What is Expense Management in Field Employee Monitoring Software?

Expense management software in 2023 is like a knight in shining armor for businesses that have remote or field staff to manage. Why is that so? Discover for yourself!

More and more organisations are relying on technology to improve their work efficiency. The Expense Management solution is a crucial part of field employee management software. It simplifies the most critical aspect of financial management – expense reimbursement and reconciliation.

As per the study conducted by GovLoop in association with SAP Concur, around 16% of public sector employees use software or cloud-based application to request reimbursements and monitor expenses.

This number will only rise as more organisations adopt software and technology for management purposes. So what exactly do we mean by software-aided expense management?

What is Expense Management Software?

An advanced expense management tool helps businesses track and manage employee expenses. It allows employees to submit expense reports, capture receipts, and automate the reimbursement process.

The expense management provides a birds-eye view with centralised data operations, enabling employees to review and approve claims, enforce policy compliance and generate reports accordingly.

Every dollar or pound counts even though you are running a billion-dollar enterprise.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Imagine the magnitude of a dime when thousands of employees pull off a scam of a couple of dollars. It is a monetary hitch.

Employees apply for reimbursement from their end, and managers receive the notification. Managers get a detailed request with attached proof, which they review online. Software negates the hassle of sitting at the workstation and rambling through papers. The Expense management app comes in handy in managing it while employees are on the fly.

What Does Expense Management Software Offer?

Could you imagine the time employees waste while safely arranging bills or assessing claim requests?

Manual expense management leads to poor tracking of expenditures. Hence, mishandling of finances and wastage of time. #DoubleTrouble

Expense Management Software 2023 streamlines it all in one app. Sheer peace of mind!

“Employee-initiated spending is typically the second-largest controllable expense that state and local governments have after payrolls. Historically, it’s also one of the most difficult areas to manage because of the lack of insight that organizations have into their spending.”-

Matt Gibbons, Senior Director of Sales, SAP Concur

That’s true, though!

Employee expense management software is a complete software solution in itself. It comes loaded with features that together make a well-put-together platform. Let us discuss the offerings that TrackoField offers in its expense management system.

• Bottom-to-top Claim approval

Our field employee monitoring software allows customising the organisation’s hierarchy. It comes with an option to set a single-level or multi-level approval hierarchy. As the executive submits the expense claim request, the immediate manager receives a notification. They have to acknowledge it by approving or disapproving the request. After the manager approves the claim, the next-in-line manager has to act on it to settle the claim. The accounts team receives a message about the claim approval.

• Attach Expense Proof

Executives attach the expense evidence with the reimbursement request. The software allows uploading proofs in jpeg, png and pdf format. Managers can cross-check the claimed amount with the evidence submitted. It depends on the organisation’s policies whether they accept bank SMSs and app notifications as proof. However, our system accepts all as long as they are in the image format.

• Real-time Claim Status

Executives can check the real-time status of their reimbursement requests. Every edit that executives and managers make to the application is visible throughout the approval trail. Every manager can review the original contents of the request and edit along the process. It also shows the suggested reimbursement by one of the managers overriding the requested amount. The senior manager can further override the changes to what he/she thinks is right.

• Cap on Expenses

Executives can’t go off-limits with their expenses because the company has a reimbursement policy. Employees cannot misuse the allowance because they are unaware of spending regulations. To control employee expenditure, expense management software allows putting spending limits. Our employee management software enables limiting expenses by category, by teams, or by designation. TrackoField keeps the limits customisable as the process is different in different organisations.

• Categorise the Expenses

Travel is the second biggest General and Administrative expense for most companies. A big-scale company may spend 10-30% more on travel if not managed well. This could affect the EBITDA by lowering it by 1%, which is a significant number on a bigger scale. Thus, our expense monitoring solution has a dedicated category for travel with an exclusive format. There is a provision to create more categories such as food, stationery, and more. Managers can create custom fields for them.

Mitigate Manual Expense Management Challenges with Employee Monitoring Software

No matter whether any sale happens or not, or the office is open or shut, G&A cost takes a big bite from the company funds anyway.

Therefore, managing them and having in-depth insights becomes all the more important. In times of crisis, this feature comes in handy to control or restrict a few expenses and mitigate expense management challenges.

The Downside of Traditional Employee Management Methods

• Possible Human Errors

Legacy or traditional employee spending management is prone to human errors since the reimbursement and reconciliation process is manual. Calculation slip-ups, overlooked expenses, and typographic errors are very common issues with manual expense management.

• Approval Delays

While managers are swamped with responsibilities, expense management only adds to their problems. Delayed acknowledgement of claim requests and forgetfulness are very common. This only leads to employee dissatisfaction and stress accrual.

• Difficulty Enforcing Policies

Organisations usually have expense policies wherein allowances and grants vary for different teams, destinations and various other factors. There is a predefined reimbursement policy and set approval guidelines for managers. Ensuring strict adherence to these policies at each level is a piece of labour in itself.

• Lack of Transparency

Once employees request reimbursement following a manual expense management procedure, they are unsure of their request status. They are clueless about whether managers have received their request, what’s the approval status, why their request was denied, how much reimbursement will be granted and many such questions.

• Expense Frauds

Also, every stage of expense management happens in isolation from expenditure to getting the bill and submitting them to managers for their assessment. Therefore, the chances of mishandling documents or intentional fraud are high.

The new-age automation tools like TrackoField quash all the expense management challenges. Some major snags include delayed approvals, lack of accurate insights, and time wastage.

KEY TAKEAWAY Limited data on employee expenses is one of the biggest drawbacks. Manual expense management also has scope for clerical errors, fraud, wastage and abuse of resources. That is just not the case with expense monitoring solutions.

Benefits of Expense Management Software

In the previous section, we talked about the expense management challenges you fight in maintaining fool-proof employee reimbursement and reconciliation. The following are the benefits of expense management software and how it helps overcome them. 

• Saves Time

Time is money, so if you waste time managing money, it’s equal to 12. Expense management works wonders for the math of time and money by saving you both. It automates the traditional practice of spending management and saves time for executives and managers. Real-time push notifications enable instant action on the request. Hence, creating a fast-track approval process.

• Reduces Human Errors

With automation comes accuracy and precision. The scope of human error reduces to negligible. Everything is done via the system or by the system. If executives make a mistake while applying a claim, they can revisit the application and correct it. The software records the changes or edits the employee and managers make to the trail.

• Convenience 

Executives can apply for reimbursement while they are on the move. Managers can check, assess and review the requests on the fly via the app. It negates the hassle of carrying the evidence and bills. If the phone has pictures of the proof, the executive can submit a request from anywhere at any time. Convenient, right?

• Budget Monitoring

The bigger the business gets, the more crucial it becomes to get on the saddle. Our expense management system comes with a spending control limit. The management can release team-wise, category wise or organisational budget that the accounts team dispense accordingly. Hence, the expenses and employees don’t go bonkers. 

• Stimulate Trust

Expense management software infuses transparency into the team. Executives get real-time tracking status of the request, and so does everyone else. It negates the possibility of fraud or mishandling of evidence completely. Executives don’t ramble in oblivion if their claim requests get stuck somewhere along the process. With software, they know where exactly it is stuck. Hence, they anticipate a feasible timeline.

• On-point Insights

In manual management, the job itself is so taxing that employees don’t make an added effort to do analysis. Software-aided expense management automates the reimbursement process and fetches in-depth insights. It also generates detailed reports on the expense habits of the organisation. Resultingly helps in better financial decisions in the future.

• Better Management

When automation replaces manual in any business setup, it boosts the efficiency of the team manifolds if used correctly. Smooth management alone can mitigate a lot of challenges. The software also helps spot anomalies, and insights help in working on them.

Discover the Right Expense Management Software for Your Business

Are you looking for the right expense management software for 2023 for your organisation? Then look no further.

Excellent!

We’ll introduce you to the best expense management app, that is blessed with a Midas touch of automation. Don’t you believe us?

Firstly, it’s important to understand that an expense management tool alone is a tool when implemented in an organisation. Coupled with other employee monitoring solutions and features such as task management, order management, remote tracking and leave and attendance management tools, it becomes a complete package.

TrackoField offers you a flawless combination of proficiency and efficiency enhancement tools for your business.

As far as the expense module is concerned following features make it the right expense management software for any organisation small, big or large coming from any sector or part of the globe.

• Seamless Approval Process

The expense management software ensures that the managers thoroughly go through each claim request before approving it. It follows the bottom-to-top hierarchical model of claim approval where managers manually check, analyse and approve the request. 

• No Scope for Deceit

Executives get an option to upload supporting bills and evidence of expenditure leaving no room for fraud claims. These proofs are accessible to all managers in the approval hierarchy.

• Complete Transparency  

Not only managers but also executives can monitor the status of their claim requests in real time through the app. Executives receive notifications for any status updates. Total transparency!

• Adhere to Expense Policies

The software allows managers and management to set spending limits for teams, categories, or designations. Once executives have reached their spending limit, neither can they apply for reimbursement nor can managers approve any.

SOLID INSIDER The TrackoField app accurately tracks the mile-to-mile movement of field executives and generates travel expenses for each executive automatically.  You just have to specify the per kilometre or mile allowance you provide.

Is Expense Management Software a thing of the future for organisations?

Yes, absolutely! Especially organisations that have a massive field force to manage and monitor. Research suggests that the international market size of Expense Management Software may reach $13,349 million in 2021 at a CAGR 15.97% from $5,487 million in 2020.

With the rising demand for software-enabled employee tracking, the need for expense management software systems will also rise.

Frequently Asked Questions about Expense Management Software 2023

• What Is the Best Software for Expenses?

  The definition of the right expense management software varies on various factors: your requirement, your business model, and your budget capacity. What level of automation you require is also a deciding factor. However, TrackoFiled offers a fool-proof expense management app for enterprises. For more details reach out to us.

• What type of business needs expense management?

  Expense management is essential for businesses of all sizes and industries. Whether it's a small startup or a large corporation, any business that incurs expenses, tracks reimbursements, and aims to control costs can benefit from expense management software. It helps streamline processes, ensure policy compliance, gain financial visibility, and make informed decisions, making it a crucial tool for effective financial management and cost control in any business setting.

• Who handles expense management?

  To be honest, in this time and age, it’s the software that handles expense management for most small and big organisations. However, in a legacy or traditional setup, there are immediate managers and accounts teams involved in the process. 

• How to Choose an Expense Management Software for Your Business?

  Here are simple steps to choose the right expense management app for your business:
  1,Identify your business needs and requirements for expense management.
  2. Determine the features and functionalities you require, such as receipt capture, API integrations, reporting capabilities, and mobile accessibility.
  3. Consider scalability and compatibility with your existing systems.
  4. Evaluate user-friendliness and ease of implementation.
  5. Compare pricing and plans of different software
  6. Request for demos and free trials is a must.