Right Tools and Approach Improve Spend Visibility and Control

Key points

• Amid recent turbulence and change, controlling and seeing company spending is more important than ever; while many businesses have automated processes, opportunities remain to achieve better visibility, efficiency, compliance, and insight.
• Poor spend visibility can stem from disconnected processes, bottlenecks, and incomplete data, and supplier-direct purchases and event spending can be overlooked.
• Seven capabilities to look for in spend management solutions: consolidating data into a single platform, capturing every travel booking, integrating into ERP, automating mileage, empowering budget managers, leveraging AI tools, and delivering advanced and custom analytics.
• 78% of T&E decision-makers prefer a centralized platform.
• Concur TripLink can corral travel transactions from supplier sites and other sources and bring trip, traveler, and itinerary information together.
• Integrating travel, expense, and invoice data into ERP provides near-real-time data that helps manage cash flow and improve decisions.
• AI tools such as ExpenseIt can accurately itemize receipts, and Verify can review expenses for compliance and flag exceptions for human follow-up.
• Intelligence provides over 180 customizable reports and dashboards, while Consultative Intelligence offers tailored reports and insights.