5 Features You Need in an Expense Tracking Software
An expense tracking software can instantly streamline the process of filing, approving, and reimbursing business expenses. A recent survey revealed, businesses that uses this tracking software cut processing costs by 53% and improved reimbursement of employee expenses by 71%.
If you are planning to get an expense tracking system for your business, first analyze your existing expense tracking process. For example, if you are collecting a high volume of business expense receipts, you might want to look for a cloud-based expense tracking software that auto scans receipts. This will allow you to automatically collect, record, and store data that is accessible to you from multiple channels.
In a more generic view of things, these are the 5 features that every business must look for in a business expense tracking software:
Automatic Receipt Scanning
One of the more important expense management software features you should look for is auto scanning of receipts. Manual data entry is the most cumbersome part of business expense management, and in fact expense management in general.
The foremost thing you should look to automate through a business expense tracking software is receipt uploading, and scanning. Automated scanning allows employees to upload receipts as soon as the expense is incurred. The software breaks down the receipt to collect relevant information and record it categorically in a cloud based data storage.
Automated scanners capture images as well as e-receipts. This is done by Optical Character Recognition (OCR) that converts the image to a text file and extracts information like name, date, amount, etc.
Also Read: How to Find the Right Expense Tracking Software for Your Business
Categorization of Expenses
An expense tracking system should have the ability to categorize your expenses. As soon as a business expense receipt is scanned, it should sort it under the relevant category, automatically.
For example, if the business expense is an accommodation, then as soon as an employee scans the receipt from the lodging facility, it should automatically upload into the “Accommodation” category. This is done by recognizing past entries, or users can add certain brands or receipt types for a category.
Sophisticated Verification Process
A key aspect of business expense tracking lies in verification of the expenses, a task most managers struggle with. Every receipt needs to be manually checked for a few parameters. Subsequently, a receipt either qualifies as a reimbursable business expense or flagged off as otherwise.
An expense tracking software should entirely automate this process without compromising the integrity. Look for a software that automatically approves genuine business expense receipts, and flags anything that does not comply with the company policy. This is an absolute must-have feature.
Report Creation
Business expenses are never sent for reimbursement individually to the bank or accounting department. They are compiled into an expense report and then approved by the concerned entity. Making expense reports by doing a manual data entry of business expense receipts can be tedious. An expense tracking software is required to automate this process as well. Expense reports should be generated post the auto scanning, and categorization of physical receipts. An expense report should contain expense from a range of dates and appropriately categorized. Further, the software should send this report to the concerned department or employee automatically, from time to time.
Also Read: Software for Tracking Income & Expenses for a Personal Business – The top 7
Analytics and Suggestions
Through the course of its functioning, business expense tracking software will collect a huge volume of data. This data can provide you with important analytics, and show you scopes of improvement. That is exactly what a good expense tracking software should automatically do. An expense tracking system should enable you with analytic reports that highlight important facts like top violators, department-wise expenditure graphs, and other customized analytics reports.
Business expense tracking is a great way to save your precious time and money. So, choose an expense tracking system that is in tandem with all the must-have features mentioned here.
