Why travel expense claim management gets messy

Managing expense reports is the lowest priority on your to-do list. But it consumes your daily schedule.  

Knowing where company spend is going is important. It gives your business insight into cost savings – the biggest source of which can be travel costs. Flights to visit a project site. A shared meal that forges new client partnerships. An overnight-stay to launch a product in a new market.  

Travel helps your business grow. But how do you manage business expenses without losing oversight? It’s a balance between control and flexibility.  

In this blog, we’ll cover why expense tracking can feel chaotic for finance teams like yours, revealing common expense management processes that contribute to overspending. 

We’ll also explore expense management software helps people like you spend more their time more strategically 

Read more to learn how to simplify expense management. 

4 reasons managing expense claims leads to financial chaos 

Your expense claim policy isn’t in place 

Maybe you’re a startup that’s just beginning to scale operations. Or your team lacks the time or resources to put formal processes in place. Or you operate on high-trust, low-oversight principles where flexibility comes first.  

But an absent expense claim policy can lead to unclear spending limits, inconsistent approvals, frustrated employees. Finance teams get stuck untangling employee expenses after the fact. 

Setting up an expense claim policy can be as simple as creating a shared document that clarifies:  

• Why the policies exist  

• Which departments or roles it applies to 

• What types of expenses the business covers. 

By outlining these details, your employees know how to spend responsibly while supporting the company’s growth and goals. This is especially important if various teams, departments, and locations in your business travel for work.  

Your approval workflows are undefined 

Do you bounce between Slack, email, and informal conversations to track travel requests and other reimbursable expenses? Do employees book travel on personal credit cards before your finance team can review or approve the spend? Do you find yourself justifying out-of-policy expenses retroactively because the trip has already happened?  

Having a structured pre-approval workflow can help you stay in charge.  

Start by:  

• Using one centralised method to track travel requests 

• Capturing details like the purpose of travel, estimated costs, dates, and destinations 

• Outlining immediately recognisable out-of-policy spending, like business class tickets or luxury hotel bookings 

• Including budget owners and teams leads into the requests. 

These simple steps can help your finance team find problems before they turn into costs. They can also ensure policy compliance and keep better control over budgets, all without slowing anyone down. 

Your spend limits are too restrictive or too flexible 

When your spend limits are too restrictive, it becomes impractical to follow. Employees won’t travel for lucrative a partnership discussion because the company’s policy is unrealistically low. Or they might pay out-of-pocket, causing personal financial strain. Or they might delay a crucial purchase while they wait for approval — which could risk losing the deal or momentum altogether. 

When your spend limits are too flexible, your finance team struggles. It’s not just a lack of visibility over where company spend goes. It’s a lack of control and structure that leads to better financial decisions. Ultimately, too much flexibility, forces your finance team to look backwards, tracking down errors or justifying overspending.  

To set spend limits that fit your business, ask the following questions: 

• How does department and project spend contribute to wider company spending goals?  

• How do smaller expenses impact overall budgets? How can we standardise these expenses? 

• What are some common exceptions? How do we accommodate those expenses consistently? 

With the perfect balance between control and agility, your finance team works in harmony with the rest of the business – allowing it to move fast, without losing financial oversight.  

Your payment handling process is outdated 

Employees are used to simple, easy-to-follow processes in their everyday lives. So, when it comes to reporting company spend, they expect a similar seamless experience.   

Finance teams are attuned to this change. They’ve started incorporating more modern solutions, going beyond the more manual methods like collecting receipts forwarded by email or storing receipts in a disorganised folder.  

If you’re looking for expense management software, look for these features in a mobile expense app: 

• On-the-go expense capture that allows employees to snap and upload receipts right after they make a purchase. 

• Real-time spend tracking that allows employees to see how much they can spend, and where. 

• Quick transfers that allow employees to get balance alerts so they know just how much is left in their budget at all times.  

• Automated policy enforcement that ensures all expenses comply with company rules before they’re submitted, reducing the chances of errors or unauthorised spending. 

Modernising how your employees submit receipts can immediately save time, reduce errors, and improve compliance, all while streamlining your finance team’s workflow. 

People like you use Soldo to bring order to expense claims 

Managing expense claims doesn’t have to be messy. The right policies, workflows, and technology can help your finance teams regain control.  

By taking simple steps to organise spending before it’s even happened, you can prevent overspending and ensure compliance with company policies.  

By intentionally making company spend more accessible to the rest of the business, you foster transparency and accountability.  

The effects of these changes go beyond just reducing paperwork and administrative burden. They help your business make smarter, data-driven decisions that help your business grow and accomplish more. 

People like you use solutions like Soldo to bring order to expense claims, streamline your workflow, and gain better financial oversight, empowering your team to focus on growth, not paperwork.