Typically, a manual expense process will involve an employee completing a paper, spreadsheet, or expense report which they then forward, along with the relevant tax invoices (receipts), to a manager or other controller for approval. Once the manager has approved the claim, they forward it on to the accounts department for processing. The accounts staff then key each expense item into the company's finance system before filing the expense and receipts away. In a Software as a Service implementation, these processes are largely automated and the submission and approvals processes are transacted electronically.

Expense Management automation is the means by which an organization can significantly reduce transaction costs and improve management and control when logging, calculating and processing corporate expenses. Independent research evaluating the use of automated expense management systems has confirmed that the cost of processing an expense claim is reduced as the level of automation increases.

As found in a recent Aberdeen study on expense management automation there are three main factors that drive an organization to automate their expense management processes:

• Compliance focus: The need to reduce the current risk levels posed by non-compliance with internal policies and external tax/government regulations
• Cost reduction: The competitive pressure to reduce processing and auditing costs associated with expense reports
• Employee productivity: The organizational pressure to improve employee productivity and satisfaction.
  
  

An automated solution typically provides the ability to code, approve and report on expenses. This will not only decrease the cost of processing expense claims, but can also enable an organization to have greater management control, bring transparency to expense spend and improve adherence to corporate policy.

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Next: Electronic Expense Reports