The Top Challenges of Global Expense Management
Canadian businesses are increasingly looking outside of their own borders when it comes to doing business, and like businesses in other countries, are joining the globalized marketplace to remain competitive. When doing business globally there are plentiful opportunities, but also challenges to address.
One general area where Canadian businesses face these challenges comes in the form of expense management.
Expense management in a business that operates globally can come with a unique set of considerations and can require comprehensive and robust expense management solutions.
The following are some of the key challenges of expense management on a global basis.
Global Compatibility
When your employees are traveling, they require an expense solution that’s going to be in line with the country they’re in. Also, if you have employees who live in other locations around the world besides Canada, you may need to deal with things like different languages and currencies.
There are considerations about keeping track of tax rates and requirements based on region, and international tax requirements.
It can be a challenge for employees to deal with submitting expenses across currencies or in different countries, so Canadian businesses increasingly look for management solutions that can take on these country and region-specific challenges seamlessly.
Compliance
Expense policy compliance is critical, but there are a few reasons it can present a challenge. First, employees may simply not know what the policy is, or they may not understand the specifics. They may think they’re being compliant when in reality they aren’t.
There are also compliance issues that stem from fraudulent motivations. It’s unfortunate but all-too-common for people to be fraudulent when it comes to things like submitting expenses.
That’s why business leaders look for options that allow them to set parameters and customize their rules engine without excessive complications.
Inefficiency
Expense management inefficiency can lead to inadvertent errors and lost time and money. In the fast-paced, technological world in which Canadian businesses operate, there is absolutely no room for inefficiency, yet it still occurs regarding expense management.
When there’s inefficiency, it can cause slow reimbursement times, mistakes, and general delays that just aren’t necessary.
When this challenge is adequately addressed, it can make sure that errors are reduced, as well as costs.
Also relevant to the discussion of general inefficiency is the high price tag that comes with outdated forms of processing.
Manual expense report processing is not only cumbersome from a productivity standpoint, but it’s also extremely expensive.
Mobility and Simplicity
Today’s employee doesn’t just want mobility and simplicity in the business tools they use. They demand it.
Unfortunately, a lack of these elements remains a big challenge for Canadian businesses with regard to their expense management processes.
When employees are traveling, they need to be able to take care of expenses, pre-approvals and more from their mobile device. This allows them to be accurate in their record-keeping, obtain fast approvals, and focus on the work at hand.
Finally, one more challenge that must be addressed by competitive Canadian businesses within the framework of expense management is integration with their financial software and systems. Even when businesses rely on a robust expense management system, if it doesn’t integrate with their existing system there is going to be unnecessary complexity and bottlenecks that occur.