In recent times, initiatives such as the Sarbannes Oxley Act in the US have dramatically raised the profile of compliance within the corporate world. As a key element of any corporate compliance policy, expense management has shared some of the limelight. As a result, corporate expense management software is now critical to any business concerned with corporate compliance. But what is corporate expense management software? Does your company need it? And where do you find a good corporate expense management software solution? Just as importantly, how do you successfully implement and integrate corporate expense management software into your corporate environment. This article sheds some light on these issues.

What is corporate expense management software?

Corporate expense management software is a software program that processes:

1. transaction records received from a credit card issuer (detailing employee use of corporate credit cards0; and
2. cash reimbursement claims originated by an employee.

In practice the target application is Travel and Entertainment expenditure. A robust corporate expense management software solution will also support procurement (pCard) activities as part of a broader strategy of effectively managing lower value, high volume business-to-business transactions.

The three core steps of any expense management process are:

1. the acceptance/input of validated source data;
2. the application of predetermined rules of handling expense records; and
3. the posting of transactions to a corporate repository such as an ERP system.

What is the purpose of corporate expense management software?

The objectives of corporate expense management software implementation should include the following:

1. to automate the preparation, submission, approval, and auditing of travel & entertainment claims, thus improving the productivity of account holders and reducing the time and cost of accounts staff;
2. to support the implementation of a standardized best practice method of managing high volume expenses through the use of corporate credit cards; and
3. to increase the transparency and enhance the governance of financial transactions conducted on behalf of the enterprise.

Sources of corporate expense management software

Australian and international organizations now have access to a range of quality corporate expense management software solutions which are well suited to driving down administration cost whilst meeting corporate compliance requirements. There are essentially three sources of