Benchmarks for Expense Management Success
To manage expenses effectively, businesses require a new wave of approaches that can handle the complex spend category. Besides having end-to-end an expense management system, organizations should align certain processes and adapt certain strategies to drive value out of expense management. Process management, knowledge management, and performance management are a few such viable considerations for businesses for years to come:
Process Management: Submission and Approval Paths
Similar to the accounts payable process, the initial phases of the expense management process are critical that push an expense report through the expense management system in the right way. Effective submission and approval paths ensure that expense reports are created, viewed, submitted and approved accurately.
Knowledge Criteria: Visibility and Reporting
Visibility is a core competency for enterprises executing spend management. Gaining visibility into aggregate data and spending gives executives and other key stakeholders access to company spending against existing budgets. Regular reporting on expense by category can help companies gain intelligence over certain areas of travel. Knowledge management helps companies narrow down suppliers so as to drive savings in major areas of travel and spending. 20% of companies are interested in reporting on expense spending by category.
Performance Criteria: Compliance-tracking
Compliance becomes the major concern in expense management. Regular reporting on travel policy compliance can ensure that all expenses are in line with the corporate guidelines and policies. Reporting on a regular basis can figure out instances of non-compliance and help fight negative impact in the future. Organizations should consider regular audits to pinpoint areas of non-compliance, flag suspicious expenses, and ensure that corporate expenses meet the proper tax guidelines. Around 31% of organizations track compliance to achieve the anticipated results.
Above all, it would help you achieve expense management success in any enterprise at a great scale.
