Change Management

Despite the numerous benefits of automated expense reporting, Boult suggests that most of the six million companies in the US are still using some form of Excel spreadsheet and paper to file expense reports. Many of these are small businesses, whose budgets might not support investment in an automated solution.

Yet even CFOs and controllers at decentsized companies sometimes balk at the prospect of spending money on expense management, Neveu says. The argument, he says, goes something like this:“I don’t have to spend $6, $7, $8, per expense report, because my Excel spreadsheet’s free, and I don’t care how long my employees take.”

But Excel-based expense reports aren’t free, as Neveu points out; companies pay for them with productivity and employee satisfaction. Moreover, he adds,“the efficiencies you gain back from the employees, the managers, the accounting team, in not having to key and re-key data, hopefully, the company’s able to say,‘OK, this system is paying for itself.’”

The logic is there, but change is hard, and sometimes it takes more than logic to inspire transformation. Pain, for example, can be a great motivator.“Maybe you’ve suffered from an expense fraud situation,” Roy says.“That adds up really quickly.”

But rather than wait for pain, why not seek out value? Neveu says a top-notch automated expense solution, used strategically, should not only pay for itself but drive additional savings as well. Look beyond ROI in the first year, he says. Ask,“What about the ongoing years? How is the system justifying itself?” BT