Integrating Your Expense Software With Your Accounting System: The Benefits

Business accounting can often be complex and time-consuming. From tracking your monthly expenses, reconciling bank statements, and putting together financial reports, it's all too easy to feel overwhelmed by crunching numbers. But with the right expense software and accounting tools in place, you can start streamlining your financial management processes and gain real-time insights into your figures. In this article, we’re going to explore the main benefits of integrating your expense management software with your accounting system. So, grab a strong coffee, and let’s get into it!

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1. Real-time Reporting to Key Stakeholders

Let’s kick things off with one of the most significant advantages of integrating your expense management software with your accounting system; the ability for your finance teams to access reliable real-time data on your expenses directly in their accounting systems. Basically, this means your finance department can quickly and easily access the specific information for financial reports and easily create month-end financial reports or annual reports for stakeholders. And this helps to update and inform these individuals whilst providing them with accurate financial data which can be used to make data-driven decisions.

2. Better Decision Making as Full Visibility

If you’re concerned about overspending, accounting software integration lets you view payroll, cash flow, stock levels, and business expenses in one place. So rather than log into a number of different systems to view each aspect of your business individually, you can take advantage of this valuable integration and save precious time. Not only will it make accessing this data easier than ever, but it will also help you to make better financial decisions overall, since you’re no longer jumping from one expenses mobile app and business finance system to another, which can often lead to mistakes and human error.

Full visibility of business expenses via integration in this way means that you can quickly identify poor financial decisions and potential for additional investment, whilst managing your business finances from one single solution. It just makes sound business sense.

For instance, if you notice that one department is consistently spending more than you budgeted for on travel expenses, you can take steps to minimise those costs. This could involve negotiating better rates with your travel supplier or finding alternative travel options. With real-time data on your business expenses, you can uncover areas where you can make savings and make changes quickly, helping you to stay on top of your finances.

With the right expense software and accounting tool integration, you can even take this a step further and use real-time data to make predictions about future expenses. For example, if you know that you are going to need to purchase new equipment in the near future, you can use the software to start to budget for that expense now.

3. Minimise Errors as Data is Not Manually Transferred Between Different Systems

Manual data entry is avoided by integrating your expense management software with your accounting system. This means you can reduce the risk of human error as well as the time and resources required to transfer data manually between systems. And who doesn’t want to wave goodbye to manually-entered spreadsheets? It’s frustrating, time-consuming, and can increase silly mistakes. As digital solutions empower more businesses to automate processes, it’s time to ditch the unnecessary manual spreadsheets and say hello to a whole new world of data integration and automation.

4. Improving Productivity & Operational Efficiency

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Integrating your expense software with your accounting system can also significantly improve your productivity and operational efficiency as a business. Let’s be honest; manual expense tracking involves employees spending hours each week sifting through receipts and other documentation and reconciling expenses. This is a tedious and time-consuming process that can take away from time that could be better spent on high-value activities. By automating the expense tracking process and integrating it directly into your accounting software, employees can focus their attention on other critical tasks that contribute to the success of the business and help you gain a competitive advantage.

5. Optimise Business Compliance

Integrated systems can aid in automating the financial report preparation process, making it easier to meet reporting deadlines and ensure that all reports are accurate and compliant. This can help to reduce the time and resources required to prepare financial reports while also providing you with peace of mind that your reports are accurate and in accordance with accounting standards. From the 1st of April 2019, businesses in MTD for VAT are legally required to maintain their accounting records digitally, in either software or spreadsheet. They must also submit their VAT returns to HMRC using MTD-compliant software via a digital link. Find an updated guide to MTD (Making Tax Digital) here. By integrating your expense software with your accounting system, this legal requirement can be made into a more manageable task for finance teams.

Final Thoughts

By integrating expense management software with your accounting system, you will gain numerous benefits, such as real-time reporting, better decision-making, fewer mistakes, higher productivity and improved compliance with accounting standards. Whether you own a small business or a large corporation, integrating your systems can assist you in streamlining your financial management processes and gaining real-time insights into your expenses. For effortless expense management, choose ExpenseIn. Create, approve, and report on business expenses in an easy-to-use cloud-based package. Wave goodbye to complex spreadsheets and level up your approach to accounting and business finances. Claims for mileage, purchases, and time can be collected in a matter of seconds, replacing the traditional slow and tedious paper-based approach.