How do you shift the focus of finance away from data entry and towards business strategy?
When asked about Essentia Analytics' ability to redirect the finance team's focus from administrative tasks to a more strategic role, Carolina explained that her first step upon joining was to evaluate the existing finance tech stack and identify the activities that consumed the most time.
Carolina recommends to time-track the team maybe every week or month. In her experience, manual expense management is often the biggest time drain, especially data entry (which must be 100% accurate for the entire business operation to function properly).
According to Carolina, historically, using many different apps (each for its own separate task) has been quite popular. However, after a thorough benchmark, her company switched to Payhawk.
Carolina realised that using an all-in-one spend management solution, including corporate visa cards and expense management software, would be the future. And it has been an absolute game changer for their month-end processes. Switching to Payhawk has afforded them more time to work with other revenue-impacting teams, with their Financial Analyst moving to work as an SDR for 50% of her time.
Carolina also mentioned the benefits of using credit cards for company spending so they don't have to tie up their cash. Here, Konstantin added that as cash is becoming something of a scarce resource, many companies operating in these uncertain environments should start using credit cards as a more efficient payment solution to help with their company expenses because of the many benefits that a company credit card offers.
How can you improve data and spend visibility?
Here, Carolina emphasised the value of knowing your ‘core space’ as a finance leader. Especially during turbulent times or when there’s a need to double down on cost efficiency.
“You come through much stronger on the other side because you become so aware of your core cost space and strategic cost space,” said Carolina.
She added that having a spend management system like Payhawk has definitely helped because of all the readily available data. And for a multi-entity company like Essentia Analytics, having a one-stop solution (instead of multiple exports from other platforms) has been a tremendous advantage.
What should businesses who are looking for expense management solutions be aware of?
Carolina responded to this question by describing the complexity of using different tools for different operations and how she concluded that an all-in-one spend management solution is the future.
It’s truly about finding one software solution that can cater to your company’s needs, Carolina explained:
"It makes all the difference when you find flexible software that lets you set up workflows according to your business needs."
Key takeaways
Spend control is just one tool in the box to help companies both ride out the difficult economic times - and succeed. By getting total spend visibility, investing in new technologies (like an intelligent expense management tool), and taking a smarter approach to cash flow management, businesses can position themselves for long-term success even in the face of adversity.
Book a demo today to learn how our solution can help your company get complete spend control, save time, and support smart decision-making.