Reasons Why Spreadsheets Doesn’t Work Best for Expense Management

SMEs often track their expenses using a spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel. It is manageable when your employee count is not more than 50. As your company grows, the limitations of excel come into the play and the time to start considering software to manage your business expenses begins.

While it is difficult to wade into the world of accounting, there are benefits that small business owners will get by deploying expense report software. With this in mind, we would like to make you walk through a few practices that illustrate how expense management software works best for you.

When it comes to expense tracking, there is a lot your spreadsheet cannot do whereas an expense solution can. Your spreadsheet can’t notify you when someone violates your expense policy and it doesn’t automatically capture expense data into reports and provide analytics. The following are some of the drawbacks of relying on a spreadsheet for managing expenses.

Inconsistency

Spreadsheets can be sent through email and there is no standard way to capture data, which results in inconsistency and inaccuracy.

Inaccuracy

Mistakes can happen as you enter the data. You make an error while entering the data or in formulas used for calculations, your figures can be way off. Accuracy is difficult to assure in spreadsheets.

Unable to Spot Trends

Getting historical view is difficult with spreadsheets, as you update the spreadsheet each and every time when there is a need to update the data. It is important to spot trends to understand your business and make correct decisions.

Data Tampering

Spreadsheets can be easily overwritten. You will not know what data has been tampered and by whom. Data can be modified easily and getting back the original source is almost impossible.

No Flexibility

When you wish to add in additional information to the spreadsheet, it becomes difficult to organize the entire sheet. There is no flexibility in organizing the data and every time you enter a new field, the entire spreadsheet will become disorganized.

No scalability

As your business grows, you need tools that help support your growth. Spreadsheets can’t do that. They don’t provide visibility into spend and also does not notify you about late payment.

Need more information about SutiExpense Expense Software? Talk to our experts today and schedule a free demo