5 major finance insights managers need to be aware of in 2024

Planning is essential to aid the proper functioning of a company’s finance and management. However, planning for the future is hard to get right without first properly evaluating the past. Finance management teams across the globe need to stay on top of the most critical company insights for them to be able to design POAs that truly resonate with company goals and objectives.

In this article, we are going to be discussing insights that finance managers have been finding to be most relevant in the current scenario. Read on to get a comprehensive understanding of 5 company insights that have been touted to be the most critical to finance team goals by finance managers in 2024.

1. Chasing employees for receipts

It’s 2024, with the level of financial resources that are available to companies today, finance teams should not have to worry about running around employees to gather receipts anymore.

If you are facing delays in processing payments, approvals, etc. simply because you’re losing time chasing documents then that’s an insight you should definitely crackdown on. Delays that are caused by such cases can be quite detrimental to the overall flow of financial operations in your company.

In fact, invoice processing delays go on to compound the pressure that falls on your finance teams to close books at the end of the process. To establish a streamlined, efficient money management system you need to ensure such delays are completely eradicated.

You can combat this issue by, for example, using state-of-the-art financial software, like Volopay, that can automate invoice processing. This software can automatically store invoices and extract data from the documents using OCR as well.

2. Manual processes that cause blockages

Manual spend management systems are infamous for how common bottlenecks and blockages are. For example, data entry errors, duplicate processing of invoices, delays caused by manual steps are all common sources of bottlenecks in financial management.

In 2024, finding blockages as a part of your insights is never a good sign. They can cause your company’s work to come to a grinding halt. Bottlenecks can also be quite expensive and tricky to navigate and solve.

Reviewing and addressing areas that are most susceptible to bottlenecks, blockages that come with finance and management is key to managing these insights. In the current scenario, however, automation has worked as a savior against blockages.

While we really don’t want to say it, you do have to ‘get with the times - and to ‘get with the times’, you must onboard automated expense management tools that can completely eradicate such bottlenecks.

3. Automation means accuracy

The highlight of developments in the financial sector over the past few years has been a surge in the use of automation. Automation has entered the market as the go-to tool for organizations looking for a faster, more efficient approach to expense management.

In fact, the automated expense management tools of today are making manual, paper-based systems look ancient. With the help of automation, companies are revamping finance and management to get rid of hindrances like manual data entry errors, invoice processing errors, approval delays, and so on.

Automation can completely take over processes that would otherwise be mundane, admin tasks for your finance department. Automated software can do all the heavy-lifting involved in financial management for you.

With the help of tools like corporate cards, auto-approvals, and auto-reimbursements you can leverage the power of automation to its fullest. Moreover, when you delegate tasks to this software you can rest assured that the scope of errors and mistakes will be non-existent. 

4. Safeguard your business against fraud

Every year businesses report a significant loss of revenue to fraud. Unfortunately, financial fraud is not only common it can also be tricky to deal with. Companies are faced with a host of different types of fraud.

Some instances include misappropriation of assets, external fraud in the form of hackers and phishers, and other forms of fraud like bribery, corruption, and so on. To avoid fraudulent practices of all forms you need to ensure your accounts are as secure as they can be.

Expenses, claims, and approvals must be monitored in real-time; this can help you catch dubious transactions at the source. You also need to establish and enforce a clear and easy-to-understand corporate expense policy.

Moreover, onboarding an automated spend management software can help you correlate spend records with proofs of purchase. Fraud is an insight that finance managers must work to curb at all costs.

Above all, to prevent fraud from harming your company you need to establish accountability and ensure compliance amongst your workforce.

5. Cut back on unnecessary spending

Controlling expenditures is a critical part of finance management and, therefore, also demands a good amount of effort. Cutting costs is hard to do without first understanding where your money is going.

Finance managers must have a clear idea of their company’s spending channels before they can act on cutbacks. Typically, the most common channels of overspending in a company can come in the form of subscriptions, T&E expenses, and miscellaneous spending.

For instance, subscriptions are important but you need to check how many of the subscriptions on your expense list are actually important. Often companies may find themselves overspending on subscriptions simply because they do not maintain a track record of them. 

Similarly, travel and entertainment expenses incurred by employees and miscellaneous expenses are all forms of ancillary expenditure that can be hard to control. With expense management software you can prevent these costs from going unchecked.

Platforms like Volopay help you maintain constant, real-time visibility over all forms of spending so that you can identify the exact areas you can cut back on.

We have seen that preparing for a company’s long-term future can be a lot more effective than it presently is. By combining company performance data with insights on delays, blockages, accuracy, fraud, and spending your finance managers can get a much better picture of the future. And, this picture can be a whole lot clearer if you are using automated finance management software.

With the help of spend management software, both finance and management can reap the benefits of automation. the new year has just begun and the future of fintech is as exciting as it can be. The future of automation continues to look bright as the year unfolds.