This Breaks All the Rules

After a year of stagnation, confusion, and questions, companies might be tempted to burst back onto the scene with a growth-at-all-costs philosophy. You have to do whatever it takes, after all, to make up for lost time, and if that crosses a few policy lines you’ve previously drawn in the sand, well, so be it.

Or not. Those lines were drawn for a reason, and most often, that reason is money. Your policies and protocols were designed to protect your organization from overspending, maverick spending, fraudulent spending, and any other kind of spending that costs your company too much.

Doing business across borders creates other lines in the sand, and the requirements, restrictions, and regulations imposed by local, state, federal, and foreign governments aren’t lines you want to cross. Unless, of course, your company can afford the fines or gleefully fund a public relations nightmare.

So, as always, you have to temper your growth by carefully managing your spend. And that means carefully making sure you’re following the rules.

Compliance isn’t a necessary evil, it’s just necessary

Your commitment to growth in the current environment is both applauded and understandable. The whole world wants what you want: To pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start growing. To do so, you’re going to have to make a commitment to continuous improvement and take an honest look at how you’ve been doing things.

Are there ways you can move forward faster? Are there things you can do differently to realize better results? Do the processes and policies (i.e., compliance) you’ve always had fit with the way you do business now?

Regardless of your answers, it’s always a good idea to have the right tools in place, so:

• You can more easily manage spending and remove the barriers to growth.
• Finance leaders can rest easy knowing the right systems are in place to protect budgets and keep compliance under control, so they can keep the business moving forward.
• Program administrators can refine and improve policies and workflows to strengthen cost controls and compliance, while making the process easier for themselves and employees all across the company.

What might those tools look like? You need the tools to enable you, for example,

• Push automatic reviews as close to the purchase as possible and reduce non-compliant spending before the money goes out the door.
• Use intelligent technology to flag specific expense report spending that needs manager or auditor review.
• Tap into in-depth reporting and analytics to review how you’re performing against policies, to identify trends or gaps, and to build improvement plans.
• Use intelligent technology to improve VAT reclaim so you can efficiently meet requirements and bring money back to the business

A dozen ways to build a culture of compliance

When compliant spending is easier than non-compliant spending, guess what happens: People follow the rules, and you don’t burn through budgets. And, just as importantly, it doesn’t feel like there are commands that have to be followed or restrictions to be policed. It’s just easier for everyone in the company to pick preferred vendors and stick to negotiated pricing. It’s easier for entire company to maintain compliance.

With the right solution at work, staying within spend policy becomes part of the corporate culture, compliance happens naturally – and because you know what you’ve got to spend, growth is easier to manage.

This eBook provides you 12 tips to consider when examining compliance management or looking for new solutions. Download the tip sheet to get more information into helpful tips you can put into practice to strengthen compliance across your spending.