Make Choices, Not Guesses: Optimise Spending Decision Making with Business Process Automation

Every spending decision is an opportunity to improve and grow your business but it’s also a moment of risk. Risk for the employee, who might accidentally slip outside of policy or fail to be reimbursed, and for your business which might be wasting money or unknowingly committing fraud.

In this blog we’ll explore those moments of decision – the ones you and your employees encounter every day – and how automated spend management can provide the data and insight required to ensure the best outcomes for all.

How Automation Can Impact Business Spend Decisions 

You and your finance teams need to make increasingly tough, organisational spending decisions amidst a backdrop of inflation pressures, talent shortages, ongoing supply chain disruptions and recession fears.

Business process automation can make these decisions easier by:

• Providing real-time spend data and insights using automated reporting and analytics tools so you can respond quickly to changes in the market and introduce new cost containment and cashflow measures.
• Reducing the risk of error and non-compliant behaviour by ensuring that processes are consistently executed, according to predefined rules and procedures.
• Making the approval process faster and more efficient to help decision makers act quickly to ensure that spending is aligned with business objectives and budgets.

But what about the day-to-day decisions your employees make? They can be just as crucial to your business’s ability to adapt, thrive and grow. 

Fortunately, these can also be eased by an automated spend management platform.

Employee Spend Decisions: The Benefits of SAP Concur Solutions

Automation enables employees to act with intention every time they submit expenses, book travel or process invoices. 

These moments of decisions collectively make a huge financial difference. Creating an integrated, end-to-end spend management process has a huge impact on the bottom line as well as creating a more seamless, satisfying employee experience.

 

Top Five Ways to Improve Control Over Spend

Now is the ideal time to prepare for market risks and transform them into opportunities. Discover five ways to improve your visibility of employee spend in the guide below.

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Moment #1: Business traveller booking their trip

Guesswork: Have I got the best deal on my hotel? Am I meeting our sustainability goals? How can I view my bookings and itineraries in one place? How will my boss know where I am or communicate any changes if there’s an emergency?  

Smarter choice: Using Concur Travel  employees can access corporate rates and negotiated fares knowing that spending policies are automatically built in so expensive or non-compliant options are flagged before booking. Duty of Care features ensure they are safe throughout their travels. VAT reclaim is automatically calculated and they’re guided to the most sustainable option every time. 

The difference to your business: You effortlessly reach your cost containment, sustainability and Duty of Care targets whilst keeping all travel booking within policy. With SAP Concur solutions businesses can experience a 26% reduction in budget overspending.

Moment #2: Business traveller returning from their trip

Guesswork: Have I ordered too many bottles of wine at the client lunch and exceeded the policy limits? I’ve lost my taxi receipt but paid on my company credit card, will that be okay? When will I find the time to do my expenses? When will I be reimbursed?

Smarter choice: The employee uses the mobile app ExpenseIT to take a photo of their receipts and upload them directly to the system, capturing relevant details such as dates, amounts and expense categories. Concur Expense speeds up approval and reimbursement, reducing stress and increasing employee satisfaction. Corporate-card and p-card payments are automatically added to Concur Expense for even faster reimbursement.

The difference to your business: A reduced risk of fraud, waste, and non-compliance, as well as a reduction in the tedious manual tasks that detract from employee’s involvement in more satisfying, value-added tasks. Users of SAP Concur solutions can experience a 47% decrease in missing receipts.

Moment #3: Member of AP team processing an invoice

Guesswork: Is this invoice accurate or duplicated? How will I spot overspend? How will I have time to manually input this data? What visibility will I get into this spend? How can I avoid late payments? Am I able to manage invoices from remote locations? 

Smarter Choice: With Concur Invoice, spend data is captured electronically while invoices are routed automatically via a mobile app. The employee can identify inaccurate and duplicate invoices upfront and time supplier payments for more accurate forecasts of cashflow. 

The difference to your business: Elimination of manual paperwork and reduction in processing times, improved policy compliance, fraud prevention and control over when suppliers are paid. Finance and AP teams worldwide reported they saved 134 hours per week by using SAP Concur solutions.

Moment #4: A salesperson logging mileage

Guesswork: I’ve forgotten to log my miles for the month, how can I go back and work out my mileage? Would it be cheaper for me to rent a car or get a taxi? Are trips from home to work and weekend journeys included in my allowance?

Smarter Choice: Concur Drive lets the employee initiate mileage tracking at the start of a journey and automatically turn mileage logs into expense line items in Concur Expense.

The difference to your business: Mileage can be expensive to manage, but with automation you gain complete visibility into this elusive spend category, reducing stress and wasted time for employees. 74% of businesses worldwide say an automated T&E solution has helped reduce time spent on administrative tasks to allow focus on growth and strategic planning.

Moment #5: A finance manager looking to cut costs

Guesswork: Where can I make the most effective cost savings? Where is fraud happening? Can my supplier relationships be improved? How can I prevent misspend before it happens? 

Smarter Choice: Business Intelligence gives the finance manager a near real-time, accurate view of what’s spent, what’s pending and what’s planned, across Concur Travel, Concur Expense and Concur Invoice data. They can modify reports, schedule alerts and track budgets with persona-based dashboards.

The difference to your business: Make informed, strategic in-the-moment decisions without wondering about the financial impact. 69% of businesses worldwide believe T&E has improved their ability to make data-driven decisions. 

Make the Right Choices

By replacing guesswork with informed choices based on consolidated spend data, you can turn every spending decision into an opportunity to control costs, avoid waste, reduce fraud and increase employee satisfaction.

To see how business process automation can help turn everyday business spending decisions into moments of clarity book a demo for Concur Expense, Concur Invoice or Concur Travel.