(800) 931-6557
(800) 931-6557
ASP
  • Home
  • Services
  • Recruiting
    • Recruiting Team
    • Recruiting Process
    • Recruiting FAQ
    • Resume
  • Positions
    • Current Openings
    • Recent Openings
  • Oregon
  • Washington
  • Colorado
  • About
    • Clients
    • Testimonials
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
    • FAQ
    • Resources
    • Submit Resume
  • Contact
  • Payments
  • Blog
  • Home
  • Services
  • Recruiting
    • Recruiting Team
    • Recruiting Process
    • Recruiting FAQ
    • Resume
  • Positions
    • Current Openings
    • Recent Openings
  • Oregon
  • Washington
  • Colorado
  • About
    • Clients
    • Testimonials
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
    • FAQ
    • Resources
    • Submit Resume
  • Contact
  • Payments
  • Blog

In Pursuit of Profit

Experts sharing tips about business, money, taxes...
to support your mission and improve profits.
​See our most recent article below.  

SUBSCRIBE! >>>

2/17/2022

Comments

Must-Have Small Business Expense Management Tools

 
small business expense management tools
Call it what you want – cost cutting, cost containment, downsizing, cutbacks, or expense management. It all describes the same approach of reducing costs to weather an obstacle or downturn. In times of both slow decline and also rapid disruption we see companies go to the same well of pulling back on expenses. Some organizations may take a more surgical approach, carefully carving out smaller expenses from targeted areas to improve their overall financial health, while others may have a more knee-jerk reaction, slashing costs across all areas.

But whether cuts are being done with a scalpel or a cleaver, expense management software has become the must-have tool for managing costs, especially while staffing challenges remain high. These days companies tend to implement expense management software for just that purpose – to help with reducing costs related to purchasing and processing reimbursements. And with only 54% of companies currently tracking the cost of processing expense reports, this has become an area ripe for cost reduction over the last year.

​However, at their core, they are not actually designed strictly as “cost cutting” tools because they do so much more than just reduce expenses. Find out what kind of critical activities expense management software improves as well as which tools your peers recommend in our user-generated guide:

What is Expense Management?
Expense management is the process by which expenses are tracked, verified, and justified as well as the policies and procedures around each of these actions.

For instance, if an office manager spends $200 on office supplies for employees to use, this expense needs to be recorded somewhere, checked against the receipt for these supplies, and allocated to the right business expense category to ensure accurate financial reporting.

Previously, companies used to do this all manually – keeping paper copies of receipts and reimbursement requests and giving them to their accounting departments each month or quarter for processing. Of course, this methodology is prone to errors and vulnerable to fraud (not to mention slow!), which is why a better solution was developed.

In the early days of digitization, companies started using spreadsheets to keep track of expenses and do the calculations related to managing these expenses. Today, high-tech expense management software providers streamline tasks like purchasing and submitting expense reimbursements (as well as other activities like processing payroll, sending customer invoices, and managing vendor payments in some cases) in real-time. With the prevalence of mobile app usage, most expense management tools also have a mobile version for employees to use on the go while they are traveling for work as well. These advancements have allowed companies to scale up operations by managing more expenses across more employees more effectively, to encourage business growth.

Why is it Important?
The goal of expense management is to control spending to mitigate waste, prevent fraud, and keep expenses in line with budgets.

Expense management protects businesses from themselves to reduce risk – from internal fraud as well as employee unfairness claims. Effective expense management monitors spending to mitigate the risk of expense reimbursement fraud by allowing companies to:
  • Save receipts in a centralized location
  • Automatically review receipts
  • Document expense approvals
  • Manage expense policies and flag receipts for violations

This is more important than ever before, with the incidence of embezzlement on the rise according to recent data. But remember, expense management is not simply the process of tracking employee spending or submitting and approving expense reimbursements.

Expense management is also concerned with the policies and procedures that guide spending to articulate what the company will and will not pay for. With many employees working virtually, this has become even more important to ensure that accounting controls are being upheld across remote workers. A thorough expense management policy improves employee satisfaction and protects the business legally from accusations of unfairness or discrimination. 

But even for companies that are already managing their risk level effectively, expense management software plays a critical role in cash flow management. Having real-time expense data allows companies to make more informed purchasing and investing decisions across everything from hiring to R&D.

Most Popular Expense Management Software for Small Business
Regardless of how expenses are managed, doing so carries a cost. Expense management software makes managing costs less expensive because it removes much of the labor expenditures associated with doing so. Additionally, the best apps and platforms will integrate seamlessly into your company’s existing operations to automate tedious tasks and reduce headaches.

So, which ones are the best?

Ask your fellow small business owners what their favorite expense management systems are, and these names will likely come up in the conversation:
  • Abacus – Real-time expense tracking and reporting
  • Brex – Expense tracking, credit card rewards tracking, and credit limit optimization
  • Certify – Travel and expense report management 
  • Dext – Expense reporting
  • ExpensePoint – Expense report management
  • Expensify – All-in-one corporate money management
  • Pleo – Expense reimbursements
  • Ramp – 5-in-1 finance accounting software
  • Rydoo – Expense management, forecasting, and analysis
  • SAP Concur – Travel, expense, and invoice management
  • Zoho Expense – Business travel and related expenses

Remember, expense management tools are just that – tools, pieces of the larger cash flow puzzle. If you need help managing cash flow, lean on an experienced accounting leader, either internally or externally, to guide your company’s financial decision-making. If you do not have this kind of personnel in-house, a consulting accountant can provide the cash flow management services your organization needs to succeed. Whether it is recommending and implementing new expense management technology or managing your ongoing costs as part of broader financial leadership needs, an outsourced accounting service gives small businesses access to the same kind of resources that larger companies retain.  
Comments

    DOWNLOAD:

    The Ultimate New Business Formation Checklist

    DOWNLOAD:

    Accountant Evaluation

    Categories:

    All
    Accountant
    Accounting
    Accounting Systems
    Audit
    Bank Reconciliation
    Benefits
    Bookkeeper
    Bookkeeping
    Brand
    Budgeting
    Business Analysis
    Business Trends
    Cash Flow
    Change Management
    Checklist
    Closing The Books
    Colorado
    Community
    Contracts
    Controller
    Depreciation
    Ecommerce
    Economy
    Finance
    Fraud
    Government
    Hack
    Hiring
    HR
    Infographic
    Internal Controls
    IRS
    Laws
    Leadership
    Legal
    Local Economics
    Manuals
    Market Trends
    News
    Nonprofit
    Online Bookkeeping
    Oregon
    Outsource
    Payroll
    Payroll Taxes
    Planning
    Procedures
    QuickBooks
    Record Keeping
    Recruiting
    Recruiting Market Reports
    Remote Workforce
    Reporting
    Restaurants
    Risk
    Sales Tax
    Scam
    Security
    Small Business
    Social Media
    Software
    Startup
    Statistics
    Strategy
    Taxes
    Technology
    Time Management
    Washington State

    Archives:

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    June 2015
    February 2013
    October 2012
    November 2011
    May 2011



    RSS Feed

Services

Accounting Services
Recruiting Services

​

Company

About
Oregon Team
​Washington Team
Colorado Team
Clients


Support

Contact
CC
FAQ
​Resources
​Blog
​

ASP

Your resource for accounting & recruiting services. Serving Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Lake Oswego, Denver, Lakewood, Aurora and more.
Contact us today for a free,
no-obligation consultation:
Toll Free (800) 931-6557
WA (425) 492-1901
OR (503) 473-0122
​CO
(720) 572-8211
info@asp-nw.com
© COPYRIGHT ASP - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 A CFO Selections Company
Privacy Policy