“How can I gain greater control over employee business expenses in a rapidly changing business environment?,” accountants ask themselves every day. Let’s start where the story of expense reporting begins - expense tracking.

You probably already have an expense tracking software in place, and if you do not, it’s about time you got one. We’ll discuss the “why” later in this article.

Let’s dive right in.

Why do you need an expense tracking software?

Compliance begins at the point of expense creation. For your organization’s employee business expense reports to be compliant and audit-ready, expenses need to be tracked as they occur and be free of any data-entry errors.

An expense tracking software does this, in addition to boosting employee productivity. 

It also helps drastically reduce unproductive hours managers, approvers, and accountants spend on verifying, approving, and processing expense reimbursements.

There’s more - 

• Gain real-time visibility into employee spending patterns 
• Access this data on your dashboard as actionable data insights
• Achieve your financial goals with advanced expense analytics 

Features to look for in an expense tracking software

In the 21st century, your expense tracking software should not require your employees to spend more than half a minute to fyle a business expense receipt, fill all required expense reports fields and submit it to an approver.

Here’s a list of expense tracking features to look for in your expense management software:

Snap and report expense receipts with a mobile receipt scanner

Mobile receipt scanner (OCR) is the most common expense tracking feature you can find in almost every expense management software. However, they still might require your employees to input different expense details manually, which circles right back to manual data-entry errors, wastage of working hours, and increased TAT processing for expense reimbursements.

An AI-led expense tracking software, on the other hand, is intuitive and identifies the nature and validity of the data extracted from a scanned expense receipt and fills the required fields accurately. 

Just like that, in two clicks, you have a compliant expense receipt fyled, reported, and saved to a secure receipt management cloud. AI is the way forward.

Track business expense receipts from your inbox

Receipts are everywhere, in your car’s dashboard, as screenshots in your gallery, in that old shoebox at home, or even your email inbox. It only makes sense that your expense tracking software also tracks expense receipts from wherever. Fyle’s G-Suite add-in and Outlook add-on enable fyling of expense reports from your inbox without switching tabs.

All you have to do is click on the Fyle extension sitting in your inbox, and the software will extract the receipt and expense data for you automatically. Then, click on save and tend to that important email you need to respond to.

Send your receipt to Fyle on WhatsApp and find it in draft reports

Have you ever wanted to forward a cute dog picture saved in your gallery to a friend? Did you also see a pesky business expense receipt screenshot you had to file for expense reimbursement? Forward that cute picture to your friend and that expense receipt to Fyle, both on WhatsApp.

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It’s that easy! Or, if you prefer to use Slack, Fyle has a Slackbot too. :) Snap, send, and fyle in under a minute. 

Send expense receipts from your gallery directly to Fyle

Select the receipt you want to fyle for expense reimbursement and send it to the Fyle mobile app. The software will extract all relevant expense data for the individual expense receipt and save it to draft expenses with one click.

Upload multiple receipts in one go and fyle with a click

Whether your receipts are in jpeg format or PDF, select all you need to report for claiming reimbursement and initiate a bulk upload to Fyle in one click. You can send expense receipts to Fyle from within your phone’s gallery, Google Drive or Slack.

That’s not it. Fyle offers more ways to track business expenses on the go.
Check out all of Fyle’s expense tracking features here. →

How does accurate expense tracking make an accountant’s life easy?

With business expense receipt tracking made so easy, your employees are sure to be happier and more productive. Imagine the amount of time and frustration that expense tracking features like that of Fyles’ can save them!

Now, what’s in it for accountants/Finance teams?

Accounts and Finance teams are no longer workhorses who’s significant job role is to verify expense claims and process employee expense reimbursements on time. They play a critical role in Financial planning and need more time for that than sorting through heaps of receipts.

Here are some benefits an expense tracking software offers accountants and Finance teams:‍

Achieve continuous compliance with automatic flagging

Fyle identifies any expense or corporate policy violations fed into its robust business rules engine at the point of expense creation. 

The software also shows your employee the policy that the individual expense receipt violates, giving them a chance to review it and then submit it for approval. If the employee still wants the expense to be considered for reimbursement from your company, he/she can explain the reasons behind the policy violation even before submitting for approval.

Save time and reduce TAT for expense reimbursements by getting all the information you need for verification and validation on one single screen!

Get a 360° view into employee expenses from your dashboard

This is every accountant/Finance team’s ultimate expense management dashboard. View all the expense data that matters to you right on your dashboard. If you see that an approver hasn’t approved expenses for a while, trigger a reminder to them with a single click.

No more email chains chasing managers for expense report approvals.

Stay audit-ready with audit trails for every individual expense claim

Fyle maintains an audit trail for every expense reported for reimbursement. It also tracks every action taken on the submitted expense receipts by both the employee and the approver. This will ensure your auditor will be happy to see that you identified policy violations and took appropriate actions without having to wait forever till you find the paper receipts and email threads.

You can further access any expense report or expense receipt from a unified, searchable expense receipt management cloud. Add custom filters and find the expense receipt you’re looking for with just a few clicks.

Yes, we’ve made audits a breeze. :)

Process reimbursements and track transaction status in real-time

Don’t leave your comprehensive expense management dashboard for anything, even to initiate multiple payments to multiple employee bank accounts. Fyle allows you to process expense reimbursement with ACH and view transaction status in real-time, right on your dashboard.

If you prefer processing payments from your bank portal, you can do that from within Fyle too! Select payments to be processed from the Payment Queue and initiate payments with one click.
Sounds easy? It is. Fyle is the ultimate solution to all your expense management needs.

Common FAQs about expense management software

There are more things to consider when shortlisting an expense management software than just their primary suite of features. Here are some useful pointers and links if you want to evaluate whether Fyle would be a good fit for your business.

Is the implementation and onboarding process reliable?

Fyle has a standard, transparent implementation process for businesses of different sizes. No secrets.

Total time for implementing Fyle

Small Businesses - 2 weeks (approx)

Medium Businesses - 5-6 weeks

Enterprises - 10-12 weeks

Read about Fyle’s onboarding process here →

Is the software able to manage innovation and scale?

Innovation is non-negotiable, especially in a rapidly changing business world. Software providers must innovate in order to keep up with, and solve the problems of today. Enterprise-grade features with consumer-grade usability - this is the new standard in expense management.
Fyle was also recognized as an Innovator in Expense Management 2020 by IDC Marketscape.

Learn more here →

Does the product fully integrate with Accounting/ERP software?

Fyle integrates seamlessly with any of your existing ERP/Accounting/HRMS software.
Here are a few popular softwares that Fyle integrates with:

Additionally, Fyle’s APIs allow developers to build custom apps to facilitate data flowing in and out of Fyle.

What is the ease of adaptability for your employees?

As discussed earlier, Fyle makes expense reporting easy for employees. It’s so easy to use; there is practically no need for any training. Our Customer Success team is always available to help you out with anything you might need. The best expense management software and the best Customer Success team - this is a combination you want to look for.

Hear it from real people who’ve been using Fyle -
G2 Fyle reviews
Capterra Fyle reviews

Or, if you’d like to take Fyle for a test-drive, schedule a demo now!