5 Strategies For Cost Reduction in Procurement To Improve Bottom Line

You want a procure-to-pay (P2P) software that automates your procurement process and addresses issues like lack of visibility, double payments, and delayed approvals. However, since such a tool has multiple users at different hierarchies and a complex workflow, you often end up with a more complex process if you don’t choose the right software. 

With ad-hoc processes, many issues pop-up: employees wait weeks for approvals, procurement teams have no real-time visibility over purchase requests and don’t know how to prioritize, finance teams get minimal control over expenses, and the entire process is chaotic. Hence, choosing the right procure-to-pay solution requires a focus on ease of use and flexibility. 

In this post, we will share the best procure-to-pay software for businesses in the UAE. We will discuss how P2P software helps with procurement management and which tools are worth considering. 

What is Procure-to-Pay Software?

Procure-to-pay software is a tool to automate the complete procurement process, which combines accounts payable (AP) software and procurement software.

Instead of having your procurement processes and data scattered across emails, Jira, different task management tools, and custom ERPs, you bring it onto a single platform. 

By moving from your legacy tools to an automated P2P software, you can:

• automate approval workflows, making the purchase request (PR) process easier and faster. Flexible approval workflows enable all stakeholders to approve requests with a trigger-based flow. 
• integrate with ERPs to maintain a preferred vendor list and manage order items. While most P2P software supports record-keeping only, some allow the conversion of PRs to purchase orders (PO) automatically after approval.
• match the goods received note (GRN) to enable two-way or three-way matching and ensure proper inventory and timely vendor payments. 
• process payments with multiple payment options to avoid delays and foster vendor relationships. It also helps avoid double payments, underpayment, or overpayment. 
• reconcile data faster via integrations with accounting software, enabling more visibility and control. Accounting teams get the right documents, and finance teams get visibility over expenses.

Since legacy ERPs aren’t enough to manage your entire procurement process, adding P2P software makes purchasing and payments easier. 

Top 9 Procure-to-Pay Software

Here is a procure-to-pay software list for companies in the UAE: 

1. Pluto

Pluto is an all-in-one procure-to-pay solution to transform your procurement and AP processes. It sits on top of your ERP as a layer to manage the multiple stages of the procurement process. From automating PRs to setting multi-layer approval workflows and managing vendors, it is the ultimate solution to transform a chaotic procurement process into a faster and more efficient one. 

Key Features:

• Features fully customizable workflows for raising PR and POs, requiring no technical expertise
• Offers a flexible approval engine capable of managing intricate hierarchies
• Enables multi-layer invoice approvals with policies to align with your company's structure
• Ability to upload invoices easily via WhatsApp images, eliminating the need to search for invoice details. Also facilitates invoice capture via emails directly to speed up the receipt capture process
• A centralized dashboard to gather bills in one place and track the status to avoid double payments
• Vendor-specific corporate cards to control budgets and detect irrelevant expenses
• Supports local and international wire transfers to make payments 
• OCR technology minimizes manual data entry by creating and populating bills from invoices
• Supports ERP integration to synchronize your vendors, POs, and bills and integrates with accounting software, such as Oracle, NetSuite, Zoho, Quickbooks, Wafeq, Xero, etc.
• Integrates with payment gateways and accounting software for seamless payments and reconciliation (a feature not available in other solutions)
• Raises alerts for upcoming payments and enables scheduling payments in advance and automate invoices 
• Provides a complete audit trail of the process to ensure visibility at each step
• Shows real-time analytics to facilitate deep insights for supporting budget control

Pricing: 

Request the sales team for a custom quote

Pros:

• More financial control with vendor-specific corporate cards 
• Better Forex rates than most local banks 
• Multiple integration options including Netsuite, Dynamics and more

Cons:

• Slightly longer on-boarding due to unlimited corporate purchasing card offering 
• Directly integrates with all other major ERPs except Tally

2. Order.co

‍

Order.co is a procure-to-pay platform that provides you access to over 15,000+ vendors in addition to your preferred vendors. It acts as an online marketplace like Amazon or eBay to help you procure items for your business. You add items to the cart, and it enables a rule-based approval system for POs with complete control and visibility. 

Key Features:

• Provides a custom, pre-approved Order.co catalog, including your current vendors and a vast network of 15,000+ vendors
• Supports purchases from multiple vendors regardless of their ordering methods (API, website, email)
• Sources the best prices for your needs to automatically generate POs and set up recurring orders to save time and reduce manual errors
• Offers real-time budgeting and reporting insights by the user, location, cost center, or vendor
• Simplifies payment processing by consolidating all orders from multiple vendors into one monthly invoice

Pricing:

Dependent upon locations and usage; contact hello@order.co for pricing information

Pros:

• Customizable product lists for ordering 
• Easy-to-create customizable workflows
• Ability to categorize purchases and run reports

Cons:

• Set up is confusing and requires customer support help
• Can not order from multiple vendors at the same time

3. Yooz

Yooz optimizes the procurement process by focusing on invoice management.  It is suitable for mid-size companies of all sectors wanting to automate procurement with a cloud-based procure-to-pay solution. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies to enhance security and control in their account payable automation software.

Key Features:

• Enables online, real-time management of supplier relationships, improving communication and collaboration
• Provides mobile access for invoice approval and communication
• Maintains regulation-compliant traceability, ensuring adherence to relevant laws and standards
• Automates real-time general ledger (GL) coding and PO matching
• Captures all types of documents through various channels, such as email, drag and drop, mobile, scan, and secure file transfer protocol (SFTP)
• Integrates with accounting software and ERPs
• Allows users to approve and pay invoices in batches, offering multiple payment options, such as virtual credit card, ACH, e-check, and paper check
• Offers a range of services, including consulting, configuration, training, and user support

Pricing: 

Free trial for up to 15 days followed by a "pay-as-you-use" model. Also offers “gold edition” subscription pricing (based on the volume of documents) for an unlimited number of users and 4 hours of complimentary service

Pros:

• Integrates with Sage Intacct
• Ability to tag people in the comments and email them directly from the invoice
• Numerous criteria available for setting up the approval workflows

Cons: 

• Doesn’t offer payment services in the UAE, so you need to carry out payments on a different platform
• Doesn't have integrations with major vendors as a form of punchout
• Time-consuming to download and export files
• Hard for vendors to send the invoices through Yooz

4. Kissflow

Kissflow simplifies and enhances procurement processes while ensuring transparency and compliance. It helps users automate the entire process without requiring technical expertise or coding experience. It comes with 50+ ready-to-use applications, enabling unlimited automation applications.  

Key Features:

• Offers fluid forms to enable easy capturing, approval, and tracking of PRs
• Allows users to register and maintain vendors with access to multilingual catalogs
• Integration with accounting systems, ERPs, and finance systems like Quickbooks, SAP, and Microsoft Dynamics 
• Accelerates the invoice approval process with timely alerts and automated checks. Connect invoices to contracts, POs, and service entry sheets in a single dashboard
• Customizable reports to visualize data using charts, filters, and heatmaps
• Ability to define and manage budget restrictions with dynamic rules throughout the entire procure-to-pay lifecycle
• Customized approval workflows to ensure transparency with rule-based approval processes
• Smart alerts that provide real-time updates on the status of POs and invoices to keep stakeholders informed 

Pricing: 

Starts at $2499/month (billed annually). Pricing varies based on transaction volume and number of users

Pros: 

• Intuitive interface with a relatively short learning curve

Cons:

• Does not support payment flows in the UAE
• Cost of its license is high (particularly for SMBs)
• Can not handle intricate processes that require a high degree of customization or involve multiple conditional branches
• Customization options are limited, including specific integrations, advanced business rules, or more sophisticated automation capabilities

5. Coupa

Coupa is a cloud-based automation platform to manage procurement processes. It facilitates supply chain optimization by providing visibility and control. It brings consumer shopping ease to the procurement process. With a focus on user adoption, it provides an intuitive shopping experience for employees, making it easier to adhere to pre-approved spending guidelines.

Key Features:

• Simplifies procurement by allowing organizations to track pre-approved spending and get real-time visibility into POs and order lifecycle
• Maximizes pre-approved spend to offer complete visibility over the purchase-to-pay processes
• Promotes user adoption at all levels with an easy-to-use interface, creating value for both employees and vendors
• Provides a centralized platform within Coupa Procure, allowing easy comparison of items across multiple vendors
• Offers real-time budget management with budget meters, allowing organizations to assess budget sufficiency before committing to spending
• Employs AI and machine learning to detect errors and fraud across business spend
• Enables quick notifications of disruptions and allows vendors to confirm availability, minimizing unplanned downtime
• Provides real-time visibility into inventory availability, helping organizations reduce redundant and wasteful spending

Pricing: 

Request the sales team for a custom quote

Pros:

• Several categories and filters in the analytics section to streamline data
• Chat option enables approver and claimant to discuss issues with receipts
• Enables setting up of customized approval chains and including additional new approvers  

Cons:

• Lots of unnecessary notifications, making it difficult to select the ones that need action or comment
• Low receipt searchability, making retrieval time-consuming
• Inconsistent syncing of remit-to address from NetSuite
• Complex to implement and not intuitive, forcing admins to spend more time resolving employees' queries
• Slow customer service 

6. Esker

Esker is a cloud-based automation procurement software. It helps you optimize procurement processes and collaborate strategically with your vendors. With the ability to integrate across various company departments, it simplifies user adoption while facilitating visibility and control.

Key Features:

• Facilitates approval mechanism and GRN matching for each PR and invoice 
• Offers real-time analytics, enabling you to maintain tighter budget controls
• Gives access to products from preferred vendors, aligning purchases with company procurement policies
• Provides a self-service portal, facilitating supplier onboarding, catalog management, and invoice status access
• Customizable dashboards to manage daily tasks, monitor productivity, and identify issues and opportunities as they arise
• Enables you to customize the interface with your company's corporate identity, enhancing the supplier's ability to identify and engage with your organization seamlessly

Pricing: 

Contact sales for pricing

Pros:

• Contains filtered views to allow for focused priorities 
• Auto-sends payment reminders

Cons:

• Gets expensive with each customization implemented
• Doesn’t allow unused/old customer accounts to be deleted
• Integration with accounting software isn't seamless 
• Approval workflow requires a manual trigger to start

7. PayEm

PayEm offers a procure-to-pay solution, covering everything in one place to replace your traditional procurement process. With a core focus on processing PR, it simplifies the creation of POs with custom forms and approval workflows. It facilitates collaboration between procurement and finance teams to enhance visibility and control. 

Key Features:

• Offers custom request forms equipped with conditional logic to ensure a user-friendly experience
• Provides fully customizable automated approval workflows based on factors like amounts, subsidiaries, and stakeholders
• Integrates with communication platforms like Slack and email, allowing request tracking and approvals
• Consolidates all the requests and approvals, simplifying discussions, document sharing, and creating an audit log
• Enables real-time updates and clear overviews of request statuses, minimizing the need for follow-up inquiries
• Offers OCR technology for invoice processing
• Syncs with your ERP and enables exporting reconciled transactions and uploading them to your ERP 
• Automates vendor management with payment scheduling, funds transferring, and limits setting for each vendor

Pricing: 

Request a custom quote

Pros:

• Multiple virtual credit cards for different vendors
• Supports global transactions 

Cons:

• Some vendors don't accept PayEm cards
• High transaction clearing time 
• Limits the user to either a virtual or physical card at one time 

8. Pipefy

Pipefy is an automation procure-to-pay tool to manage end-to-end procurement processes, from PR to paying vendors, to create a frictionless experience. It aims to break silos between teams to simplify purchase and AP. 

Key Features:

• Allows you to create and customize workflows, from purchase requisition to supplier management
• Provides secure portals where records and documents can be organized, ensuring that all information is easily accessible, especially during audits
• Ensures compliance with custom forms that include required fields to accelerate POs
• Enables access to real-time insights to help you forecast ideal quantities and vendors for requisitions
• Evaluates your processes, delivering reliable data to enable strategic and data-driven decisions
• Integrates with your existing ERPs and accounting systems, such as NetSuite, Oracle E-business Suite, QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, etc.  
• Enables deadline alerts, approval flows, and information exchange to prevent late fees and cashing in on early payment discounts
• Offers a customizable dashboard to streamline vendor registration, updates, onboarding, and contract management

Pricing:

Offers three packages starting with a free option for smaller teams, and a subsequent model that costs $20 per month per user and $34 per month per user. Also, offers an enterprise plan with custom pricing

Pros: 

• Offers templates for organizing processes

Cons:

• Complex sign-up process
• Workflows aren’t flexible with difficulty with respect to adding new users and making changes 
• Difficult to import data and search in the database for information

9. Procurify

Procurify speeds up the procurement process, enhances internal communication, and reduces financial risks. It is an easy-to-implement tool that saves time for finance and operations teams. From catalog management to custom user controls, it helps to track the procurement process in real time. 

Key Features:

• Tailors POs to match your internal processes and vendor expectations
• Creates, tracks, and maintains an audit trail of all procurement transactions for transparency and compliance
• Enhances financial controls by enabling PO-based purchasing
• Ensures that requested items are approved against budgets before procurement
• Syncs PO with your accounting system or ERP, whether via API, CSV, flat file, or direct integration
• Integrates with trusted vendors through punchout catalogs to streamline the ordering process
• Enables blanket PO, which involve making multiple purchases against a single PO, even when details of future purchases may be unknown
• Provides PO workflows to save on shipping costs, unlock vendor discounts, and reduce paperwork 

Pricing: 

Starts at $2000/month with a custom pricing tier

Pros:

• Easy-to-make amendments in the original PO
• Enables ordering from multiple websites for resources, including Amazon
• Makes it easy to upload documents to support expense and order reports

Cons:

• Doesn’t offer payment services in UAE, so you will need to carry out payments on a different platform
• Doesn’t cater to the UAE market, and does not support UAE-specific workflows such as VAT management
• Cannot edit orders once they are approved
• Cannot see the order history for a catalog item without running a report
• Physical inventory has to be tracked outside Procurify

Which Procure-to-Pay Software Should You Pick?

Don’t choose a platform that offers the maximum functionality. Instead, choose the one that is user-friendly and flexible. 

Procurement is already a complex process that requires visibility by different stakeholders. Choosing a tool that offers visibility and accommodates complex business needs will help you transform your chaotic procure-to-pay process. 

If you want to get started, book a demo, and our team will help you identify the bottlenecks and make the entire process simpler and manageable.

The traditional procurement process is time-consuming, prone to errors, complex, and challenging to implement efficiently. From raising a purchase request to making vendor payments, multiple stakeholders are involved. In addition, securing approvals through various channels of an organization leads to chaos. Hence, 77% of companies are shifting to procure-to-pay solutions, also known as procurement software.

What is Procurement Software? 

Procurement software are tools that automate the procurement process. 

Instead of relying on multiple platforms and different channels to procure goods and services, the process is automated and brought together on a centralized platform. 

A powerful procurement solution helps you in:

• streamlining the request and approval process for purchases
• generating, tracking, and managing purchase orders
• creating, negotiating, and tracking supplier contracts
• managing and maintaining supplier relationships 
• automating invoice validation, approval, and payment workflows
• integrating with other systems for seamless data flow and coordination.

What Are the Benefits of Procurement Software? 

By automating your procurement process with a procurement management software, you can improve it in the following ways: 

• Once you enter data, it is auto-populated throughout the procurement cycle. This minimizes the risk of errors due to manual data entry in purchase orders, invoices, and other documents.
• You get real-time visibility into the procurement process. You can also track the status of purchase requests, orders, deliveries, and payments. 
• With built-in reporting and analytics tools, you can generate detailed reports on spending, supplier performance, and other key metrics. This data-driven insight enables better inventory planning and strategic decision-making.
• You can standardize workflows for purchase requisitions and approvals. Route the requests to the appropriate individuals for approval and reduce any delays. Notifications and reminders are automated, ensuring timely responses.
• Invoice processing and payment workflows are automated. This ensures that invoices are paid on time. This helps in taking advantage of early payment discounts and strengthens vendor relationships. 

Top 6 Procurement Software 

To help you select the procurement management software best suited for the needs of your organization, we have listed the top 6 procurement solutions:

1. Pluto 

Pluto is an all-in-one procurement software designed to transform your accounts payable (AP) processes. It reduces your finance team's workload and makes procurement easy. From automating purchase requests to setting multi-layer approval workflows and managing vendors, it is the ultimate procurement solution to transform a chaotic procurement process into a faster and more efficient one. 

Key Features:

• Features fully customizable and automated workflows for raising purchase requests and purchase orders, requiring no technical expertise
• Offers flexible approval engine capable of managing intricate hierarchies
• Enables multi-layer invoice approvals with policies to align with your company's structure
• Ability to upload invoices easily via WhatsApp images, eliminating the need to search for invoice details. Also, facilitates invoice capture via emails directly to speed up the receipt capture process.
• A centralized dashboard to gather bills in one place and track the status to avoid double payments
• Vendor-specific corporate cards to control budgets and detect irrelevant expenses
• Supports local and international wire transfers to make payments 
• OCR technology minimizes manual data entry by creating and populating bills from invoices
• Supports ERP integration to synchronize your vendors, POs, and bills and integrates with accounting software, such as Oracle, NetSuite, Zoho, Quickbooks, Wafeq, Xero, etc.
• Raises alerts for upcoming payments and enables scheduling payments in advance and automate invoices 
• Provides a complete audit trail of the process to ensure visibility at each step
• Shows real-time analytics to facilitate deep insights for supporting budget control

Pricing:

‍Request the sales team for a custom quote

Pros:

• More financial control with vendor-specific corporate cards 
• Better Forex rates than most local banks 
• Multiple integration options

Cons:

• Slightly longer on-boarding due to corporate card offering 
• Integrates with all other major ERPs except Tally

2. Yooz 

‍

Yooz optimizes the AP process, specifically focusing on invoice management. It is a cloud based software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies to enhance security and control in AP automation. It is suitable for mid-size companies of all sectors wanting to automate procurement with a cloud-based procurement solution. 

Key Features:

• Enables online, real-time management of supplier relationships, improving communication and collaboration
• Provides mobile access for invoice approval and communication
• Maintains regulation-compliant traceability, ensuring adherence to relevant laws and standards
• Automates real-time GL coding and purchase order matching
• Captures all types of documents through various channels, such as email, drag-and-drop, mobile, scan, and sFTP, supporting multiple formats, including PDF, Factur-X, UBL, CII, and EDIFACT
• Integrates with accounting software and  and ERPs
• Allows users to approve and pay invoices in batches, offering multiple payment options, such as Virtual Credit Card, ACH, eCheck, and Paper Check
• Offers a range of services, including consulting, configuration, training, and user support

Pricing:

Free trial for up to 15 days followed by a "pay-as-you-use" model.

Pros:

• Integration with Sage Intacct
• Ability to tag people in the comments and email them directly from the invoice
• Numerous criteria available for setting up the approval workflows

Cons: 

• Doesn’t offer payment services in UAE, so you need to carry out payments on a different platform
• Doesn't have integrations with major suppliers as a form of punchout
• Time-consuming to download and export files
• Hard for vendors to send the invoices through Yooz

3. Procurify

Procurify speeds up the procurement process, enhances internal communication, and reduces financial risks. It is an easy-to-implement tool that saves time for finance and operations teams. From catalog management to custom user controls, it helps to track the procurement process in real-time. 

Key Features:

• Tailors purchase orders to match your internal processes and vendor expectations
• Creates, tracks, and maintains an audit trail of all procurement transactions for transparency and compliance.
• Enhances financial controls by enabling purchase order-based purchasing
• Ensures that requested items are approved against budgets before procurement.
• Sync purchase orders with your accounting system or ERP, whether via API, CSV, flat file, or direct integration
• Integrates with trusted suppliers through PunchOut catalogs to streamline the ordering process.
• Enables blanket purchase orders, which involve making multiple purchases against a single purchase order, even when details of future purchases may be unknown.
• Purchase order workflows to save on shipping costs, unlock vendor discounts, and reduce paperwork 

Pricing:

Starts at $2000/month with a custom pricing tier

Pros:

• Easy to make amendments in the original purchase order
• Enables ordering from multiple websites for resources, including Amazon
• Makes it easy to upload documents to support expense and order reports

Cons:

• Doesn’t offer payment services in UAE, so you will need to carry out payments on a different platform
• Isn’t catered to the UAE market, and does not support UAE specific workflows such as VAT management
• Cannot edit orders once they are approved
• Cannot see the order history for a catalog item without running a report
• Physical inventory has to be tracked outside Procurify

4. Precoro

Precoro is a cloud-based solution designed to streamline operations, automate tasks, and centralize purchasing procedures. It enables tracking discounts, monitoring corporate expenses, and enhancing cash flow transparency. It also provides analytics and reports for strategic procurement planning.

Key Features:

• Simplifies the approval by allowing users to approve from any device via email or Slack notifications. 
• Supports customizable approval workflows with multi-step and role assignment
• Facilitates creating, approving, and tracking purchase orders and transfer orders from Amazon Business via Punch-in
• Connects with various ERPs and business tools like NetSuite, QuickBooks, and Xero, or its API
• Ensures data security through Single Sign-On (SSO) and 2-factor authentication
• Offers an intuitive interface and guidance from a dedicated customer success manager whenever needed
• Gives a risk-free 14-day free trial with access to all features

Pricing:

Starts at $35 per user per month billed annually for teams with under 20 members and offers custom pricing for enterprises

Pros:

1. Provides flexibility for enterprise needs
2. Works well for budgeting procurement
3. Allows tracking invoices in a centralized environment

Cons: 

1. Requires training to customize complex workflows
2. Invoice processing is slow
3. Isn’t suitable for manufacturing industries
4. Difficult to collaborate on invoice drafting

5. Kissflow

Kissflow simplifies and enhances procurement processes while ensuring transparency and compliance. It helps to automate the entire process without requiring technical expertise or coding experience. It comes with 50+ ready-to-use applications, enabling unlimited automation applications.  

Key Features:

• Offers fluid forms to enable easy capturing, approval, and tracking of purchase requests
• Allows to register and maintain vendors effortlessly with access to multilingual catalogs
• Integration with accounting systems, ERP, and finance systems like Quickbooks, SAP, and Microsoft Dynamics 
• Accelerates the invoice approval process with timely alerts and automated checks. Connect invoices to contracts, purchase orders, and service entry sheets in a single dashboard
• Customizable reports to visualize data using charts, filters, and heatmaps
• Ability to define and manage budget restrictions with dynamic rules throughout the entire procure-to-pay lifecycle
• Customized approval workflows to ensure transparency with rule-based approval processes
• Smart alerts that provide real-time updates on the status of purchase orders and invoices to keep stakeholders informed 

Pricing:

Starts at $2499/month (billed annually). Pricing varies based on transaction volume and number of users.

Pros: 

• Intuitive interface with a relatively short learning curve
• Allows automated workflows to be created with limited technical expertise

Cons:

• Not built specifically for procurement teams
• Does not support payment flows in UAE
• Cost of its license is high (particularly for SMBs)
• Can not handle intricate processes that require a high degree of customization or involve multiple conditional branches
• Customization options are limited, including specific integrations, advanced business rules, or more sophisticated automation capabilities

6. Vendr

Vendr is a practical solution for streamlining SaaS procurement. It simplifies the entire process, from intake requests to contract management. It provides essential SaaS insights, negotiates expert advice, and integrates with core business tools for procurement and vendor management. 

Key Features:

• Buyer guides to provide negotiation insights and gain the upper hand in software purchases
• Negotiation advisory to provide personalized guidance on negotiating like a pro and enter negotiations with confidence
• Simplified intake forms to ensure company-wide compliance and visibility
• Integration with different accounting and finance tools, such as Oracle, NetSuite, Intuit, Quickbooks. 
• Integrates with platforms like Rippling Workday to include correct stakeholders. Additional integration with SSO providers such as onelogin.
• Comprehensive renewal dashboard to receive early alerts and streamline the renewal preparation process to maximize savings.
• Vendr Slack integration for quick answers and timely notifications to collaborate in real time with your team, minimizing approval cycle times

Pricing:

There are 2 packages—the basic one starts at $15,000/year and the pro package starts at $20,000/year.

Pros:

• Offers assisted buying with a team who negotiates on your behalf
• Comprehensive database of vendors in one place
• Helps standardize procurement workflow 
• Provides insights about fair market value 

Cons:

• Restricted to SaaS procurement only 
• Multilingual services are limited 
• Navigating multiple workflows is not as fluid as desired
• Doesn't support multiple currencies 

Find the Right Procurement Software 

When choosing procurement software, focus on user-friendliness, scalability, and integration capabilities. Make sure the software aligns with your specific needs.

Finding the right software for accounts payable automation will be crucial for your business. For instance, if you frequently deal with multiple suppliers and have a complex approval process, ensure the software can accommodate these intricacies. Similarly, if you're in the healthcare industry, look for procurement software that complies with industry regulations like UAE Healthcare Law and the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) regulations. This ensures the privacy and security of patient data and adheres to local data protection standards. Moreover, check if the vendor offers active support and training. In case of a technical issue, having an unresponsive support team can disrupt the process and create bottlenecks.

Don't rush the decision. Thoroughly evaluate multiple options. Investing in an appropriate solution will save you money and headaches in the long run.

Want a tool that is safe, fast, and transforms your chaotic procurement process into an automated solution? Book a demo today and see how Pluto can simplify procurement for your team.

Travel and expense management is crucial for ensuring that business-related travel expenses are kept in check. However the accurate collection and reporting of all travel-related expenses pose a significant challenge.

As the person in charge of managing your organization's finances, you should be obsessed with making all expense management as efficient as possible in order to save money.

But how can you simplify the travel and expense management process when there are so many moving parts and people involved? By using the right tools for the job.

In this guide, you’ll learn the importance of having a good travel and expense management policy, how to make your T&E management more efficient, and what to look for in travel and expense management software.

What is travel and expense management?

Travel and Expense (T&E) management is the process companies follow to monitor and control business travel expenses. T&E management is vital as it affects the company's financial well-being directly by ensuring all travel-related expenses are tracked for tax deduction purposes.

T&E management involves tracking and controlling expenditures such as flights, accommodation, meals, and client entertainment. Effective T&E management ensures that these costs are necessary, reasonable, and aligned with the organization's policies and goals. This management is particularly vital as travel and entertainment expenses can quickly accumulate and become significant financial commitments for businesses.

Why is travel and expense management important?

As a finance professional, you know that cost management and expense reduction are crucial aspects of financial management work. One of the ways you can do this is by tracking all deductible expenses for tax reduction purposes.

And when it comes to the hierarchy of expenses you need to keep track of, those related to corporate travel and entertainment are of particular importance.

According to Mastercard, corporate travel and entertainment expenses have become the second-highest expense category.

But not only does T&E account for a large portion of the business expenses that companies have to deal with, but it’s also been identified as the second most difficult operating cost to control.

That’s why it’s so important that your organization develops and maintains effective T&E management policies, and uses the tools available to simplify T&E management.

The challenges of travel and expense management

Managing travel and expense (T&E) can be a complex task, often fraught with a range of challenges. These challenges can significantly hinder the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization's T&E process. Key challenges include:

1. Limited Fund Access: Employees often face constraints in accessing funds for travel-related expenses, which can lead to delays and complications.

2. Security Risks: The management of expenses, especially in a digital format, raises concerns regarding data security and the risk of financial fraud.

3. Outdated Policies: An organization's T&E policies may become obsolete or fail to align with current business needs and practices, leading to inefficiencies and policy breaches.

4. Lost Reports: Misplaced or lost expense reports can disrupt the reimbursement process, leading to employee dissatisfaction and administrative headaches.

5. Inefficient Bookkeeping: Manual and outdated bookkeeping methods can result in errors and inefficiencies, making it difficult to track and manage expenses accurately.

6. Lack of Spending Visibility: Without clear visibility into T&E spending, organizations struggle to control costs and make informed budgetary decisions.

7. Slow Reimbursement Process: Delays in processing reimbursements can demotivate employees and hinder efficient financial management.

How to make travel and expense management process efficient

1. Review your travel expenses and reimbursements

One of the first things you should do is take a look at your current travel expenses to see if there are any changes to be made.

Business travelers will always need to take trips, but perhaps there are some interactions that could be handled via videoconferencing.

You can also look for ways to minimize the expenses that need to be reimbursed. For instance, by using Pluto corporate cards, you could help eliminate, or at least reduce, the need to reimburse food expenses while giving you better control over them.

2. Examine your travel policy and keep it simple

If you are having trouble with your T&E management, you should take a look at your current travel policies (and if you don’t have one already, you should make that your top priority).

Your T&E policies need to strike a balance between flexibility and strictness. Too flexible and you create waste; too rigid and you limit the ability for people to do their jobs.

A good T&E policy should include the following:

• How travel will be booked
• The process to follow for reimbursement (including what type of supporting documentation is necessary, due dates, and other stipulations).
• Any budget or spending limits, including the specific transportation methods or hotels that can be used.
• Meal allowances.

And you want to keep your policy simple and easy to read. Minimize the jargon, use short paragraphs, and a simple format with bullet points, tables, and clear headings.

You should continuously review your expense policy, particularly as your business expands, to ensure that it’s aligned with any changes in your organization. 

3. Go paperless

Your team should be able to access your expense policy from anywhere and at any time. But more than that, you should aim to digitize the expense report process as much as possible.

For instance, implement the ability to submit digital expense reports and capture receipts digitally. Not only will this allow you to get a clearer view of your operations at all times, but it will help simplify your bookkeeping and easily manage receipts.

Pluto has this function! 

4. Use travel expense management software

Through effective use of travel and expense management systems, you can consolidate the different scaffolds in your expense process, automate them, and eliminate time-consuming approvals while minimizing, or outright eliminating, human error.

Using Pluto allows you to cut a lot of the fat out of the reimbursement process. Automate reports, data gathering, and approvals for expenses that meet your policies, leaving only those that don’t meet your policies for manual approval. 

Furthermore, it can help you detect fraud by auditing your reports for duplicate expenses and any other anomalies.

And through software integration, you can use these different tools to create a unified T&E management process. 

5.  Top solutions for travel and expense management

There are many tools you can use to make your T&E management more efficient, for instance:

• Pluto Card allows you to issue unlimited virtual cards, create travel specific card limits  monitor spending in real-time and most importantly, it allows your employees to reimburse quickly!
• A travel expense tracker can provide you with automated expense reporting and expense tracking.
• You can use a travel management platform that allows your employees to book flights, trains, and hotels and even rent cars from one place.
• Pluto mobile app makes the expense reporting process much simpler for your employees.
• You could take data from Pluto and travel management system directly into your accounting platform to further automate and simplify the T&E management process.

Expense management software for T&E management

One of the best ways to simplify your travel and expense management is by making use of the right T&E management software. However, with the increasing amount of options available, knowing which one fits your company best can be difficult.

Since no two businesses are exactly the same, there won’t be a one-size-fits-all solution. Having said that, you’ll have an easier time choosing between the different options by focusing on the specific features that you need, or at least should consider, in a T&E management platform.

Key features to look for in a travel and expense management software

1. Virtual cards

Pluto gives you the ability to create virtual cards for online purchases. These cards can be generated as single-use or recurring, giving you complete control in terms of how you set up your spending limits.

Virtual cards offer you similar benefits to corporate cards, in the sense that you get full visibility of your expenses and your employees don’t have to pay upfront, but they have the added benefit of being more customizable.

2. Flexible spending limits

Our expense management software can also give you a lot of control and flexibility over the spending limits that you set. Pluto allows you to set specific spending-limits for vendor and change them in real-time online. 

This allows you to track expenses for specific countries or cities, while removing the need to manually configure spending limits each time someone makes a trip request.

3. Expense reports and analytics

If you want to make your expense management more efficient, you’ll need accurate data and insights into the spending habits of your employees.

Pluto gives you real-time reporting and analytics, to give your finance teams an easier time combing through all the expense data. For instance, a system with robust reporting capabilities should:

• Categorize expenses and organize reports by expense type
• Reconcile your reports
• Give you spending insights across all your departments
• Keep track of violations of your expense policies
• Provide you with real time spend visibility

By getting a clear picture of your expenses, you’ll have an easier time ensuring policy compliance, preventing fraud, and reducing travel costs.

4. No FX fees and multi-currency functionality

If your employees travel internationally frequently, you’ll want a product that comes with a card that doesn’t have additional fees or surcharges for international purchases.

At Pluto we have 0 FX fees. Furthermore, you’ll have an easier time managing these expenses due to multi-currency functionality automatically converting all transaction information to your country’s currency.

5. Mobile functionality

If you are trying to simplify your expense reporting process for travel expenses, then you need a way to work on those expenses on the go. Pluto’s mobile app would allow your employees to report their expenses right away from any location, while also giving them the ability to submit receipts digitally.

6. Integrated card management

If you opt for a software provider that also offers corporate credit card services, you’ll be able to automatically reconcile expense report entries with your card statements, detect any expense bottlenecks, and generally reduce the chances of fraud or misuse. 

Pluto card management software will also give you more control over your corporate spending. Plus, you’ll be able to set and control your spending limits with much more ease.

7. Compatibility with other tools

When it comes to the use of technology in expense management, the more, the merrier.

Pluto can be integrated with your accounting software so that it can automatically populate expense reports and simplify your reimbursement through the use of your organization's accounting data.

Furthermore, by integrating your TEM system with your travel management system you can instantly take the travel booking information and add it to your expense reports.

8. Automated workflows, expense categorization, and tax calculation

The entire point of using travel expense management software is to automate as many processes as possible.

This includes the ability to customize your travel policies and approval workflows, categorize expenses for more straightforward tax calculation, and determine whether they are tax deductible or not.

Furthermore, by categorizing your expenses, you’ll have an easier time complying with the tax regulations of your country.

9. Scalability

One feature that is sometimes overlooked in software platforms is the ability to scale your operations as your company grows. You don’t want to choose a system now only to realize it no longer meets your needs further down the line.

In this regard, Pluto is a great pick as we have the backend to support any business sidez from small teams to enterprise level accounts. 

Key takeaways

Effective expense management is all about visibility, flexibility, control, and automation. The most common pain points from T&E management come from outdated policies and manual inputs, which you should seek to update and simplify via means of a robust expense management platform.

When it comes to making your travel and expense management more efficient, the key things to remember are:

• Review and update your policy continuously to ensure it meets the needs of your business and employees.
• Examine your current expenses to look for opportunities to reduce reimbursements and consolidate expenses.
• Use Pluto to automate approval workflows and simplify the expense reporting process.
• Pluto also offers strong reporting capabilities, gives you a lot of flexibility for spending limits, and can be integrated with other tools for maximum effectiveness.

‍