In most companies and organizations, building a business case and projecting return on investment is a critical part of the procurement cycle. Whether it’s authorizing the purchase of a new software platform or a simple switch in materials suppliers, finance executives and managers need to know what the expected benefits of any change will bring. This often includes the timeline and ways in which the company will realize a return on the upfront hard dollar costs, be it through increased productivity, reduced costs, improvements in quality and efficiency, and many other factors.
After all, change can be incredibly disruptive to people and process, and a positive upside goes a long way to justify the reasons for making a change in the first place.
It’s no different for companies investing in a cloud-based expense management system, especially those currently using a “free” manual process. For these businesses, tracking the hidden costs inherent to any manual process is extremely difficult if not impossible. And because there’s no cash outlay beyond the actual travel and entertainment budget, pen and paper or spreadsheet-based processes are often considered good enough, or at least better than any system that charges a fee per user or per report.
Unfortunately, manual systems can cost companies more than four times the amount to process a single expense report compared with a fully automated system like Certify. Here’s why.
You can’t measure what you can’t see
According to PayStream Advisors 2015 research, the average cost to process a single expense report using a manual process is $26.63 compared to $6.85 per report with a fully automated system. Adding another layer of challenge to those organizations that employ a manual process is the near complete lack of visibility. That’s because processing costs are often “hidden” in the form of postage, paper and office supplies, and lost employee productivity from repeat data entry and inefficient processes. As a result, the same PayStream Advisors report found that 80% of companies do not track expense report processing costs at all.
Putting the return in ROI
Companies making the switch to cloud-based expense report automation can realize an immediate return on investment in several ways. This includes the near elimination of costs for paper, postage and other office supplies, reduced administrative headcount required for time-intensive manual front- and back-end operations, and a significant improvement in employee productivity that comes from a streamlined, integrated electronic workflow. With access to features that reduce the risk of T&E expense fraud and automatically enforce policy compliance, plus complete visibility into reporting analytics, companies on a cloud-based system are also able to track process and control costs.
Certify recently published its 2016 Annual Expense Management Trends report detailing, among other findings, exactly how companies are realizing an ROI with their new expense management system, and how long it takes to start seeing results. Here just some of what we discovered:
• Nearly two-thirds of all companies reported a positive return on investment from a new expense system in 12 months or less, with 92% achieving full ROI within 2 years
• Improved efficiency in the expense reporting process was cited by 58% of companies as the number #1 source of ROI, followed by a reduction in paper, postage and storage costs (53%)
• Integration of accounting systems, credit card feeds, T&E policy and other critical expense management functions are key to reducing data entry and improving process efficiency
• Mobile expense reporting apps were the #3 feature for delivering ROI; in 2014 Aberdeen Group reported mobile apps can reduce expense report processing costs by as much as 65%
• Addressing both potential fraud and human error, 22% of companies saw a return from the elimination of payment for duplicate expenses; an automatic feature within Certify.
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