Why expense management matters for Business Central customers

Managing corporate travel & entertainment expenses efficiently

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in September 2021 and has been revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Corporate travel and entertainment (T&E) expenses can often be high, especially if not tightly controlled.  

When you add the time & costs associated with processing all these expenses to ensure employees are reimbursed correctly, in a way that complies with company policy & government regulations (according to ExpenseOut, 71% of finance leaders say they struggle with expense compliance and fraud prevention due to manual tracking), the total spend can be significant for many companies. 

Digitizing and automating your expense management process can deliver real cost savings and benefits for your business and helps protect your organization against the threat of fraud. 

What is expense management?

Expense management is the end-to-end process by which employee expenses are submitted, approved, recorded and reimbursed, along with the policy controls and procedures for this type of spending. 

Most companies will already have a process for reimbursing employee expenses, perhaps via the payroll system. This method has traditionally done the job, so why change anything? 

Well, the reimbursement stage is just one of several in the overall expense management process, albeit a very important one. However, other areas of the expense management process often have room for improvement.

It is the stages prior to reimbursement where there is typically scope for substantial time & cost savings to be made. These stages can include employees submitting expense reports with receipts, managers approving, finance teams recording expenditure in Business Central with the correct GL account, job, tax code etc specified and reconciling credit card statements.

Streamlining the end-to-end expense management process brings efficiency savings for the business and the opportunity to delight their staff by taking away the pain that often comes with submitting, approving and administering expenses.

Furthermore, expense management solutions can make your financial data more accurate, since there is less room for human error and more real-time data available. A study found that 87% of CFOs have prioritized expense automation in 2025 to improve accuracy and compliance (ExpenseOut).

Manual paper-based vs automated software

Many companies still have a traditional expense management process based on the use of paper and/or spreadsheets, involving the collection of paper receipts and lots of manual processing.

Like any manual business process, managing employee expenses tends to be very time-consuming. With traditional processes, employees can become frustrated as reimbursements take longer to process, and finance teams can become overworked with manual, repetitive tasks which can lead to human errors that slow the process down further. Not only are these manual processes less efficient for teams, but they also offer less real-time insight into data, which can lead to harder financial decision-making.

As many companies have already found, there are significant benefits to be gained by switching to an automated software solution for your expense management process, with a quick return on your investment.

5 reasons to digitize & automate your expense management process

• Simplicity & convenience – Enable staff to snap photos of their receipts while on-the-go, submit expenses easily using an app on their phone and get notified once approved. Managers can review and approve expenses from anywhere using any device, enabling the finance team to reimburse expenses quickly & accurately.
• Save time & paper – Take away the hassle and pain that comes with having stacks of paper receipts and expense reports laying around and free up employees’ time for the more productive work that needs doing. In fact, 84% of finance leaders say spend management accelerates digital transformation, with 78% linking it to revenue growth (PR Newswire).
• Control & compliance – Ensure employee expense policy limits and approval rules are applied consistently and automatically with full audit trail visibility. Plus, make tax authority compliance and tax recovery easier by recording the sales tax and VAT on all expenses and business mileage.
• Accuracy – Ensure greater accuracy in the expense management process by avoiding any manual re-keying of data (e.g. from credit card statement into expense report, from expense reports into Business Central).
• Real-time insights – Gain full visibility of all employee expenses that are being incurred, helping you control spend and make cost savings. Digital solutions also help you identify expense fraud, which is an increasing problem according to a study conducted by Emburse involving 1000 workers. This study found that nearly a quarter (24%) of employees admit to making personal purchases and passing them off as business expenses due to their financial circumstances (IFA).

For all these reasons and more, it is well worth any business controlling their T&E expense spend – by introducing more control, automation and visibility into their expense management process.

With around one third (28%) of companies surveyed in Coupa’s Total Spend Management Benchmark Report from 2024 citing ineffective software as one of the biggest spend management challenges, finding the right expense management solution is therefore crucial. 

Zetadocs Expenses

Dynamics 365 Business Central does not offer the tools to help control T&E expense costs and streamline the whole expense management process. The same is true for many other solutions that integrate with Business Central to support HR & Payroll processes, whose expense management offering is often focussed on reimbursement only.

Zetadocs Expenses is an end-to-end expense management solution designed for use with Business Central, offering a range of features to benefit both finance teams and other employees, including:

• AI technology that accurately extracts receipt data with minimal manual work necessary, allowing employees to submit expenses rapidly whilst on-the-go.
• Easily enforce compliance with company policy by setting pre-defined rules like mileage caps or spending limits. 
• Seamless integration with Business Central.
• Better real-time insight into financial data.

Watch a 1-minute video below for an overview of the solution.

If you would like to know more, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly or speak to your Dynamics partner to discuss your requirements further. Zetadocs Expenses is also available on Microsoft Marketplace.