Question 1

What is Expense Management Software?

Accepted Answer

Expense management software refers to solutions that process, pay, and audit employee-initiated expenses, such as flights, car rental, lodging, meals, laundry, business calls, and shipping of work-related items. This type of software shares some similarities with spend management—which plans and monitors procurement expenses such as raw materials, business services, or investments. 
 Employees can manage expenses in multiple ways, from receipt scanning mobile apps to enterprise software that covers travel policies, approvals, expense tracking, and travel cost management. 
 What Types of Expense Management Software Exist? 
 Some accounting software and ERP systems include basic features for expense management, which are usually insufficient for companies with many mobile employees. These systems can be used to consolidate expense management data but aren’t a good option for expense approvals, tracking, and monitoring. 
 Standalone  
 Standalone expense management software exists separately from other systems. This type of software focuses exclusively on managing expenses and provides little or no functionality for travel management. Vendors usually offer integration with travel management software, ERP systems, and accounting software. 
 Travel and expense  
 Expense management software can be part of travel and expense solutions, either as a separate module or delivered as a package that can only be bought and used as one system. Vendors who provide separate modules or products for travel and expense management also tend to combine them in suites for companies that need both types of features.

Question 2

What are the Common Features of Expense Management Software?

Accepted Answer

The following are some core features within expense management software that can help users categorize their expenses, finetune their workflows, and create expense reports, to name a few. 
 Expense reports: To get reimbursed, employees need to create expense reports and provide information on each type of expense, the amount, and the date. Receipts need to be included in expense reporting so that managers and accountants can have proof that the employee spent the money they request reimbursement for. Expense report forms typically have predefined fields that allocate expenses by type, department, or business unit. 
 Expense categories: Companies need to categorize business expenses to better organize company spend, such as travel, office supplies, and team outings, while also optimizing the tracking of these costs. The main categories used by companies are transportation, meals, accommodation, moving expenses, and work-related services (such as business calls or laundry cleaning). Companies also need to differentiate between tax-deductible and non-deductible expenses. According to the IRS, expenses are deductible if they are used for business and work. The portion of the expenses used for personal purposes is usually nondeductible. Sometimes companies may decide to cover some personal expenses to improve employee satisfaction. 
 Approval workflows: Travel expenses need to be approved by managers to be processed and reimbursed. In some cases, accountants also need to approve expenses (for instance, a moving expense of $10,000 will need to be approved by managers and accountants before being processed). To define who needs to approve what types of expenses, expense management software provides workflows for determining the steps of the approval process. Standard approval workflows are usually delivered out of the box but can be modified by companies according to their specific needs. 
 Payment integration: Expense reimbursements are made through money transfers directly to the bank account of the employee. Companies need to manage various types of payments, such as cash advances and partial payments. It is also essential to adjust payments when errors occur and employees are reimbursed the incorrect amount. Since most expense management systems do not provide advanced features for payments, it is critical to integrate with payment gateway software and other payment processing solutions. 
 Analytics: Expenses transactions generate a lot of data that needs to be analyzed to determine inaccuracies and trends. Expense analytics helps managers monitor travel spending at different levels of the company. Accountants also use analytics to forecast future amounts and take them into account when creating budgets. 
 Other expense management software features: Automated Reminders, Credit Card Integrations, Currency Conversion, Itinerary Management, Offline Capabilities, PCI Regulation Compliance, Policy Compliance, Receipt Capture, and Trip Notifications.

Question 3

What are the Benefits of Expense Management Software?

Accepted Answer

Decrease travel costs and processing business expenses: Expense management software streamlines the reporting and approval process, which allows companies to easily track employee expenses. This in turn allows organizations to ensure that they are getting the best value from their travel and employee-related expenses. 
 Reduce expense errors: This software automates several of the steps involved in the tracking, reporting, and submitting of expenses, which reduces the amount of human involvement. Even though it’s probably in a company’s best interest to still review work completed throughout the workflow, this automation reduces common errors that are committed by humans. 
 Ensure employee and manager expense-related accountability: The tracking of expenses and the “paper trail” that is created, allows companies to make sure their employees are held accountable for their purchases and that expenses are in compliance with company policies. This feature also helps to prevent employee overspending and unauthorized reimbursements. 
 Facilitate transparency of expense policies for employees, managers, customers, and investors: The reporting and analysis capabilities of this software allow all stakeholders an instantaneous view into employee-related expenses and the policies that they should abide by.

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Best Expense Management Software - Page 37