ProSpend report urges modernisation in financial operations

ProSpend has released a new report titled Modern Spend and Expense Management: A CFO's Guide to Financial Transformation, advocating for modernisation in financial operations.

The report highlights the issue that finance teams are often hindered by manual processes and outdated systems.

"Many mid-market finance teams are stuck with outdated expense management systems. While businesses adopt digital tools elsewhere, expense processes often lag, tied to legacy methods that drain time and expose organisations to avoidable risks," says Sharon Nouh, CEO of ProSpend. "For CFOs, these inefficiencies are both operational headaches and strategic disadvantages in an increasingly competitive landscape."

The report includes insights from various finance and expense management leaders, such as Umair Awan, Tax Consultant and Business Advisor, BSAF Group, and Kerryn Divall, CFO, RSL NSW, amongst others.

These insights aim to uncover both the challenges and opportunities within the realm of expense management.

According to Andrew Mooney, a fractional CFO, many organisations continue to face challenges despite the transition to electronic processing.

"While electronic processing has mostly replaced paper documents, the process itself has remained essentially unchanged," he says.

Dhanush Ganglani, CEO of EdenX, elaborates on the manual nature of traditional expense management, which involves paper-based receipts and manual approvals.

"The workflow includes submitting receipts, verifying expenses, recording them in ledgers, obtaining approvals, and processing reimbursements. These methods often rely on physical documentation and human oversight, which makes them time-consuming and error-prone," he explains.

The outdated processes not only affect time management but also pose risks of errors and delays in decision-making. "These outdated systems hinder real-time spend analysis and limit access to up-to-date financial information, making strategic decision-making more difficult," states Umair Awan. He further points to the challenges in scalability and regulatory compliance due to these systems.

Jon Morgan, CEO of Venture Smarter, acknowledges similar hurdles even in markets with more advanced adoption of technology. He comments on the significant time lost in manual approval processes.

"One client I worked with in retail was spending 15-plus hours a week just on invoice approvals," he says. "That's a huge waste of time, not to mention the risk of errors."

Sujeet Jena, a Virtual CFO, agrees that these issues transcend industry lines.

"While my experience is rooted in education and for-purpose, the challenges—and solutions—are highly relevant across the wider commercial sector," he says.

Riley Redford, CFO of Xrii, explains how technology-assisted systems can mitigate many of these inefficiencies. "These tools streamline reporting, reduce admin hours, and allow us to focus more on analysis and strategic positioning," he shares.

Kerryn Divall, CFO at RSL New South Wales, compares managing technology spend to servicing a car, emphasising the importance of trust in process optimisation.

Retief Lampen, CFO of iion, also highlights the benefits of integrating data-driven tools for enhanced visibility and agility in spend management.