Nov 12, 2024
3 mins

How employee adoption drives policy compliance and enhances spend culture

Image showing employee looking at laptop to Strengthen Compliance & Spend Culture Through Employee Adoption
Quick summary

In today’s competitive business environment, cultivating a strong spend culture is crucial for financial health and operational efficiency. A well-integrated spend culture goes beyond just tracking expenses — it involves embedding financial policies into every aspect of business operations. But how can you create one? And where do your employees come in?

Table of Contents

    Businesses across more than 32 countries are transforming their spend management with help from our intuitive and user-friendly design platform. At Payhawk, our customers are creating and supporting robust spend cultures, encouraging better policy compliance, and achieving greater spend transparency to support strategic decision-making.

    Why employees love spend management from Payhawk

    Employees appreciate how easy Payhawk is to use. It’s easy-to-use features make expensing easier than ever, boosting widespread employee adoption (and therefore spend-policy compliance), as well as accurate approvals via approval workflows, and complete spend transparency.

    Louis Gossieau, Head of Buyer Marketing at Mercell Nederland, says:

    Payhawk shows you the budget you can spend each month and how much you have spent so far. That definitely was not the case before when we were all using the same company card!

    The real-time visibility into available budgets helps employees make informed decisions and reduces the need for constant approvals. Similarly, Mathias Goetz, Senior Project Manager at ATU, rates the simplicity of our features for users and the long-term benefits for finance:

    We no longer have to chase receipts. Since using Payhawk, managers simply take a picture of their receipt (via OCR tech) and enter it into the automated finance system.

    This ease of use is highlighted clearly in reviews on G2 and encourages employees to engage consistently with the solution, leading to greater compliance with financial policies and more accurate expense reporting.

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    How user-friendly tools promote strong spend culture

    The ease of use we provide at Payhawk is more than just for convenience; it's a cornerstone for companies that want to build a robust spending culture.

    By integrating financial policies directly into the platform, we ensure that employees don’t just “use the tool” — they use it in a way that supports company-wide financial practices and policies. The policies are right there at your employees’ fingertips so they can’t break them by mistake (or purposefully) and everyone knows where they stand.

    Louis from Mercell highlights how our features align with policy enforcement at the company:

    My favourite feature is having the ability to assign spend policies to employees. I like it because it empowers employees to perform their job functions without having to ask for permission to spend money that they have already budgeted.

    This controlled but empowering approach not only streamlines your approval process but also embeds financial discipline into daily routines, fostering a culture where spending aligns with your company policies.

    Incorporating spend policies directly into corporate card spend via the all-in-one solution encourages employees to adhere to budgetary constraints and reduces instances of maverick spending. When employees have clear, accessible guidelines within the tool — with no need to go hunting around dusty policy folders and digging out paperwork — they’re more likely to comply with these rules, promoting a culture of accountability and financial responsibility.

    Capterra user Brad, Head of Financial Reporting, based in the UK, says:

    Payhawk is the best expense management system I've ever used. The product is very easy to use. It couldn't be easier for employees to upload their receipts. And all receipts and payments are synced automatically with our finance system, making it completely seamless.

    Achieving comprehensive financial visibility

    Another key benefit of making spend management easy to access to all employees? Enhanced spend visibility for the finance team and budget owners. With all expenses routed through a single platform, your finance team and budget owners gain a clear, real-time view of spending. This transparency is essential for maintaining a strong spend culture, where every expense is monitored and aligned with financial goals.

    Adria Vázquez, Finance Director at VICIO, emphasises the importance of visibility:

    With Payhawk, we can maintain visibility and control over spend, even as the number of receipts and invoices multiplies.

    This comprehensive view of financial data helps track expenses against budgets and quickly identify discrepancies.

    If your team processes all transactions through our solution, you can avoid the pitfalls of manual tracking and ensure that spending stays within approved limits and in the right pot. This visibility supports a culture of openness and accountability, where financial practices are transparent and easily monitored.

    George Kutnerian, CEO and co-founder at Wellpointe Inc. says:

    Payhawk helps us free up the accounting department from what I consider a "non-value-add" activity. For example, we've empowered our spenders to code their own transactions (our chart of accounts actually lives in Payhawk). And so anyone spending within Payhawk is empowered to leverage the chart of accounts and code the transaction appropriately. With Payhawk, I’ve given the team a tool to help us build a transparent spend culture.

    How adoption drives financial discipline

    The positive feedback from customers highlights our solution’s effectiveness in fostering strong spend cultures by empowering teams to spend but ensuring it’s done within set boundaries.

    At Payhawk, our solutions’ ease of use and policy integration not only simplify expense management, but also reinforce a culture of responsibility, adherence to financial guidelines, and improved spend categorisation, putting supporting:

    For instance, the streamlined receipt processing at ATU has led to significant financial benefits. Mathias Goetz at ATU, says:

    In the first year of using Payhawk, the change resulted in ATU recouping €2 million from the tax office that would have otherwise been lost thanks to missing and lost receipts.

    This huge financial impact highlights how user-friendly tools can drive adherence to policies and contribute to better financial management.

    By embedding spend policies into the tool and ensuring you can track expenses in real time, we can help you promote a culture where financial discipline is ingrained in everyday operations.

    Employees are more likely to follow company policies and manage their budgets responsibly when they have clear, accessible guidelines and a straightforward solution to help them comply.

    Capterra user Sara, P&C Operations Specialist based in Spain, says:

    Payhawk is the best tool we have. It’s very useful to manage all our monthly purchases, control spend, define limits, add funds and manage payments easily. You can also have the recurrent subscriptions in the same panel to monitor the monthly expenses. And you can pay invoices, reimburse expenses, and use credit cards all in the same place.

    Conclusion: Create a culture powered by user-friendly spend management

    At Payhawk, ensuring our customers’ employees adopt our solution is key to building stronger spend cultures.

    Our easy-to-use tool promotes widespread use and seamlessly integrates spend policies. It makes expense management straightforward and transparent and encourages accountability and financial discipline across the company.

    With our solution, your finance team gets clear visibility into spending, helping them keep budgets in check and avoid rogue expenses.

    And if you’re aiming to improve financial management and foster a robust, transparent spend culture? Leveraging our user-friendly tool is a smart choice, as it rapidly simplifies expense management, accounts payable, and more — and supports a culture of responsibility, supporting long-term financial health and business success.

    Find out more in a personalised demo; book your slot today.

    Trish Toovey - Content Director at Payhawk - The financial system of tomorrow
    Trish Toovey
    Senior Content Manager
    LinkedIn

    Trish Toovey works across the UK and US markets to craft content at Payhawk. Covering anything from ad copy to video scripting, Trish leans on a super varied background in copy and content creation for the finance, fashion, and travel industries.

    See all articles by Trish →

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