Contextual, real-time data, not Advil, is helping CFOs solve lingering spend management headaches.
Large payouts and accompanying reports have kept chief financial officers scratching their heads for years.Still, Oded ZehabiCEO mesh paymentPYMNTS said the spending management landscape can be divided into two key periods: pre-COVID and post-COVID.
“COVID has pushed enterprises to move most of their infrastructure to the cloud and to more standard stacks supported by major vendors,” said Zehavi.
Post-COVID, he said, businesses don’t have to wait a day, two, or even the end of the month for payment data to reach their spend management platform and be audited for anomalies, allowing businesses to capture data and actually spend. I emphasize that I am now in control. Time – Allows policies to be defined and proactively enforced without the need for human intervention in the middle.
This is because today’s increasingly digital-first CFO stack enables finance teams to do more with fewer resources by automating previously tedious and repetitive tasks, enabling more business-critical Because it frees up time to focus on the problem.
The future of spending management is continuous accounting, not monthly rituals
Real-time data exchange between the payments layer and the spend management platform helps finance teams manage their organization’s spend and gain more insight into their spending.
“Historically, everyone was talking about the end of the month. Closing was a monthly ritual for finance teams…and they’ve been doing it for years, so it’s almost an addiction. [this monthly] process. “
Today, by leveraging the capabilities and improvements offered by modern technology and modern solutions, businesses are moving to a model of ‘continuous accounting’, allowing them to close their books on the same day or in real time.
For organizations of all sizes, accounting and managing spending is essential to driving growth.
Corporate travel and expenses are on the rise again, including travel, meals, entertainment, gifts, and all categories that businesses find difficult to keep up with, requiring businesses to rethink their spend management and financial reporting solutions. sexuality is increasing.
“Corporate travel is back after two years of using Zoom, but some people on the finance team forget some of their challenges and needs,” says Zehavi. “Without real-time visibility and proper control, [around that spend], many businesses struggle to keep their travel expenses within their policies and budgets. ”
That’s why the real-time exchange between expense payment data and other sources, whether it’s the IT side, the travel side, the HR side, or any other relevant source that can be placed in context, is critical. There is, he emphasizes.
“convergence [of information] It’s the only way senior financial professionals deliver the real value that management expects to deliver to their organizations,” says Zehavi.
Read more: Spend Management 2.0 is connected and contextual
Productivity is a key KPI for finance teams
He tells PYMNTS that the biggest advantage of digitizing finance operations is that they can greatly improve operational productivity.
“Everyone now sees productivity as a key KPI for finance teams. [especially] It’s important to measure the productivity gains you get, as you’re making sure you’re controlling your spending, not just processing your income. [out of digital tools]said Zehavi.
So why are 98% of businesses still using tech stacks without automation, sync, or other modern features?
“traditional [spend management] The system is not only expensive, but it also takes a lot of time to implement. Finance teams are under the impression that we will only see value after six months, one year,” he said.
Today, he noted, all that has changed. A typical deployment of a modern spend management system takes just a few hours. With a variety of pricing structures to choose from, it’s not as expensive as legacy systems with enterprise pricing models.
His advice to finance teams is to not try to do it all at once. Zehavi says:
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