Rydoo. This expense management software comes equipped with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology that is 95% accurate, which means your receipt data is automatically transferred into your Rydoo dashboard.
The Aspire Business Account is fully integrated with Xero, and will soon cover expenses, invoice, and payroll management. This means that you’ll be able to view all your business expense information in one platform.
Monitor your team’s expenses through the Aspire app. With multi-user access and scheduled payments, expense management becomes a walk in the park. Business spend on your Aspire Visa Card is also automatically categorised for added convenience, allowing you to keep track of where your expenses are heading.