Salient Features to look for in an Expense Report Software & How Automation can Help

Manual expense reporting comes with paper-based processes, lengthy processing times, and costly errors. Employees have started demanding technological transformation in every aspect of fin management, including expense reporting.

The changing technological landscape enables organizations to rethink their expense management strategy. Online expense report software allows an organization to streamline its expense management process while having complete control over spending.

Automated travel and expense software eliminate the need to manage paper receipts and track transactions manually. The solution allows employees to track, manage, and submit expenses with ease. And, the finance teams will get 360-degree visibility into corporate spending and identifies overspending quickly.

Also, check the details of medical expense deduction.

How expense report software can help?

Expense software eliminates paper-based processes and offers a variety of features, including business intelligence, spend analytics, and optimized expense management. Expense software covers all expense management processes from pre-trip authorization to post-trip analysis.

Key features to look for in expense management.

The key goal of expense management is not to keep track of business expenses but also to simplify the approval process. The solution allows organizations to enforce compliance and eliminates expense fraud.

The following are some key features every expense software must have:

Pre-trip authorization

Pre-trip authorization enables employees to send expense requests for approval before the actual trip takes place. This way, you can keep track of all expenses ahead, so you don’t have to deal with any surprises at a later point. These requests can then be converted into reports which can be submitted for final approval.

Mobility

Mobility is the key feature to look for in expense report software. Mobile-enabled expense software helps employees manage, report, and submit expenses on the go. Managers can quickly approve expenses right from their mobile devices anytime, anywhere.

Integrations

Expense reporting solutions that can seamlessly connect with external applications can eliminate data silos and manual entry. Integrations can help import data directly into an expense solution, thereby eliminating data errors.

GPS mileage tracking

Mileage fraud is the most common fraud that is challenging every business. Choosing a solution that features GPS mileage tracking allows you to track mileage claims accurately. The solution can capture the distance that an employee has traveled and report it in the expense report directly, so there is no scope for employees to manipulate mileage claims.

Artificial Intelligence

Expense report software powered with artificial intelligence can help identify spending patterns and spots anomalies so you can make appropriate spending decisions. You can read data patterns to understand why spending is more and why out-of-policy spending happens.

Automated workflows

Rule-based approval workflows minimize human intervention and reduce the turnaround time of the expense reporting process. Approval workflows minimize the approval cycle times with the help of automated notifications.

Chatbots

Virtual assistant chatbots have become the trend today. You can talk to our chatbot and get your queries answered quickly. Also, chatbots help you to quickly perform the actions you want so you don’t have to navigate throughout the application. Chatbots help you get your job done right rapidly from the mobile device.

Analytics

Analytical reports help businesses analyze travel and expense reporting process and eliminate overspending and improve savings opportunities. Learn more about T&E Management software.

Intuitive dashboards

Intuitive dashboards give real-time insights into business processes and keep all stakeholders informed about company spending. Detailed charts give you a complete insight into employees who are spending the most, so you can take appropriate measures to prevent overspending.

Challenges of manual expense reporting

Manual processes do not meet the requirements of modern businesses. You have to track and record every expense to identify pitfalls and avoid unnecessary costs. Tracking, processing, and approving expense claims can be challenging, especially when the business grows. Organizations without an expense report software have a problem with enforcing expense policies and expense tracking. Old fashioned systems prevent you from getting complete insight into your financial information. And, most of the times you have to deal with paper-based processes, which requires a lot of administrative effort.

Why is expense report software important?

Finance departments often get involved in paperwork when employees submit receipts for business trips. Manual processes are erroneous and require you to rely on managers to approve claims quickly. Implementing expense report software helps improve the approval process. The following are some benefits of using travel and expense report software for small businesses:

Travel policy compliance

The expense software identifies policy violations and flags travel expenses that go out-of-policy. Making sure that corporate travel policies are followed takes out a significant burden on the finance team departments. This will reduce expense fraud and enforce compliance.

Policy enforcement

Expense software allows you to define business rules, so anything that is out-of-policy will be automatically flagged or reported to the appropriate authorities. Business rules can be defined based on the user, hierarchy, and expense category. Automatic policy enforcement can eliminate most of the expense fraud, so you don’t have to worry about out-of-policy claims.

Visibility into the financial system

Tracking where each penny is going gives you complete visibility into the cash flow. You can quickly figure out areas where spending is happening unnecessarily, which helps make insightful decisions that can cut down costs. This helps plan better for future business trips.

Tax deductions

Travel expenses must be qualified to mark them as legitimate. Those that have been through the tax filing process for self-employment know that not having tight control over the process would result in missing tax benefits. You will have to manage audit trails and travel expenses to prevent the mishandling of funds.

Happy employees

Expense submission and waiting for claims to be approved takes a toll on employee productivity. Having an expense report system that allows employees to submit expenses and claim reimbursements easily makes employees’ lives a lot easier.

Choosing the right expense software is daunting. Implementing a simple and effective expense report solution that comes with sophisticated features can help streamline the expense reporting process.

SutiExpense simplifies all phases of the expense reporting process, starting from submission, approval, tracking, auditing, and more. Besides eliminating bottlenecks in the expense reporting process, SutiExpense easily integrates with external applications such as finance and accounting systems to import the data easily between the systems. Our solution also features comprehensive analytics and reporting features that give you complete insight into business spending.