How To Choose a Business Expense Management App

When businesses in any industry are looking for ways to modernize and streamline their operations, one of the first places they should be looking are the processes and systems for expense management.

Expense management that’s done without modern technology can bring about many expensive and time-consuming problems.

Not having expense management software and the appropriate apps can cause employee frustration, human error, and can make it more likely that fraud will occur. When an employee is traveling, and they’re expected to keep up with all of their expense receipts, it’s highly likely that they’re either going to lose productivity or not have as accurate records as they could with the use of a mobile app.

When a company decides to utilize expense management systems such as global workforce management solutions and in particular, a platform that includes mobile apps for employee use, the following are some key features and functionalities to look for.

Receipt Images

When a company decides to start using expense management software and mobile tools, they need to first and foremost think of ways employees can manage receipts without actually keeping up with the hard copies throughout their trip.

An essential feature that should be included in any expense management app is the ability to take photos of receipts using a mobile device, and then immediately send them to a centralized repository.

Immediate Upload

A lot of employees want to be able to submit expenses as soon as they happen. Then, they can focus on the business at hand, rather than thinking about when they’re going to need to submit expense reports.

Some expense reporting apps offer the ability to use an HTML5 web application.

With this feature, users can create expense items and receipt images, and then upload information on their mobile device.

When an employee is uploading their receipts, it can be helpful to choose an app that features Optical Character Recognition technology, also called OCR or OCR technology. OCR technology is good on its own, but often even better for businesses is choosing a system that automatically corrects receipt image orientation, automatically crops the image, and enhances the image. Then, the data can be extracted from that.

Rideshare Integrations

The majority of business travelers no longer use taxis when they’re working out of town. It’s increasingly uncommon to rent cars as well.

Instead, most business travelers are using Uber or Lyft, so choosing an expense management app that integrates with these rideshare services can make things a lot easier for everyone. The rides employees take using Uber or Lyft can then be automatically uploaded to the expense management system.

Finally, another feature worth looking for in an expense management solution for businesses is hotel folio itemization. This will automatically allow for the separation of expenses related to hotel bills. So, as an example, the cost of the room is automatically separated from the cost of parking and room service, and then the right data can be put directly into the expense reporting system, saving everyone time and ensuring accuracy.