In today’s fast-paced business world, staying ahead of the curve, where innovation can make a big difference is in expense management. The 2023 CFO Coupa Report offers valuable insights into the importance of modernizing expense management processes and how doing so can prepare corporate offices for the future. Additionally, tools like the BTN calculator published by Business Travel News can provide helpful guidance on suggested travel costs across the globe. Learn how these key insights can drive positive change.
Expense management is more than just keeping track of receipts and balancing budgets. It’s about optimizing processes, reducing inefficiencies, and enabling better decision-making. Here’s a look at a few reasons why modernizing expense management is essential.
- Efficiency: Traditional expense management methods are often manual and time-consuming. By leveraging technology and automation, companies can streamline processes, saving time and resources.
- Accuracy: Manual data entry is prone to errors, leading to inaccuracies and discrepancies. Modern expense management tools use algorithms and machine learning to ensure data accuracy and integrity as well as compliance.
- Insights: Data is a valuable asset for decision-making. Modern expense management solutions provide actionable insights into spending patterns, enabling companies to make informed decisions and optimize expenses.
Modernizing expense management isn’t just about addressing current challenges—it’s also about preparing for the future. Here are some long-term benefits that modernization can bring to simplify methods, allowing for agile work environments to focus on the work they need to get done without the risk of acting outside of compliance guardrails.
- Adaptability: The business landscape is constantly evolving, and companies need to be agile and adaptable. Modern expense management systems are flexible and scalable, allowing companies to adjust to changing needs and circumstances seamlessly.
- Competitiveness: In today’s competitive market, efficiency is key. Companies that embrace modern expense management practices gain a competitive edge by reducing costs, improving productivity, and enhancing decision-making capabilities.
- Resilience: Modernization enhances resilience by mitigating risks and vulnerabilities. With robust controls and real-time monitoring, companies can identify and address issues proactively, minimizing the impact of unforeseen events.
- Innovation: Innovation drives growth and success. By modernizing expense management, companies create a foundation for innovation, enabling them to explore new opportunities, optimize processes, and drive business value.
The Role of the BTN Calculator
The BTN calculator is a valuable tool for corporate offices seeking guidance on suggested travel costs across the globe. It provides estimates for expenses such as airfare, accommodations, meals, and transportation based on various factors like destination, travel dates, and traveler preferences.
- Cost Estimation: The BTN calculator helps companies estimate travel expenses accurately, allowing them to budget and plan effectively. By incorporating these estimates into their expense management systems, companies can better track and manage travel costs.
- Benchmarking and Decision Support: The BTN calculator provides benchmarks for travel costs in different regions, helping companies assess their own spending and identify areas for improvement. By comparing their expenses to industry standards, companies can identify cost-saving opportunities and optimize their travel budgets, making informed decisions about travel expenses.
- Global Guidance: With its global coverage, the BTN calculator offers guidance on travel costs across a wide range of destinations. Whether companies are planning domestic trips or international travel, the BTN calculator provides valuable insights to help them manage expenses effectively.
Lean Principles
Lean principles, rooted in the elimination of waste and continuous improvement, offer a framework for streamlining processes and driving operational excellence. For executive assistants, learning and implementing lean principles can be pivotal in reshaping expense management and forecasting practices. By adopting a lean mindset, executive assistants can identify inefficiencies, streamline workflows, and proactively address challenges where unnecessary costs can be eliminated and better resource allocation will contribute to improved bottom-line results for the organization.
Leverage AI
Learn how AI will reshape the financial landscape and transform travel and expense (T&E) management from a back-office function to a strategic driver of business success, facilitated by artificial intelligence (AI) as outlined in a recent article published by SAP. It emphasizes the shift from post-spend approvals to pre-approved travel spend, enabled by AI technologies. This is a pivotal approach for executive assistants to lean in on and understand how new capabilities will leverage AI to improve in this space.
As more employees work remotely or in hybrid arrangements, the traditional approach to expense management must evolve to accommodate these new ways of working. We can guarantee that changes in supply chain processes, such as increased reliance on digital tools and automation, will impact expense management practices and present opportunities for optimization. Executive assistants can actively help with reducing the risk of unintended long-term financial consequences by proactively identifying areas overlooked in expense management and implementing strategies to optimize the overall financial health behind the walls of corporate America.
