When it comes to expense management, a lot of organizations still seem to be in the dark. Using conventional methods like relying on manually entered data has cost 80% of organizations hours of productive time, manpower, and money. It has also exposed them to errors, duplication, and fraud.
But, are they to be blamed for shying away from the new-age system of expense management? Perhaps not.
Most tools out there force a revamp of their current approval workflows, instead of trying to support or leverage them. The revamp brings a substantial risk of failure, especially since the existing processes have been built on years of research and thought. Due to these pressing reasons, Finance teams are not too convinced to opt for change.
Customer satisfaction has always driven Fyle’s product roadmap. With this problem, it became quite evident that the solution lied not in changing existing workflows but building something that would seamlessly automate it. Hence, at Fyle, we ensure automation doesn’t hamper your process but instead replicates it, no matter how complex. We do this with respect for the years of research and thought that has got into framing your current processes.
Benefits of automating your expense approval workflows
In practice, expense approval is not limited to employees raising reimbursement claims, finance verifying and organizations processing payments. There is a lot more involved - employees have to be constantly reminded to fyle their expenses on time, Approvers (who are generally Team Leads and Managers) have to be aware about policies before they approve the expense fyled. In special cases, higher authorities have to be looped in and so on. Add manual errors and plausible fraud to this mix and expense approval can turn into a serious business challenge. Automating expense approvals has some distinct benefits, some of which are stated below.
- Expedites approvals
- Automates repetitive and predictable tasks without any manual intervention
- Eliminates manual errors
- Saves time and increases efficiency
- Replicates the most complex of workflows with ease
- Reinforces policies without any manual communication
Implementing complex expense approval workflows in Fyle
Fyle understands that every organization works differently. Hence, it gives Finance teams complete autonomy over creating their expense approval workflows.
Two ways to implement your processes in Fyle:
- Add/Update Users
As an Admin, you can assign “Primary Approver” and “Secondary Approver” directly while adding employees in Fyle. You can also upload the same in bulk by following a predefined template. In case of any policy violations, expense claims, or any other activity, all the designated approvers are kept informed.
- Policies (in Settings)
If specific categories or expenses need special approvals, you can configure it through policy rules.
For instance, in the above scenario, you can create a Policy that states - “Any expense made above 1500 USD for flight travel will be flagged as a Policy Violation”. This will be checked for before the employee even submits the expense. The assigned Approver will be skipped and a higher level of authority would be automatically notified to take necessary actions.
Evolution of expense approval workflows
As organizations scale, approval workflows get increasingly personalized. This is where technology turns into a reliable source to manage and execute such complex processes. Only those softwares which understand the nuances of expense management and seamlessly automate it will stand out.
At Fyle, we aim to be your most preferred technology partner in managing expenses and workflows. As a step towards that, we’re rolling out Trips 2.0 that will run pre-submission checks, right when a “Trip Request” is raised. Keep an eye out for our monthly Product Newsletter and Release Notes to know more! Meanwhile, learn more about expense approval workflows within Fyle.
