How B2B Companies Boost Efficiency with Data & Automation

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With businesses of all sizes constantly seeking new ways to trim costs and realize increased efficiencies, many are setting their sights on B2B spending–an area long plagued by clunky, manual processes, cost overruns, lack of effective control and poor data visibility. 

In today’s market, companies seeking to optimize expense management have access to a bevy of modern tools that leverage automation, real-time data and advanced analytics to streamline key processes, reduce errors, and drive actionable insights that can enhance decision-making. This modern expense management approach helps boost transparency and control, enabling companies to increase efficiency, stay within budgets and ultimately achieve greater financial stability.

Challenges with a legacy approach to expense management 

Many businesses still struggle with outdated expense management systems, which can undermine data accuracy and efficiency. Legacy processes, such as requiring employees to fill out manual reports and reimbursing costs with paper checks, are tedious, time-consuming and pose risks of human error and slow down financial operations. 

Companies using such manual systems also lack visibility into and control over employees’ spending, leaving them unable to effectively control costs. In a recent study of construction companies, approximately half of the firms surveyed reported spending too much time on reconciliation, and 56% faced issues with wasteful spending. 

Perhaps even more critically, companies using manual expense processes often are unable to access spending data that could otherwise drive valuable insights and uncover potential areas for cost saving–for example, by identifying a pattern of continued overspending by a particular employee, department, project, or category.

How data and automation can optimize B2B expenses 

To break free of the challenges and inefficiencies inherent to manual expense management, companies increasingly are investing in data- and automation-driven approaches to spending. This strategy streamlines expense procedures and supports better financial management by automating expense tracking, improving transparency, and reducing the risks associated with manual processes. 

One particularly prominent example of this approach is the integration of corporate payment cards with expense management and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, ensuring that all purchases made with the card are reported automatically, eliminating the need for manual reporting processes.

Corporate Hierarchy: Track Expenses with Spend Taxonomy

Along with increasing efficiency, this automated model ensures capture of all employee spending data–which can subsequently be used to ensure compliance with company policies,  inform vital budgeting and financial planning decisions, and aid in negotiations with suppliers. 

For these reasons, the future of B2B expense management is increasingly centered on real-time data and automation. As companies move away from outdated systems and embrace digital solutions, they stand to gain powerful long-term business benefits, including improved operational efficiency, better control over finances and powerful cost savings. 

Want to learn more?

For more on how data and automation are transforming B2B expense management, download the latest Embedded Finance Tracker®, a Galileo and PYMNTS collaboration.