Expense management can get complex for organizations with many employees or frequent employee-paid expenses, such as travel, meals and office supplies. Due to this, companies opt for expense management software to make it easier to track employee spending and reimburse approved expenses.

Companies of all sizes have moved to cloud-based expense reporting solutions. As a matter of fact, as per Grand View Research, small and medium businesses hold 30% of the software’s market share. It’s an essential complement to their accounting software for many.

Expense management software helps businesses to go paperless. It also chops down the time spent calculating and processing expenses and reduces the chances of errors in the process.

Specifications to look for in expense management software

The best expense management software makes it easy to handle finances and reimbursements. It also makes sure all your related data is securely tracked and stored.

So, if you’re wondering about implementing expense management tools for your business, here are the features you should look for.

1. It should generate reports automatically.

A good expense management tool should help your team quickly collect receipts and classify costs accordingly. They should generate expense reports automatically or with a single click whenever they’re ready.

2. It should offer excellent visibility.

Proper expense management software lets you view new expenses in real-time, typically through an analytics dashboard. With such visibility, you can easily monitor and better understand your business’ spending.

3. It should reduce the time spent on expense management.

Additionally to taking less time to review and approve expenses, automating expense management should allow you to reimburse employees within 24 hours of expense report approvals.

Three benefits of expense management software

Listed below are three reasons why expense management software can benefit your team and company. 

• Simpler and faster processes

Traditionally, expense reporting requires printing paper copies of invoices, adding receipts, and delivering reports to supervisors, who would further approve or return them to the employee for adjustment.

All these steps can be automated using expense management software, fortunately. Using cost management software is essential if your company seeks a complete solution for expenditure management that streamlines operations, eliminates errors, and enhances fraud protection. A NetSuite implementation is an excellent option for businesses seeking a robust and user-friendly expense management system.

Employees can add expenses to a report in multiple ways, and when they press “submit”, the message is immediately sent to the appropriate person for approval. The amount to be reimbursed may be automatically reported to payroll as well. 

If the manager assigned to approve or reject employee reports is not available, the information may be routed to a temporary in charge.

As a result, the system reimburses employees for their expenses very quickly.

• Fewer delays and inaccuracies

Expense management software has better accuracy, which helps expedite employee reimbursements as well.

Expense management software can extract data directly from bank accounts and credit card transactions. It can also detect mistakes and duplicate entries and alert you if a report or payment is late. For instance, employees may make data-entry errors while processing expenses manually.

• Improved fraud prevention

As per the report by Federal Trade Commission, there were around 4.8 million fraud reports and identity theft cases submitted to them in 2020. It’s normal for busy financial teams and supervisors to miss fake entries, even from trustworthy workers or contractors. But getting that money back after it’s been paid is hectic. 

Expense management software can notify managers if an amount seems excessive by raising a red flag for further investigation before payment is approved and sent, eventually reducing company fraud cases.