Budgeting and expense management templates
The cost of managing, processing, paying, and auditing staff costs can directly affect the bottom line of the company. An important amount of the average business budget is spent on expenditures, so it makes sense to manage costs more effectively. Especially if we know that employee expenses that are not closely managed can quickly spiral out of control and affect the business bottom line. And to manage expenses effectively, organizations must clearly understand how much is being spent, by which employees, and on which projects.
If costs become unreasonable or unsustainable, organizations using privately hand-developed solutions with little or no integration with external or internal data sets may not notice it. Importantly, the expense process, rather than using manual or paper systems, enables businesses to collect and analyze expense data. They can then determine the spending pattern.
Why use budgeting/ expense management templates?
Tracking your expenses is the first step toward understanding and improving your financial status. And spreadsheets are traditionally one of the most used tools for keeping track of expenses. This manual, template, or spreadsheet-based technique is still widely used by finance departments around the world to manage out-of-office expenses such as those of business travel.
Examples of expense management templates:
• Google sheets
To keep track of your finances, you can use Google Sheets to create custom budget spreadsheets or to download their ready-to-use templates. Built-in categories and formulae in Google Sheets make it simple to calculate expenses. Some even include pre-made graphs and charts to help you visualize your overall financial status.
• Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel can help too since there is something for everyone with a range of budgeting templates designed to match a variety of financial demands, from professional expenses to basic monthly budgeting. Basic Excel skills would be enough if you choose to develop your own customized template. Click here to find the one that suits you.
Are these templates enough to manage your business expenses?
Although using budgeting and expense management templates is a significantly better option than relying on paper-based processes filled with receipts, most companies don’t realize that they are missing out on significant business benefits such as an improved bottom line or reduced costs.
This outdated way of managing professional expenses often results in creating data blind results. It is also an opportunity for inaccuracies and fraud and reduces control over regulatory compliance. And while finance professionals may be adept at using spreadsheets, many employees find them cumbersome and unintuitive.
In addition to that, it is hard to adapt a template to specific business needs so most companies will use one of the many templates online. And as result, finance teams will find themselves dealing with a monthly deluge of claims to process as the business grows.
How to go beyond manual budgeting templates and expense reports?
An expense management system is the “missing piece” in your spend management puzzle. It streamlines the entire process and eliminates the need for human data entry. A cloud-based solution also gives finance teams real-time visibility and control over company spending.
Benefits of adopting an expense management system:
Removing the traditional reliance on spreadsheets completely transforms the way that expenses can be managed. Real-time data and automated processes significantly reduce processing times and the risks of manual errors.
Using the conventional method, claimants often spend 20 to 30 minutes filling out paper paperwork or completing a spreadsheet. This can be done in a matter of minutes using a cloud-based technique, as and when company charges are incurred.
With a clear and intuitive user interface, it also enables a simple and simplified approach for finance experts. It allows financial teams more time to adequately monitor and manage costs rather than concentrating on time-consuming manual operations.
Automated policy checks can be performed in real-time, with alarms issued whenever limits are breached. Any duplicate claim information will be searched for and flagged by the system.
The difficulty of accessing and manipulating data in expenditure spreadsheets is a key issue. Data is frequently gathered by hand from a variety of spreadsheets and documents.
Expensya includes integrated reporting tools that provide you quick access to all of the system’s extensive and reliable data. A report that would take hours to compile using traditional methods may now be produced in seconds.
Employees are accustomed to using their mobile devices to manage practically every area of their lives. Using an expense management system on a smartphone can save you a lot of time and help you be more efficient.
Mobile technology can also help employees become more productive. They can spend more time directly boosting a company’s bottom line if they spend less time looking for data or dealing with tedious manual processes. A smartphone is always on, an app that is always connected and full of helpful features that are continually updated and complied with the company’s policies.
According to a recent global study, more than a third of companies still use manual and paper-based administrative operations. These inefficient administration tasks and outdated tech are affecting drastically the work environment and employees’ morale. If your company is still dealing with the difficulties of expense spreadsheets on a regular basis, switching to a cloud-based solution can help you save a lot of time and money.
