Transitioning from spreadsheets to expense tracking software might be intimidating for small business owners. How do you ensure your new solution fulfills your company’s needs and that the transition goes as smoothly as possible?
While entering the world of finance software can be intimidating, there are advantages for the astute small business owner. Check out these six things to think about while looking for a T&E solution.
- Policy Adherence
A good Expense tracking software solution will make it simple to apply your policy to it, allowing you to set limitations on what can be expensed and alerting you when someone goes over those limits. You can even limit how much your staff can submit in expenditures. Look for a service that allows you to automate policy checks to immediately identify if any policies have been broken without having to go through each charge. - Reporting & Transparency
Understanding how your company spends its resources is critical, and a solid solution will make this process simple for you. Look for dashboards with pre-configured reports so you can see what you need fast without having to sift through raw data. If you can divide expenses by project or client, for example, you will discover which clients are the most profitable. - Cloud-based
One of the best things about the cloud is that you don’t have to buy a bunch of gear to run your solution on, nor do you have to pay hundreds of dollars for a boxed set of software. You can immediately acquire the most up-to-date version of your solution with a subscription-based solution without having to apply patches or go through a lengthy update procedure. - Integration
The ability to connect the new solution with the rest of your environment’s apps differentiates the excellent from the great. A solution with a partner ecosystem can help you get the most out of your money. One SAP Concur partner, for example, provides tax-back services, allowing SAP Concur solution users to reclaim VAT tax. - Migration
Look for an Expense tracking software that offers an implementation team to help you set up the features you want, get started using the system, and transport your data into the new system. In short, look for a company that doesn’t make you set up everything from scratch and is there to assist you along the way. - Ease of use
Make the most of a new solution by finding one that automates rote tasks and makes it as easy as possible for you to do what you need to do. For example, capturing receipts—look for a solution that offers optical character recognition so that just by taking a photo of your receipt with your smartphone, you will capture all the text in that receipt, and it will automatically be logged as an expense.
