How Payhawk can help reinvent your company expense policy

How do you socialise your company expense policy?

In many businesses, the accounting and finances teams still use multiple legacy tools to manage the company's spend and expense policy. They rely on physical credit cards assigned to some, but not all employees, who collect expense receipts during work trips, meetings, and so on.

The employees then must submit the receipts before the month is out so that the finance teams can manually perform the arduous end-of-month close.

Relatively simple in theory. But what isn't simple is lost receipts, late submission of expenses, and some employees without company cards waiting to be reimbursed.

Often in companies with legacy spend management tools, the spend policy itself sits in a file on the computer. It clearly outlines the spend limits for specific activities and roles and the appropriate approval flows, which is great. The problem is that no one can memorise it, and no one carries the paper around to check every time they spend. In essence, it becomes pretty useless.

Say goodbye to clunky approval processes

It’s rare in business that there is one simple, elegant solution to your problems. But with Payhawk, there is.

We offer globally accepted company cards accompanied by powerful spend management software. The result is a solution that means no more paper trails, clunky legacy tools, stressful end-of-month closes, and inaccessible expense approval policies.

With Payhawk, you have the appropriate framework to give your business leaders and finance teams the freedom to both customise and control company budgets and spend controls from one user-friendly platform.

“As an administrator, I can adapt the card limits instantaneously to suit the business needs. Every cardholder has a monthly limit — but unexpected expenses can occur beyond the limit, too,” Tineke Van Maerken, VP of Finance at Luxair, said.

Payhawk's workflow and spend limit features

So, you've decided to implement a spend policy in your growing business. Let's imagine you were using Payhawk and consider the benefits you'd feel as a business.

Increased compliance
Everything you and your team needs is built into the Payhawk tool. There's no need for a company expense policy folder detailing every regulation, process, and procedure. You can simply apply and update your company's spend policy within the tool in a matter of clicks. This in-built policy function means it's almost impossible for your users to spend out of policy.

Spend policies and approval flows
Building effective spend policies has never been easier. With our advanced workflows that instantly deal with card controls like ATM withdrawals, recurring limits, and one-click approval chains for requests, you can easily manage your team's spend from the platform or Mobile App.

When it comes to making changes to company cards, the Payhawk tool allows for bulk edits, saving you precious time dealing with individual card controls. You can group card level controls, including approval rules, recurring limits, and ATM withdrawals, and manage all cards in bulk without worrying about individual cards.

Approval chain
At Payhawk, we know that no expense approval policy is the same. That's why we have created custom approval chains that reflect your individual spend policies. There is no central chain of command either.

You can assign multiple employees responsible for approving a request which means regardless of sickness and availability, approvals always get answered. You can also set automatic approval limits on fund requests, so you don't have to hassle administrators or the finance team for minor requests under a particular amount.

However, if your business does require a more rigid spend policy, you can set a recurring limit of zero for your users and approve each request as it's made.

Spend limits
Our tool allows admins to define individual or team thresholds and adjust them at any time, in just a matter of clicks. When a user needs to request more money, they can simply complete a fund request, and the associated budget owner will receive notifications to approve or deny in real-time.

Agile approvals
Not at your desk? Our agile approvals mean admins or budget holders don't need to be on the platform to approve requests. Go through the Payhawk App on your mobile device for instant approvals for your team.

Making expense management easy for everyone

With these controls around spend in place, there's a much fairer playing field for everyone in the business. The finance team has visibility over spend, and each of the employees that submit expenses understands the policies and procedures. They're working in unison.

Book a demo today if you're ready to learn more about streamlining your financial stack (including in-built policies) and nailing your company's expense management.