Spend management is a business-critical aspect for companies regardless of size and industry. It involves handling a variety of corporate costs such as T&E, office supplies, SaaS subscriptions, and other operational needs. Inefficient spending practices can hurt companies severely, creating cash flow issues and reputational damage in some cases. For a long time, businesses have been relying on paper-based processes to monitor and control expenditures. However, manual spending management leaves companies vulnerable to several risks including fraud. To avoid these challenges, companies must look for spend management tools. Although these tools have been in the market for quite some time, a few businesses struggle with the question of how to choose the best spend management software.
In this article, we will discuss the best way for companies to select the tool by identifying key spend management software criteria.
Factors to consider when choosing the best spend management software
Understand your spend management software processes
Even before you begin scouting for spend management software, get a fair idea about the business expenses by evaluating expense categories, features you would need, payment methods, and volume. Once you understand your business’ spend outlook, you can define spend management software selection criteria.
Cloud-based or On-prem solution
The next question that you need to answer is whether you want an on-prem or cloud-native solution. This will influence your budget requirements and other costs. Checking this box earlier will help you expedite the next steps. Typically, on-prem solutions tend to be expensive with rigid scalability and interoperability. Cloud-based spend management solutions offer automation capabilities to streamline your spend processes. It will also give you remote access to provide greater control over your expenses. With the world moving towards a digital-first ecosystem, it makes sense to pick a cloud solution. Regardless, your stakeholders must discuss how to choose the best spend management software.
Look for mobile accessibility
Go for a solution that allows you to manage spends from any device and location. Having mobile accessibility will give you a competitive edge allowing you to improve productivity and stay on top of your expenditure. Accessing spend data through mobile devices is a default option for most platforms, making it a key spend management software selection criterion.
Check for real-time expense tracking functionality
One major challenge that the manual spend management process has is a lack of visibility into spend activities. The solution that you pick must overcome this roadblock to efficient expense management. Therefore, when deciding on how to choose the best spend management software, look for a tool that provides access to real-time data and insights on spends across categories and departments.
Automated workflow is a must-have
Most companies feel expense trackers are a key factor in basing your decision on how to choose the best spend management software. While it is an important feature, you must look for a solution that allows automation of approval workflow. Most spend decisions get stuck in a tunnel waiting for the go-ahead, creating a backlog and upsetting vendor relationships. Having the capability to auto-approve expenses based on pre-defined rules can streamline your entire spend management journey.
Evaluate usability & ease of adoption
Any new tool that you introduce at a workplace will have initial resistance from the team. You can overcome this by adding ease of use to the spend management software selection criteria list. The automated tool must make your team’s work easy, without adding extra complexity. If your team struggles to use the solution, all your investment will go to waste. Pick software that doesn’t have a steep learning curve through intuitive navigation and a guided journey.
Ensure interoperability with other systems
You can optimize spend management processes when the solution can access all the spend information from across the organization. Selecting a tool that can easily integrate with other tools will help in harmonizing data. Without access to all the data points, your analysis will be incomplete. With all the spend-related data flowing into your spend management tool, you can save a lot of time and money through decisions backed by insights.
Zaggle EMS gives you all the necessary features and more
Spend management software is essential for companies to maintain cash flow stability. Most companies underplay its role because they limit its functionality to expense tracking and report generation. However, Zaggle EMS empowers you to digitize your entire spend management practice in line with modern business requirements. Zaggle EMS streamlines your expense management with the below capabilities:
- Ensure the accuracy of employee expense data
- Enforce expense policy and approvals easily
- Get real-time visibility into spending and budgets
- Automate reminders and notifications to expedite the process
- Generate tailor-made reports and analytics
