Expense Reimbursement Software for Large Companies: Features to Look For
- Last updated: March 28, 2024
- Finance transformation, Travel and expense management
Effective expense management solutions are every CFO’s dream since they have such a significant impact on the well-being of a business. Especially large-scale organisations with plenty of employees can profit from smooth and streamlined workflows. Yet many inefficiencies can slow down the process, cost you lots of money or even cause serious issues. Research from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) has revealed that processing each reimbursement claim demands about 20 minutes of administrative time, with a hefty price tag of £45 per submission. Furthermore, a concerning 19 per cent of reimbursements are faulty, necessitating an additional 18 minutes and about £41 to rectify. These statistics show the considerable burden manual expense reimbursement processes impose on companies.
However, there’s a promising solution to these issues. Advanced company expense reimbursement software can help you speed up processes and save not only time but money, so resources can be allocated smarter. The market is flooded with options, each claiming to be the best expense management software. So how can you find out what helps your business overcome those typical challenges? This article will give you the answer by listing the most crucial features.
Seamless and efficient expense reimbursement software
So you may wonder: How do large companies benefit from expense reimbursement software? There are three significant pillars to this topic:
Time savings through automation
Easier handling of expense reimbursements
Improving compliance
You probably agree that time is one of the most valuable assets in business. Unfortunately, large companies often find themselves bogged down by the sheer number of expense reimbursements they need to handle. But with the introduction of advanced expense management software, there is a solution that only saves you time.
The days of manually processing all expense receipts should be over as nowadays, automation and AI allow us to focus on more meaningful tasks and growth. Whether it is data entry, verification, or approval, automation software enables you to speed up the reimbursement cycle significantly. And this also means your employees get their money back faster, and your administrative staff can redirect their energy towards more strategic initiatives.
Easier handling frees you and your staff from drowning in piles of receipts and paperwork, since your employees can now easily upload their receipts, pre-categorise expenses, and submit claims. The respective managers get a notification, approve the expense, and, at the same time, keep focus on the budget. Another plus is the visibility into the status of reimbursements, so it is a win-win situation. The company profits from meticulous documentation and compliance and its employees know that their expenses are being handled efficiently and ethically.
By enforcing policy rules, flagging potential violations, and conducting automated audits, a helpful software solution helps you uphold compliance standards consistently across your organisation.
Check out our newsletter
Don't miss out
Join 12’000+ finance professionals and get the latest insights on spend management and the transformation of finance directly in your inbox.
What should large companies pay attention to with regard to expense management software?
When choosing an expense management system, your focus should be on the following key factors to ensure that the chosen solution aligns with your organisation’s needs and goals:
automation
usability
flexibility
scalability
- security
Automation
A primary reason for implementing expense reimbursement software that needs acknowledgement is streamlining and automating tedious manual processes that slow down the team. The larger the company the more crucial a solution with automated data entry, receipt scanning, and approval workflows.
Usability
Good expense reimbursement software not only focuses on plenty of features, it also wins you over with a neat and intuitive user experience for both employees and administrators alike. This helps you reduce the need for extensive training and support, ultimately driving higher productivity levels across the organisation.
Blog article
Managing Expense Reimbursements at Scale: Challenges and Best Practices
Some organizations hesitate to automate their expense reimbursement process, as they worry that automation might complicate things. In this article, we look at how large companies can tackle the challenge of reimbursing at scale, with the help of automation.
Vishnuram Muthuraman,
Product Marketing
Flexibility
It is undeniable: Every company has unique expense management requirements and workflows. Therefore, it is essential to handle business expenses with flexibility. Customisation options are a must for helpful accounting software to accommodate your specific business needs. This, of course, also includes a mobile app, so you and your team can:
access real-time expense data on the go
configure expense categories
create approval hierarchies
set reimbursement policies
All this can be a game-changer, as well as the respective platform’s ability to adapt to your evolving needs.
Scalability
You should also consider scalability and the capability of accommodating increasing transaction volumes, users, and organisational complexity. Maybe you want to add new departments, offices, or subsidiaries soon. In this case, the chosen solution should be able to scale seamlessly without sacrificing performance or reliability.
Security
Given the sensitive nature of financial data and personal information involved in expense management, small businesses and large companies alike must prioritise software solutions that adhere to stringent security standards and regulations (including GDPR or SOC 2 compliance). You probably have taken care of expense policies already but these are not the only rules your business should follow.
Make sure that your cloud-based expense tracking and reimbursement solution also features…
data encryption,
role-based access controls,
and audit trails to protect sensitive information and mitigate the risk of data breaches or unauthorised access.
Expense reimbursement software: Features that elevate your business
When choosing new expense reimbursement software, the following features are the ones you should pay particular attention to:
receipt scanning and data extraction
transaction matching
duplicate and exception handling
automated bookkeeping
automated audit trails
automated mileage and per diem calculations
Knowing the solutions that are out there, we cannot stress it enough: Efficient expense management tools should always offer precise data capture. Seek out software with robust receipt scanning capabilities, facilitating swift and seamless receipt uploads via mobile apps or scanners. Additionally, prioritise software employing cutting-edge optical character recognition (OCR) technology for automated extraction of receipt details, including date, amount, vendor, and category to avoid inaccuracies.
Transaction-matching functionality saves you a tremendous amount of time as the feature automatically aligns expense claims with corresponding transactions from bank or credit card statements. Good software can also flag potential errors or duplicates. Moreover, you can ensure that your preferred software provides configurable workflows and multi-tier approval processes harmonising with your corporate policies. Also helpful are spending limits for every corporate card (including useful virtual cards). And if your enterprise frequently deals with travel expenses, automated mileage and per diem calculations can come in handy, too.
Manual data entry is laborious and an error-prone endeavour. Automated bookkeeping functionalities, seamlessly interfacing with accounting systems help you transfer expense data easily. And with synchronisation features, your company ensures precise financial records and expedites month-end closure processes. Elaborate audit trails further enhance transparency and facilitate adherence to internal directives and external regulations.
Blog article
Avoiding Fraud in Mileage Reimbursements: The Yokoy Solution
Learn how AI automation reduces errors, duplicates, and fraud, helping you manage trip expenses and mileage reimbursements automatically, at scale.
Lars Mangelsdorf,
Co-founder and CCO
Next steps
We have explained all the helpful features to you, now it is time to find the tool that works best for your business. Yokoy has been tailored to the needs of businesses of all sizes but especially large companies can profit from the powerful and flexible expense reimbursement solutions. On top, the spend management tool allows for useful insights into your cash flow thanks to real-time expense reporting.
Why companies choose Yokoy
Yokoy stands out as the premier choice for large companies seeking a comprehensive expense management platform tailored to their unique needs. By carefully considering crucial features – including easy receipt scanning, transaction matching, customisable workflows, automated bookkeeping, audit trails, and mileage and per diem calculations – your organisation can effectively address your unique business needs and empower team members to manage employee expenses with ease.
The benefits of Yokoy at a glance:
Completely paperless
Centralised expense management
Easier transaction reconciliation
Automated and fully customisable workflows and reimbursement processes (e.g. for handling travel expenses)
Built-in compliance features
Automated audit trails
Seamless integration with ERP systems
Faster month-end closings
Keeping track of business spend
As you can see: Yokoy goes beyond traditional expense reimbursements, offering a user-friendly all-in-one suite that addresses the diverse needs of large companies. With its modern interface, paperless processes, centralised management, and automation capabilities, Yokoy will revolutionise how you manage expenses in the future.
Simplify your spend management
Related content
If you enjoyed this article, you might find the resources below useful.
