Ideally, your accounting firm and your clients should have a shared goal when it comes to expense management - creating an effective and efficient process driven by the seamless capture, transfer, and analysis of expense data from the point of purchase to the client’s expense management system (EMS) to your firm’s accounting platform.
Achieving this goal is actually very simple and straightforward—it lies in the implementation of a comprehensive new-age expense management software. Even so, many businesses continue to struggle with manual expense management processes or outdated EMS. Ultimately, this puts the burden on your firm when collecting, consolidating, and communicating client data.
An ineffective expense management system can have negative impacts on the productivity and profitability of your firm and your clients. In an unpredictable post-pandemic world, it becomes critical for accounting firms to reevaluate their process to ensure they are fool-proof.
Here’s a list of the key trends driving the adoption of new-age expense management systems by businesses and accountants. This will help you understand how you can leverage the benefits of a new-age EMS for your own firm and clients. Let’s take a closer look.
To learn more about Fyle, make sure to register for the Insightful Accountant webinar, "Certainty in expense management during uncertain times" on July 20. You can register here.
The key trends driving the adoption of new-age expense management systems:
A rise in the use of AI-led technology: With companies going remote or staying socially distant, it has become imperative for businesses to adapt. Automated expense management software is now the norm. EMS takes on mundane tasks and eliminates human error, ensuring your firm and clients are always audit-ready. It also helps centralize expense management processes that are effective for both remote and in-office teams.
Employee needs are prioritized: Expense management is an age-old, workflow problem. In 2021, however, it is also a data and experience problem. People expect expense management to be easy, and not just online. Fyle aims to minimize time and effort put into the expense management process for all stakeholders.
Further, Fyle uses data in a highly context-aware manner to deliver a seamless experience to different users, those performing the expense management function within an organization as well as those who depend on accessing the data to offer insights necessary for analysis.
Integrations to facilitate easy movement of data: With a modern EMS like Fyle, employees can track business expense receipts from within everyday apps like G-Suite, Outlook, or Slack. This means employees can file expense reports with the ease that they would share a picture on social media. Further, fully automated credit card reconciliation and tight-knit integrations with accounting and Human Resources Management System(HRMS) software create a well-connected expense management solution that does all the heavy lifting to provide comprehensive expense and user data for your firm and your clients.toA seamless EMS ecosystem such as this also keeps productivity high by allowing users to complete their expense reporting in just a few clicks without having to jump to and from different applications.
Automation replaces time-consuming manual work: The core purpose of automation is to help reduce time spent on low-value, manual tasks thereby freeing up time to focus on higher-value, revenue-producing tasks. By giving your employees and clients more time to focus on higher-value activities rather than repetitive manual tasks like expense reporting, approvals, or manual processing of reimbursements, you are able to boost productivity in your firm and add value for your clients who will benefit from more efficient and insightful expense management.
Real-time access to an EMS enhances the overall user experience: With a modern EMS, users can access both expense management tools and the data they capture, store and analyze in real-time from any device of their choice. This creates a convenient and efficient user experience that parallels those available in many other cloud-based applications that your firm staff and clients may already be using.
Reporting is simple and seamless: The new breed of EMS like Fyle simplify reporting to just a few clicks. This makes accessing the data needed for sharper insights into expense allocations and better decision-making much easier. The end result is readily usable information that helps organizations implement more control over their expense functions. It’s incredibly powerful and practically plug-and-play.
Above are the key new-age EMS trends your firm can leverage to reach the shared goals you have for expense management. Use the list above to evaluate options for an EMS for your own firm through which to provide advanced expense management capabilities to your staff and your clients.
Consider a new age EMS like Fyle which can help your firm automate the end-to-end expense management process for maximum efficiency, providing robust reporting with greater visibility into expense trends and insights. This is how your firm can expand its expense management services to serve more clients at a higher level while reducing costs associated with the inefficient workflows and data collection which are inherent in manual expense management processes.
To learn more about Fyle, make sure to register for the Insightful Accountant webinar, "Certainty in expense management during uncertain times" on July 20. You can register here.
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