Control Spend in NetSuite ERP with Expense Management Automation

Travel and expense (T&E) is the second-biggest controllable expense for businesses. Many businesses use inefficient expense management processes to handle these costs – they use paper receipts, spreadsheet templates, and multiple phone calls and emails to track, capture, and verify employee expense information. Reliance on manual processes is slow and error-prone, leaving businesses open to fraud.

Your company already uses an ERP, such as NetSuite, to automate financial management and business processes. AP automation can manage company spending by streamlining invoice management and payment processes. 

You may not know, however, that AP automation platforms such as Stampli can give you greater control and transparency over your expense management processes. Stampli’s industry-leading integration with NetSuite reduces manual data entry, automates approvals, accurately captures expenses, and synchronizes expense data and communications with NetSuite. 

Read on to learn more about how integrating automated spend management with NetSuite can help you get the most out of your ERP and save time and money.

Expense Management Challenges

Accounts payable departments need an efficient process to track expenses, gather receipts, assign expenditures to general ledger accounts, and post expense data to the ERP. The finance team must also pay credit card bills and reimburse employees for out-of-pocket expenses. For a business still using manual expense management processes, these tasks can present some significant challenges:

Reliance on Email and Spreadsheet Expense Reports

Vendors may not send receipts and expense reports to a single email address, which means emails can get lost. Scanned receipts may not always be legible, or the wrong receipts and expense reports may be attached to the email.

Lost Receipts Cause Delays in Expense Tracking and Coding

Employees usually complete expense reports when they return from travel. Sometimes receipts get lost before the employee completes and submits the expense report, which can result in delays in coding expenses.

Slow Approval Processes

In manual processes, accounts payable emails expense reports to approvers for review. The approver may miss the email, or the email may not include the right attachments and information. And because the expense report is in an email, AP can’t monitor the approval status until the approver replies to the email.

Monthly Credit Card Statements Slow Expense Verification

Accounts payable must wait for the monthly credit card statement to arrive before comparing employee receipts with the entries on the statement. As a result, the AP team must do more work during month-end close and can’t easily review expenses for fraud.

AP automation addresses these challenges by streamlining and optimizing the entire expense reporting and management process.

Streamlining Expense Management Workflows

By implementing an expense management solution and integrating it with your NetSuite ERP, you can realize significant savings and gain control over your company’s expense budgets. Here’s how AP automation can optimize each step of the expense management process:

Expense Process Step 1: Recording and Submitting Expenses

In a manual expense reporting process, employees keep physical copies of their receipts and enter the expense date, category, and amount in an expense report spreadsheet. The employee usually scans the receipts, attaches the receipt and expense report to an email, and sends it to accounts payable for approval. If the AP team needs to ask questions or clarify details, they must email or phone the employee.

How AP Automation Optimizes Receipt Submission

Expense management software allows employees to scan their receipts with a mobile app and upload them to a receipt library. Then, when completing their expense report, the employees can simply select the appropriate receipt image for each expense in the report. Using a mobile device prevents receipts from being lost and ensures that the employee includes the correct receipts in the expense report. 

Expedited Expense Reporting with Stampli Card

Stampli Card goes beyond scanning receipts to automatically and instantly capture purchase information. Expense data is captured and stored every time the employee uses a Stampli Card, eliminating missed expenses.

Expense Workflow Step 2: Approving the Expense Report 

After the employee sends the completed expense report to accounts payable, the AP forwards the report to the appropriate approver. Suppose the approver sees an expense not permitted under the company expense policy. In that case, they contact AP and pause the expense report until the resolution of the issue with the employee. 

If the expense report is acceptable, the approver approves it and forwards it to accounts payable. Then AP codes the expenses to the appropriate GL expense accounts in NetSuite and files the documentation. If an employee incurred expenses with a corporate credit card, AP must wait for the card statement before verifying the line items and paying the card balance. If the employee paid the expenses out-of-pocket, AP forwards the expense report to Payroll (or the payroll module in NetSuite) for reimbursement.

How AP Automation Streamlines the Expense Report Approval Process

In an automated environment, the expense report approval process takes place within the AP platform. The employee completes the expense report, selects the appropriate receipts, and submits the report for approval. The platform checks the report against the expense policy and the employee’s permitted expenditures and flags any discrepancies for review by the approver. The approver can reject or approve the expense report, and the system automatically routes it depending on their decision.

Take Control of Approvals with Stampli Expenses

Stampli Expenses gives you total control over expense report approvals by capturing expense data at the time of purchase and centralizing communications in one place. Approvers always have the data and communications they need to review and approve expense reports. 

Combined with Stampli Card, Stampli Expenses controls how much employees can spend and what they can spend it on – for example, you can limit expenses to one-time, multiple, or recurring expenses. 

Expense Workflow Step 3: Payments & Reimbursement

Typically, employee expenses are reimbursed or paid in two ways: 1) if an employee incurred the expenses with a corporate card, the card balance is paid off every month, or 2) if the expenses were out-of-pocket, the company directly reimburses the employee through payroll. Both methods can be slow and error-prone with manual processes. For example, AP must manually verify credit card statements every month to ensure expenses are legitimate. Also,  uploading expense information into payroll systems can take time, meaning the employee may need to wait for reimbursement.  

How AP Automation Improves Payment & Reimbursement 

AP automation platforms can incorporate payment functionality directly in the platform (such as AP solutions bundled with corporate cards) or integrate with the payment or payroll modules in NetSuite. Automation replaces inefficient manual processes and syncs payment and transaction data with NetSuite to ensure fast and accurate payments, reimbursements, and an auditable history of expenses and payments.

Control Expenses in Real Time with Stampli Card

Stampli Card makes it unnecessary for employees to pay expenses out of pocket and gives you full control over T&E expenditures. AP teams can instantly review and control purchases made with Stampli Card. The platform automatically collects transaction data whenever the card is used and syncs it with NetSuite as a payment receipt. Everyone in the expense management workflow can access this data in real-time to give unprecedented transparency and control over expenses.

Next-Generation Expense Management with Stampli and Netsuite ERP

Stampli lets you manage receipts, post transactions, and process expenses on a single platform. Stampli Expenses builds on Stampli’s industry-leading AP automation solution to provide an integrated and simplified process for cardholders to submit receipts, request and receive approvals, code expenses – and sync seamlessly with NetSuite ERP. In this webinar, Stampli’s ERP experts provide a deeper understanding of how Stampli integrates with NetSuite to provide seamless end-to-end AP automation. 

Fast Integration with NetSuite

Get up and running with Stampli in weeks, not months. Stampli offers live end-to-end support during your NetSuite integration.

Flexibility for Your Expense Management Needs

Configure Stampli’s platform by creating custom workflows and templates to meet your company’s unique needs. Easily add or change multiple approvals or approval steps – Stampli is customizable to meet your needs and scalable to grow with your business. 

No Change to Existing Expense Management Processes

Implement Stampli with no change to your existing IT infrastructure or AP processes. Stampli works seamlessly with NetSuite and most accounting systems. If you need to customize workflows and activities, you can do it easily within the Stampli platform or with SuiteFlow.

Handle Multi-Currency and Multi-Location Expenses

Manage expenses in multiple locations and currencies with Stampli and NetSuite OneWorld. Stampli automatically makes international GST, VAT, and other tax calculations on your existing tax codes. 

Your Data is Secure

Your NetSuite data stays within your company, and Stampli complies with NetSuite Token-Based Authentication (TBA) to control access to Admin and highly privileged roles within the Stampli platform.

Trust the Industry Leader in AP Automation 

Stampli is recognized as an industry leader in AP automation, consistently excelling in ease of use, ease of implementation, getting results, and quality of support. 

Bottom line: Stampli is the smartest, fastest, and most flexible way to get the most out of your expense management with Oracle NetSuite. To learn more, book a free demo with us today. 

Don’t just manage spend, control it with Stampli.