Simplify expense tracking and boost efficiency

Expense management automation is changing the way businesses handle financial processes—specifically, tracking and approving expenses. Such automation streamlines every aspect of expense management. It also frees up time and bandwidth.

In this post, we’ll cover the topic of expense management and where expense management automation fits into the picture. Discover the common pitfalls that come with this task and how embracing modern technology can help you avoid them.

What is expense management automation?

Expense management automation streamlines processes for employees submitting business expenses and firms approving them. Software captures receipts and syncs data to accounting systems.

What does that mean in practice? Manual data entry and lengthy approval chains aren’t necessary when implementing this technology. Digital tools now automate these processes, all to enable real-time expense tracking. Imagine how much you can speed up reporting when business purchases are automatically synced with your expense management system.

Automation tools can also quicken the processing and approval stages by providing centralized platforms for review. Managers can access expense reports and approve reimbursements with ease.

Some tools even offer advanced features like policy enforcement and analytics. Say, for example, that your policy has a limit on meal expenses. The system can help automatically flag any violations or suspicious transactions for quick resolution.

Expense automation use cases

Automation isn’t just a buzzword anymore; it has a real business impact. It’s especially helpful in certain situations. Explore some of the most common use cases for expense automation below.

Travel and transportation

Automation transforms the entire travel expense process, from booking to expensing. Employees can easily submit receipts for ridesharing and airfare. Then the system automatically codes the spending to proper expense types.

Meals

Outdated processes involve employees saving paper receipts and manually entering line-item meal costs. Automation captures digital receipts and spending details at purchase. That way, employees avoid tedious reporting while the business gains full spending visibility.

Equipment and supplies

Processing expenses for office supplies, phone bills, and subscriptions can be time-consuming. Automation provides one system capturing coded reimbursement requests. Employees can submit requests anytime from anywhere, and employers can quickly approve them.

5 challenges with manual expense management processes

Manual expense tracking can be challenging. Take a look at some of the common issues with outdated processes and how expense management automation resolves them.

1. Receipt tracking

Handling receipts is a tedious task. You gather a pile of crumpled paper slips, often prone to loss or damage. That creates an environment for poor recordkeeping. It also may lead to discrepancies when handling expenses.

Automation solves this. Software digitally captures receipts by email, mobile uploads, or transaction data feeds. This secures all the information you need in one place. Then expense reports can be created in real time.

2. Regular reporting

Maintaining discipline around consistent expense reporting is difficult. Employees may forget receipt details or procrastinate, hoping to “catch up later.” According to a survey by Center, filling out expense reports takes time and is one of the top challenges of expense management, as highlighted on PR Newswire. When reports are delayed, there are more opportunities for them to be inaccurate.

Automated systems can send prompts, helping to promote timely expense submission. Employees receive reminders when they need to report something, then the software can compile all the data for review.

3. Audits

Auditing paper expense reports requires a lot of bandwidth. The finance team must scrutinize pages of itemized receipts and payment documentation. Minor omissions can snowball into larger compliance risks, which also makes the auditing process stressful.

Automated systems can enforce policies specific to your organization. Software flags violations in real time before approvals occur. Catching these issues early and documenting everything without the chance of human error can make audits easier to manage.

4. Consistently enforced policies

Keeping everyone compliant is tough without standardized policy implementation. Reviewers may interpret rules differently across departments and locations. This may lead to errors and unfair treatment.

Consider bleisure travel. What happens when an employee chooses to upgrade their flight for more comfort or stay in a more luxurious hotel for the leisure part of their trip? This is where you need to establish boundaries. You should also have a clear and simple way for employees to log their expenses and categorize them. This is where travel and expense management automation comes into play.

Expense software centralizes policy configuration. Rules are automatically enforced during the report creation and approval stages. This ensures consistency across your organization, even in more complex situations.

5. Reporting and analytics

Do you know how much your company spends and where? Automated systems generate detailed spending analytics and reports instantaneously. That way, you can quickly analyze costs by project, department, vendor, and more. Automated expense reporting empowers you to identify savings opportunities.

The benefits of automated expense management

Automated expense tracking offers several benefits. Let's explore how automation is changing expense management.

Time savings

There’s no question about it: automated expense tracking can save time. With manual methods, employees often spend hours filling out forms and submitting reports. Automation can eliminate most of these tasks by digitizing the process.

Imagine employees no longer manually inputting expenses into spreadsheets. Instead, they snap receipt photos using a mobile app. They’re automatically uploading and categorizing within the expense system. This approach reduces time on reports and requests, freeing up employees for strategic tasks.

Eliminating paperwork and spreadsheets accelerates processing, too. With automation, managers review and approve expenses in a few steps, bypassing manual delays. This improves operational efficiency.

Faster reimbursements

Traditional processes involve lengthy approval chains and manual expense verification, leading to payment delays. With automated expense tracking, reports process in real time.

That may mean that you’re able to reimburse employees quicker, which would be a win-win: they get their money back faster, and fewer company resources are spent on approvals. And that could lead to increased employee satisfaction and employees’ trust in the company.

Improved accuracy

Manual processes are prone to errors, which could mean data entry mistakes, calculation errors, or misplaced receipts. Inaccuracies compromise financial record integrity and lead to compliance risks.

Automation mitigates these risks by standardizing procedures and minimizing human intervention. Digital tools automatically validate expenses against policies and regulations, and they flag discrepancies or violations for review. This approach reduces reporting errors and ensures better compliance.

Increased transparency

Automated expense tracking streamlines workflows by providing a single source of truth. That can support better collaboration and communication. It also provides enhanced visibility into expense data, which enables stakeholders to spot patterns and trends.

How to get started with automated expense management

Ready to make automation part of your expense management process? Follow these steps to make the transition smoothly in your organization.

Identify pain points

Before implementing, assess current expense processes to identify inefficiencies and pain points. Conduct a comprehensive review of existing workflows—everything from reporting to reimbursement. Pinpoint the areas you want to address.

Explore solutions

Once pain points are identified, explore solutions that align with your needs. One solution is Uber for Business. This can simplify expense tracking while providing greater visibility and control.

Enhance existing processes

To help improve efficiency, you can enhance your existing system by incorporating automation tools into the tasks you’re already doing. For example, maybe you want to start with receipt capture so employees don’t need to submit them manually.

Implement automation

This should be a gradual process, allowing you to catch any hiccups and maximize benefit potential. Once you decide what you want to automate and put the right systems in place, communicate with all employees who will be affected by the impact.

Also consider what capabilities you may have with the vendor you choose. For example, you can automatically add new team members to your Uber for Business account by syncing with your expense provider’s employee roster.

Then provide training on how the automation will work. Conduct sessions and offer resources so that employees are comfortable with the new technologies. This may increase the chances that they’ll use the new system.

Work on continual improvements

Achieving long-term automated expense tracking success requires a commitment to continual improvement. Regularly evaluate and adjust processes based on user and stakeholder feedback. Identify optimization areas and implement ongoing refinements to enhance efficiency and accuracy.

Simplify expense reporting with Uber for Business

Embracing expense automation empowers businesses to operate efficiently, make informed decisions, and drive growth. Uber for Business is a powerful tool that simplifies expense management. You can manage your business meals and trips from Uber in one dashboard, where you can track billing, control account privileges, and understand program spending.

Our centralized dashboard gives you the ability to:

Set the rules: Customize your team’s travel and meal policies. Define location, spending, and time limits.

Manage billing: Choose to either pay per trip or opt into monthly billing, and get a single receipt for the period.

Use expense integrations: Set up Uber receipt forwarding to expense providers like SAP Concur, Zoho Expense, and others.

Learn more about Uber for Business and get started for free.

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