The Challenge of Managing Spend
There has long been a desire on the part of CFOs to have their departments play a more strategic and active role in the management of their organization. Many envision moving Finance from a backward-looking stance of “bean counting” to an action-oriented business unit. This also likely involves changing the tone of its relationship with the rest of the organization, making it a facilitator as much as a control mechanism. However, achieving this goal can often be elusive. Many in Finance are so consumed by dealing with tactical, day-to-day issues that they are unable to focus on achieving strategic objectives.
In particular, finance and accounting departments devote a considerable amount of time to managing and controlling organization expenses, especially business travel and employee spend. Dealing with heavy transaction volumes presents the department with three significant challenges: •They must have timely insight into the details of every expense transaction to enable managers to make the best decisions. •They must make it as easy as possible for employees to comply with the organization’s travel and indirect spend policies. •And they must be able to handle spend-related processes as efficiently as possible.