For most businesses, expenses form a significant cost. And while most organisations now see the benefit in a Travel and Expense Management solution in reducing costs and increasing efficiency, many leave it at that. Likewise, the power of data analytics has become a part of everyday life in most organisations, yet most organisations have yet to put the two together and harness the true value of a Travel and Expense Management solution.
Here are the top 5 things that organisations who don’t utilise corporate card spend analytics are missing out on:
- Procurement Spend Analysis More and more organisations are seeing the value in the procurement process and implementing initiatives like preferred vendors and negotiating better rates through exclusive contracts. But corporate credit cards can often be forgotten when reviewing spend. Firstly, these agreements often involve agreed spend minimums and better rates the more you spend. When organisations review their vendor spend at the end of the year, they’re often not considering what was spent on corporate cards. Secondly, to follow on from this, what was spent on the corporate card that was with a vendor not on the preferred list? Are you paying more than you should because you can’t see the full value of the spend? If you haven’t consolidated your procurement spend, you may find analytics give you the information and buying power to start!
- Understand Where Your Employees Are and Serve Them Better Duty of care is becoming more and more important and organisations are taking steps to ensure their employees are safe. Your Travel and Expense Management solution contains all your employees travel itineraries and allows you to know where your employees are meant to be at any time. Visualising this data gives you a powerful view of your employee’s movements and allows you to act should the need arise.
- Policy Issues Are all of your employees doing the right thing? You may have seen in my previous blog examples where employees are spending outside of policy or pushing the boundaries. Analytics are crucial to ensuring that all your policies and internal controls are working efficiently and effectively, 100% of the time. Are your employees spending on weekends? To merchants that they shouldn’t? Are they splitting transactions to get around transaction limits? You need analytics to shed light on this!
- Understand Your Spend and Credit Limits in Real Time It can be very difficult for users and organisations to keep track of how much they are spending each month. Using analytics organisations can see up to date information on how much is being spent and how much is still able to be spent. As an administrator or financial controller, it’s also vital to see at a high level how much of the card spend has been reconciled, and how much is still outstanding, particularly as the end of the month approaches.
- Transparent Benchmarking Which departments or business units in your organisation are spending carelessly, and which are frugal? Many organisations now see the value in transparent benchmarking, and by that I mean publishing spend data from business units across the organisation. Allowing business unit managers to see how they compare to their peers ensures managers show diligence over the spend in their area and that employees consider their actions before proceeding with purchases.
How We Can Help You
Wrapping complex business, accounting and taxation rules in a simple and elegant software solution isn’t always easy. With over 15 years of experience in expense management solutions, Expense8 helps organisations gain greater insights into their spend and is specifically designed to save your employees time and the business money.
Click here to request an Expense8 product demo!
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