How to Improve Cashflow: Top Tips for Finance

When your business uses manual, paper-based finance processes, all the information you need is there, but finding it in a timely manner is hard. That means it’s hard to keep track of cashflow – and even harder to improve it.

Finance automation with solutions such as Concur Invoice and Concur Expense means data flows into your systems automatically, saving you time. Plus, you’re able to analyse information much more easily and action insights that will help you improve cashflow. Take Samantha Henton from Hammerson for example. Getting visibility into their spend enabled them to better forecast cashflow to plan for business growth.

Let’s look in more detail at some of the ways finance automation helps improve your processes and, in turn, improve your cashflow.

Real Time Visibility into Your Data

Understanding where the cash is in your business is the critical element of cashflow. Finance automation gives you real time visibility you need.

For example, automated expense processes smooths peaks and troughs in employee spend because it’s easier for employees to submit expense claims and allows the finance team to make reimbursements more quickly. It also speeds up accounts payable processes so you can reduce late payment fees from suppliers.

One SAP Concur customer reports how gaining more visibility in all aspects of their business, and having real time insight into their spend, was an important win for them.

Standard Reports Track Progress and Target Productivity

The chances are you and the rest of the finance team need to know the same information every month. It’s true of every other department in the business too. With finance automation, standard reports can be generated automatically each month so you can spend more time on the analysis and less time on the data mining.

For one SAP Concur customer the ability to generate standard reports automatically allowed them to achieve one of their critical targets: productivity and process improvements that would save them time they could spend on more important things such as driving their growth.

Transparency and Proactivity Deliver Action

For many businesses, the immediate access to cashflow information that finance automation brings means they can do things that simply weren’t possible before. Information becomes much easier to share and allows managers to gain better insight. In SAP Concur you can set up bespoke dashboards so each department can access the reports that are relevant for them at the click of a mouse.

For example, managers can easily see how much they’re spending with a certain supplier so they have the information they need to negotiate a discount. They’re also able to spot when spend is too high in a certain area so they can take steps to reduce it.

For one SAP Concur customer, not having to report manually means they have more time for face-to-face meetings to look at opportunities to do more in the business. They also highlight how managers are increasingly seeing ways they can manage their own spend more effectively and making use of what real-time information has to offer.

Empowering Teams and Improving Morale

Finance automation frees up time for you to spend on the more important things. Research suggests the people responsible for processing expenses and invoices save over 15% of their time when finance automation is in place.

One SAP Concur customer reported that developing their people was a key growth priority. Having the system in place allowed them to broaden the team’s experience and give them new assignments because they were spending less time on manual processes.

Make Managing Cash Flow Easier

When cash is flowing smoothly through your business then your business is running smoothly. Finance automation makes it easier to monitor and manage cashflow so you’re able to make changes to improve it. If you would like to discuss how it could work in your business, contact SAP Concur today. And for more tips on improving cashflow, watch How Hammerson Fuels Growth with SAP Concur.