Set it and forget it: Seven ways to transform business finance with automation

Why your business finance processes need automation (now)

Finance leader at a growing business? Chance are you're looking for new and better ways to scale spend management and boost efficiency as your business's goals and expectations shift. You recognise there's no room for human error, fixes, or data entry. And there's no room for (often inherited) multiple disconnected tools to try and control and manage expenses across subsidiaries.

You're not alone. In The CFO Agenda: Unlocking growth without compromise report we completed with Raconteur, CFOs (non-Payhawk customers) shared that there are big gaps in their organisations’ current finance technology, with 51% saying they wanted better access to AI and automation to streamline tasks and increase efficiency.

It's a shocking stat. Over half of CFOs believe that AI and automation are gaps in their tech stack. But it doesn't have to be this way. At Payhawk, our smart automation features help reduced manual workload by 80%. And have even helped customer save days on admin and shorten their month-end close by 50%.

Here's Guy Sear, Country Director of the UK&I at Payhawk, describing some of our time-saving and control-boosting features in more detail ( see below video).

Shake up your business finance processes with automation

Automation has unlocked a whole new level of freedom for finance teams. Those tedious, manual tasks that used to eat up hours? Now they’re handled by tech.

As Konstantin Dzhengozov, Co-founder and CFO at Payhawk describes:

When I’m travelling, I meet people stuck with receipts in their pockets. And I’m puzzled why this is still a thing in the world because there are solutions out there that can help you digitise the whole process... everything can be automated!

If you’re managing spend, you know the drill: Expense management across your company — and often across multiple entities — is really a never-ending chore. It’s time-consuming, error-prone, and can turn everyday tasks like reimbursements, fund request approvals, and purchase orders into what feels like groundhog day.

In the CFO Agenda report, Vijay Padmanabhan, CFO at UST, explains why automation is key to change at their business.

Automation helps with improving the speed of decision making and reducing wastage. For instance, automating certain approvals can not only save time but also potentially reduce expense outlay.

The best news? At Payhawk, we help tackle all the above challenges head-on, helping companies drastically improve decisions, save time, and control spend. And here are just seven of the many ways we do it:

1. Real-time reconciliation: Welcome to automatic matching

With real-time reconciliation, your expense entries sync instantly with bank and credit card transactions, keeping everything in check as it happens.

Say goodbye to those pesky reconciliation delays and opaque visibility. You’ll gain control and visibility over your finances, making it easier to base business decisions on real, up-to-the-minute data and no more relying on guesswork.

Eduardo Felipez, Management Accountant at Heroes, says:

We have five entities in the Payhawk platform. And, in the parent company, we have 300-500 expenses a month. With the native Payhawk integration to NetSuite, I no longer have to review, import and export, and put it in the correct format (which used to take me up to one day for one entity). Now, with the direct NetSuite integration, I spend about an hour a day on this. It's an enormous help!

By eliminating painful reconciliation delays and enhancing visibility via automatic matching with the ERP, we empower finance teams to concentrate on strategic initiatives instead of tedious spend mechanics. With real-time spend data and more time on their hands, finance teams can collaborate with non-finance departments to improve spending decisions and processes that foster and support a healthy spend culture.

2. Captures details effortlessly with OCR technology

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is the ultimate timesaver, eliminating the need to manually enter every detail on receipts and invoices (and removing human error). Just snap a photo, and the tech does the rest— pulling in the data automatically.

Dim lighting, wrinkled paper, faded ink? No sweat for our AI-powered camera. Just take one clear shot, watch the data flow in, pick the expense category, and hit submit.

3. Auto-chase receipts and freeze when too many are missing

Forget wasting hours tracking down missing expense receipts. With auto-reminders and prompts, you can make the process effortless. Instead of manually emailing each employee, we send reminders to your colleagues to update or complete their expense submissions. It’s a fast, seamless way to keep everything in order and save everyone time.

Too many missing receipts? You can auto-freeze cards until the cardholder submits them.

4. Customise approval workflows by spend type

With some spend management solutions, you can set up simple automated approval workflows to help ease the admin burden for approvers.

But at Payhawk you can create tailored, multi-level, automated approval workflows with our workflow designer to match your company’s specific sign-off structure. You can even vary the approval rules by expense type, amount, or level, giving you ultimate control and flexibility when managing expenses. You can also set automatic approvals for when an approver's out of office (or delegate to an alternative approver temporarily), so there are no surprise sign-offs or slowdowns.

Daniel Tang, Finance Manager at PinPoint Media, says:

Payhawk's workflow designer has improved the overall ease of use by being very intuitive. It has also improved the customisation functionality, as we can modify the workflows depending on the project department.

Essentially, finance leaders can set up the controls and workflows using our powerful automation features and then carry on with their day. They have more time to focus on strategy and less manual work to worry about. As Guy puts it, the automations let finance teams "set it and forget it."

Customisable approval workflows (partnered with card controls) not only streamline the approval process but also create an environment where teams can operate freely within defined boundaries. This balance of freedom and control helps finance teams to build robust spend cultures, allowing employees to spend without anxiety. Your teams can get back to what they do best, driving value for the company instead of navigating red tape.

5. Leverage group-level settings for multi-entity control

Standardise expense categories, approvals, and spend limits across entities, ensuring real-time visibility and streamlined control. With Payhawk, you can take advantage of tailored settings that align with your overall company policies while still allowing for regional nuances. And the best bit? We automate the data flows between Payhawk and your ERP in accordance with the accounting principles, meaning improved accuracy, consistency, and visibility.

For example, Wellpointe Inc. used these features to achieve seamless spend tracking across subsidiaries, simplify complex allocations, create seamless data transfer with Netsuite, and gain better insight overall.

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

As a growth company, we have capital partners and specific reporting requirements. We must segment financial statements for each business or entity and be able to roll that up as well to consolidate reporting. With Payhawk and the ERP integration, we have the data flow in a way that works to support this multi-entity context. The Payhawk integration with NetSuite is so smooth — I'd say it's like butter!

6. Auto close cards for hassle-free onboarding and offboarding

Onboarding and offboarding just got smoother. Our daily syncs with your chosen HR system means new team members are automatically set up to spend within company guidelines — no more manual entries or tedious spreadsheet imports.

And when someone leaves? We automatically deactivate their cards, stopping any unauthorised spending instantly, saving not only time but also safeguarding against potential fraud.

7. Track subscriptions to master your spend

Get complete visibility into your company’s recurring payments with our subscription management software. Track all subscriptions — from SaaS tools to office rent — in one centralised location, helping you make smarter financial decisions.

Easily assess fluctuations in subscription amounts over the past year to prevent cost creep and eliminate manual work while maintaining accountability. We group subscriptions by provider, identifies hidden costs, and eliminates duplicate expenses to help you pinpoint issues fast and efficiently.

Tackling your challenges with Payhawk

Finding the right software with the right automation can be a bit of a maze, especially with so many choices out there.

That’s where we come in. Our solution integrates smoothly with your ERP and accounting systems, giving you one reliable source of truth for your financial data — no more duplicates, or manual admin (and a lot less hassle). Plus, we automate many of your most dreaded and repetitive tasks across PO, cards, expense management, subscriptions, and much more — all of which helps keep human error and wastage to a minimum.

As Essentia Analytics CFO Carolina Einarsson puts it:

For us, spend management was a quick win. We saw Payhawk as a way to bring everything together — expense tracking, credit cards, approvals, and reimbursements—all in one place!

Ready to transform spend management at your company with smart automation? Book a personalised demo to see Payhawk in action.