Are you part of a growing business? In this post, we’ll help you identify if you’ve outgrown your existing expense process – and how to better manage your employee expenses.
Companies require the flexibility to adapt to the challenges of growth. Administrative tasks, such as finances, are difficult to control as a business grows in both scale and complexity.
This is because systems and processes that work within a smaller structure, cannot easily adapt as needed. For example, expense management is a common risk for companies experiencing growth.
Why is this? The task of managing and monitoring employee expenses can seem relatively trivial in the early stages of a business. It’s often managed with traditional methods, such as emails, spreadsheets, and paper forms.
A manual process like this is slow and inefficient. Its underlying problems are only liable to surface as the business expands and the administrative demands intensify.
The following issues are symptoms of outgrowing the traditional, manual method of expense management:
1. Have you experienced expense process slowdown?
As the number of expense claims increases and a workforce becomes more dispersed, it can bring the process grinding to a halt. A lack of scalability means that it can take weeks or even months for costs to be reimbursed.
2. Are you seeing your business costs spiral out of control?
When a finance team is struggling with administrative workload, they do not have the time or resources available to properly check claims and enforce policy limits. Human errors become inevitable and fraudulent activity goes undetected as expense costs spiral.
3. Do you lack visibility over your company spend?
As a workforce expands across various offices and locations, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain management visibility. With no fast access to accurate data, it becomes impossible to identify inefficiencies.
These paper-based and manual ways of working lack the flexibility that’s required to cope with a growing company. If you answered yes to one or more of these warning signs, you can benefit from a digital expense management system.
Benefits of a digital expense management system
A cloud-based expense process is built to handle growth. A system such as Webexpenses provides a fully scalable solution which is designed to evolve with a business.
Using the Webexpenses app to scan paper receipts means the whole process can be managed digitally. It creates a fast, simple and scalable process which can handle the journey from a small start-up to a major multi-national company.
The benefits include:
Policy compliance automation.
Automated checks and real-time tracking allow policies to be constantly monitored with any potential problems flagged for closer inspection. By removing the need for manual processes or paper documentation, a cloud-based approach allows a finance team to handle the administrative demands of a growing business effortlessly.
Accessibility with a central workflow.
A cloud-based approach allows costs to be managed and monitored anytime and anywhere. A central finance team can instantly access expense data from across offices, regions, and nations. It’s an adaptable way of working that meets the needs of an evolving business.
Seamless workflow across software packages.
All of the data that’s automatically gathered can be seamlessly shared with your existing accountancy and reporting packages. Webexpenses features one-click integration with Xero’s powerful software suite to create a fluid and streamlined way of managing costs within a growing company.
Scalability for your company growth.
By using a digital solution, like Webexpenses, you can future-proof your expense solution – with a system that can evolve with your company. As well, an effective management approach will assess and prepare for any potential risks that may lie ahead.
For any growing company, reliance on a traditional expense management setup is one of the risks that can be easily identified and tackled. Switching to a streamlined and fully integrated process provides a finance team with the tools they need to effortlessly handle business growth.
Explore our expense management software to see how it can help your growing business.
