In a digital-first world where automation rules and companies rely on real-time data to make decisions, finance teams can feel left behind. They’re still stuck in a bygone era, chasing down expense reports, working with outdated and inaccurate numbers, and spending more time on manual tasks than big picture strategy.
It’s time for a change. In the next generation of finance, finance teams will replace their outdated processes with a more proactive and innovative approach.
Below, you’ll find important takeaways on how to usher in the next generation of finance.
1. Trust employees to make spending decisions
Our Beyond the Balance Sheet report reveals that at least 42% of employees make purchases in a single year. Your employees know better than anyone else what they need to be successful in their jobs. If you want your workforce operating at maximum productivity, trust them to make their own spending decisions. It’s important to remember that decentralized spending doesn’t equal uncontrolled spending. In other words, you can empower employees to make decisions without compromising the financial health of the company.
2. Adopt tools that prevent accidental overspending
The idea of trusting employees to make their own spending decisions might seem daunting to finance professionals, who often see employees making out-of-policy purchases. In fact, our report reveals that 78% of financial professionals believe that employees are completely unaware of company spend policy. And two out of three say that employees are more likely to not follow the policy than to follow it. The secret to preventing out-of-policy spending is to adopt the right tools to provide more visibility for both the finance team and employees.
Tools that work to stop out-of-policy spend before it happens are not only beneficial financially—they also save finance teams from having awkward and frustrating conversations when employees overspend.
3. Have a clear, easily accessible purchase policy
Along with the adoption of the right tools, Teampay also highlights the importance of having a clear and accessible spending policy. Don’t bury your company’s spending policy in the employee handbook people receive when they’re onboarded and then never look at again. Employees can’t comply with what they don’t know.
Even though finance professionals share spending policies, it doesn’t mean that all employees have read and internalized them. Make sure your policy is readily available through an internal knowledge base or pinned to a Slack channel so everyone knows exactly where to find it at all times.
4. Leverage hard data to convince the C-suite to implement new technology
The technology to improve broken processes is available—the challenge is convincing key decision-makers it’s time to implement that change. Sometimes when it comes to the C-Suite, old habits die hard. Legacy employees tend to be key decision-makers, and they’re used to processes they’ve been using for decades. The example of remote work is a way to show the benefits of something that might seem risky until you try it.
To convince the decision-makers at your company, lead with an argument for productivity. Teampay’s data shows that finance professionals are spending up to 30 hours per month on expense reports alone. Chasing down receipts and hounding employees for information isn’t just frustrating for finance teams; it’s also a waste of time.
It is also important to pinpoint accuracy in reporting and the importance it holds for CFOs. If finance teams rely on outdated processes—trusting employees to submit expense reports on time—that accuracy is lost.
5. Ensure employee reimbursements are an exception, not a rule
Companies shouldn’t be using their employees as personal credit lines. Yet, asking employees to front money is still extremely common, with companies paying an average of $32,000 a month in reimbursements. Our panelists believe the next generation of finance should leave this practice in the past. Not only do employee reimbursements pose extra work for finance teams, they also create a highly undesirable employee experience.
Join the next generation of finance with Teampay
Automated, efficient, and productive — this is what the next generation of finance looks like. Move your company finance forward with an all-in-one purchasing solution that enables companies to request, approve, and track expenditures in real time. To learn more, watch Teampay’s Next Generation Finance virtual panel on-demand now.
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