Choosing the Right Expense Report Software for Your Business

The right expense report software is what makes it easy for small businesses to streamline the processes while allowing you to keep tabs on your cashflow. Expenses you should track such as meals, entertainment, travel, mileage, and other miscellaneous items will fall under operating expenses. This kind of variable expenses can get out of hand easily when you don’t have an easy way to manage them, especially when you have frequent flyers.

Instead of relying on paper receipts, expense report software allows businesses to track and manage the cash flow with automated processes that do work faster and in a more accurate manner.

Must-have Expense Tracking Features for Small Businesses

The following are the most popular expense tracking features for small businesses. The software should be cloud-based and have a mobile app to make the processes work on the go.

Core Features Of Expense Management Software

Receipt Scanning

Simply snap a receipt and the expense report software will automatically pull in the merchant name, date of purchase, dollar amount and create an expense entry.

Process Automation

Expense reports can be automatically generated after an expense entry is created. Expenses can be automatically assigned to pre-defined categories. Automatic reminders can be sent for expense reports that are not yet submitted for approval or approaches the deadline for submission. Automated solutions will capture and record all business expenses by making the process faster and easier for your team. And, expense software can automatically calculate taxes based on your company’s configuration so you don’t have to worry about tax rules whenever you visit different destinations.

Controls

Set rules for mandating receipts for purchases made over a certain amount or enforce multi-level approval for expense reports for certain employees or departments. Set daily allowances for travel, or approval of expense reports. The system should be set to automatically reject expense reports that do not comply with the corporate T & E policy.

Reports & Analytics

Track spending by time, employee, department or service provider and run reports for policy violations. The progress of each report can also be tracked.