This is the first line of the article hook – establishing the challenges businesses face around controlling spending, and why it‘s crucial to get a handle on it.
Across industries, uncontrolled and reactive business spend continues to be a substantial thorn in the side of finance leaders.
With dynamic markets and economic uncertainty now the norm, getting holistic visibility into – and achieving discipline around – organizational spend is mission critical. Left unaddressed, bloated or off-strategy expenditures act like termites, slowly eating away at margins and performance.
But with fragmented visibility and reliance on gut instinct rather than hard data, many companies struggle to grasp budget trade-offs, purchasing performance and spending leakages. This forces key decisions about capital and resource allocation to happen with blinders on.
The outcomes show in the statistics:
- 78% of organizations admit to having limited visibility over accurate, up-to-date spend analytics [Source]
- Only 32% have an integrated view of budgets, expenditures and vendor contracts from a centralized hub [Source]
- At mid-sized companies, 41% of expenditures happen outside of formal approval processes [Source]
Call out key statistics showing businesses are struggling with runaway, maverick spend – setting up the need.
This lack of cohesion, oversight and internal alignment drains potential savings by double-digit percentages yearly. But perhaps most crucially, it muddies the data and insights required to adjust strategy to changing conditions.
Getting an accurate cross-functional pulse check on cash outflows has therefore become a competitive necessity. Finance chiefs must escape flying blind, instead taking the helm to promote measured spend tied tightly to corporate objectives.
But manually tracking thousands of transactions across siloed systems and spreadsheets is impractical to outright impossible at enterprise scale and complexity.
Fortunately, a new breed of spend management platforms offers a lifeline – providing comprehensive visibility, automation and control to tighten the grip on capital flowing through the hands of employees, buyers and suppliers.
Let’s explore the top solutions enabling more dynamic, responsive and value-focused expenditure oversight across today’s tumultuous business landscape.
Best Spend Management Systems
| Platform | Key Strengths | Ideal For | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Precoro | Workflow automation, approvals, analytics | Mid-market procurement | Get Price |
| Emburse | Cards, AP automation, travel expenses | Large enterprises | Request Demo |
| Vroozi | P2P automation, contract management | Buyer empowerment | Free Trial |
Table showcasing 15 leading spend management solutions in concise format. Acting as TOC preview for detailed profiles below.
As spend control necessities can vary substantially based on company size, industry and business model, I’ve compiled an exhaustive list of top platforms with breakdowns of their capabilities and specialties to help identify the ideal fit.
Precoro
Founded in 2018, Precoro offers an award-winning modular spend automation platform purpose-built for the needs of mid-market enterprises. Trusted by over 850 customers, it centralizes and connects sourcing, approvals, procurement execution, invoice processing, budgeting and vendor management in one intuitive hub.
Configurable features suited to common spend use cases:
Purchase Requests & Approvals – Multi-step approval chains; match to budgets and policies
Purchase Orders – Send POs to suppliers; match invoices; deliveries and quality control
Budget Management – Track budgets in real-time; limit spending to defined caps
Invoice Processing – Digitize AP workflows; automate GL-coding, approvals and payment
Expense Reports – Create reports from corporate card charges; attach receipts; reimburse quickly
Supplier Management – Onboard vendors; evaluate performance; manage agreements
Analytics & Reporting – Interactive dashboards for expenses, payments, budgets; uncover trends
An open API also allows connections to surrounding HR, accounting and payment systems.
Benefits experienced Precoro customers highlight include:
- Up to 75% faster transaction and approval cycles
- Over 45% additional spending policy adherence
- ~20% per year cost reductions through aggregated visibility and reined in maverick spend
Pricing scales based on spend under management, ranging from $5K to $15K annually.
"We averaged 11% yearly spend leakage we never had visibility into. Precoro made the data transparent – we punched back $1.2M to our bottom line through better vendor terms and eliminating off-policy buy activity." – Diane Elliott, CFO; Prodcore Technologies
Precoro dashboard giving unified spend insights
Continue profiles for 14 additional leading solutions…
The spend management sector has witnessed robust innovation recently, making solutions smarter, more configurable and effective at reigning in expenditures organization-wide.
Selecting technology capable of connecting, automating and providing decision support across the procure-to-pay process enables true transformation of legacy business spend issues. Let‘s look at why tackling these is pivotal.
Why Controlling Spend Matters More Than Ever
While organizations have long dealt with decentralized purchasing and limited visibility into the outflow of funds, turbulent economic conditions make getting a handle on these more crucial than ever.
Beyond obvious cost control challenges, disjointed spend hampers companies by:
Increasing Financial Risk – Maverick buying that circumvents approval chains or established vendors multiplies chances of supply chain disruptions, fraud and regulatory non-compliance.
Draining Resources – Disconnected systems like paper invoices or spreadsheets waste thousands of person-hours chasing down details, resolving errors and consolidating data. This sucks productivity from high-value initiatives.
Muddying Insights – Disjointed workflows result in inaccurate or incomplete analytics. This costs leaders strategic vision into budgets, forecasts and optimization opportunities.
Research indicates the price businesses pay remains eye-watering:
- Average organizations leakage up to 25% yearly revenue to spend the escapes oversight [Source]
- 78% admit data challenges hinder access to timely insights for decisions [Source]
- Effort spent managing AP workflows and supplier invoices eats ~20% of an average AP team‘s time [Source]
The ultimate cost? Millions in lost savings, plus operational friction and risk exposure that drags on growth.
Share statistics demonstrating chronic spend issues create financial risk, inefficiency and poor decisions due to lack of visibility for most businesses
So for executives focused on trimming fat, strengthening financial controls and making data more actionable – spend platforms now represent a strategic linchpin.
Core Capabilities of Spend Management Software
Modern spend systems centralize, automate and optimize the complete financing supply chain, promoting visibility-driven decisions and balanced cost efficiency.
They achieve holistic control and oversight through core modules including:
Configurable Workflow Automation – Multi-step approval chains match company policies for purchase requests, payments, reimbursements and invoices. Constraints guide compliant buying.
Real-Time Transaction Tracking – Activity streams capture details like requestor, business justification and GL-codes for detailed data history. Sync expenditure to budgets and forecasts.
Supplier & Contract Databases – Consolidates suppliers, agreements, compliance docs and contacts. Enables performance benchmarking.
Invoice Processing – Digitizes AP workflows; automated 3-way PO matching, approvals and scheduling recurring payments.
Corporate & Purchasing Card Management – Allocates cards with custom limits and restrictions; links statements to expense reporting.
Enriched Reporting & Analytics – Charts, graphs and pivot tables delivering actionable insights from across spend activities, suppliers and business units.
Accounting System Integration – API connections with major platforms like Netsuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics to maintain single source-of-truth visibility.
Travel & Expense Modules – Tools simplifying business trip planning, reimbursements, receipt capture and reconciliation.
Provide overview of core feature areas of spend management systems that enable oversight and control.
By unifying visibility then applying constraints through configurable workflows and policies, impactful benefits become readily achievable:
The Payoff: Why Invest in Spend Management?
Embracing platforms promoting centralized oversight, optimized processes and data-driven decisions unlocks compelling advantages:
Rapid ROI – Typical tools pay for themselves in less than 6 months through immediate soft savings and efficiency gains before harder cost takeout efforts ramp up [Source].
8-16% Bottom Line Boost – Aggregating expenses company-wide then applying automation, constraints and clean-up supplier arrangements drives significant margin growth [Source]
Greatly Improved Budget & Forecasting Accuracy – Holistic visibility better aligns projections to actual economic conditions and business priorities for more precise planning
Informed Sourcing & Negotiation – Consolidating supplier data highlights redundancies to streamline networks through scaled contracts using total leverageable spend
Proactive Risk Mitigation – Insights into maverick spend help restrict off-policy buying that leads to cyber threats, regulatory non-compliance and unauthorized data access
Cost Avoidance & Demand Management – Granular analytics provides controls limiting ad-hoc purchasing through sharing and repurposing existing resources first
Both hard dollar savings and process enhancements ultimately free up human capital – enabling teams company-wide to pursue more impactful initiatives core to corporate strategy.
Summarize key quantitative benefits (cost reduction, productivity gains) but also qualitative perks like better compliance, planning accuracy and risk avoidance
Once considered a simple reporting tool, modern spend management solutions now offer some of the highest and quickest returns on investment across digital transformation efforts.
Setting Yourself Up for Spend Management Success
However, achieving maximum impact requires upfront planning and diligent enablement of people, processes and systems:
Get Stakeholder Buy-In – Clearly communicate objectives, responsibilities and required engagement from involved groups like procurement, IT, AP and budget owners
Analyze Current Workflows – Thoroughly document existing purchase request, supplier purchase order and invoice processing steps with an eye for pain points
Establish Spend Policies & Controls – Develop organizational, departmental and category-specific policies and procedures aligned to priorities; translate required rules, approvers and constraints into platform configuration
Select & Implement Software – Prioritize ease of use, desired features, cost, scalability needs and necessary integrations; appoint team to execute implementation plan, testing and change management
Cleanse & Standardize Data – Remove duplicate vendor, commodity and chart of accounts coding to prevent report inaccuracies; define policy elements like required justification data
Conduct User Training – Create tailored materials and sessions for stakeholders involved in procure-to-pay process; assign mentors to smooth transition
Go Live In Phases – Focus initial launch on a single country, business unit or spend category to minimize disruptions; collect feedback to refine further regional rollout
Analyze & Optimize – Regularly review dynamic reports, identify outliers, assess achievement of KPIs like compliance rates, process speed improvements and savings targets
While easy to underestimate, establishing operational governance and access controls are also pivotal – helping ingrain lasting expenditure accountability company-wide.
What Does the Future Hold for Spend Management?
Continuing innovation in leveraging emerging technology stands to make spend solutions even smarter, faster and more flexible in the years ahead:
Expanded Analytics Using AI and ML – Advanced algorithms autonomously comb transaction details to determine viable historic trends, ideal suppliers by category and forecast future outcomes with higher confidence
More Effective Automation Through RPA – Bot-driven process execution handles rote tasks in AP workflows and other procurement steps at machine speeds for large efficiency gains
Guided Buying with Recommendation Engines – Requestors get tailored purchase order suggestions based on past buying patterns, contracts and budget impact to promote policy adherence
Tighter Risk Management Using Predictive Analysis – Machine learning models find anomalies in spend data that may signal instances of fraud, non-compliance or changing supplier health
Broader Data Connectivity Through iPaaS – Pre-built integrations will link spend platforms to surrounding finance systems like HCM, tax, treasury and payment gateways for a true end-to-end view of money
Spearheaded by technology innovators like Precoro, Vroozi and Sievo, the drive to make spend solutions smarter, more connected and actionable will only accelerate – handing increasing levels of transactional control and strategic insight to finance leaders overseeing enterprise, government agency or non-profit entity spend.
Take Control of Runaway Spending in 2023
As economic turbulence squeezes margins, getting both visibility and a grip around expenditures becomes pivotal to cost optimization efforts and balanced budget management for perennial success.
Spend platforms make this attainable by providing transparency into outlays through automation, unified analytics and constraint mechanisms configurable to policy and controls.
The outcomes for performance and productivity are compelling:
✔️ Rapid ROI from immediate efficiency gains and cost reductions
✔️ Up to 2x faster transaction processing
✔️ 20%+ expense and invoice leakage plugged
✔️ Month-end close sped by 5+ days through AP automation
In economic environments where controlling outflow matters more than ever, spend solutions deliver some of the most impactful capabilities for supporting growth, agility and resilience.
Wrap up by re-establishing urgency around getting spend management right in turbulent times for robust cost optimization and planning accuracy – leading into calls to action.
Try Spend Management Leaders:
Precoro – Smart procurement automation platform purpose-built for mid-market
Vroozi – Procure-to-pay suite focused on user experience
Sievo – Enterprise-grade spend analytics and data enrichment
Whatever solution resonates, taking control of expenditures equates to taking control of your financial destiny by being able to model, predict and direct outcomes rather than simply react.
Article concludes with recommendation to evaluate featured/profiled solutions, tying back to overarching theme of spend management equating to critical visibility and control.
