Expense control

Expense control is the set of rules and checks a business uses to make sure spending is allowed, approved and recorded correctly. It is not the same as cutting costs. Its aim is that every dollar spent was meant to be spent, by the right person, for the right reason, and that the books show it accurately.

Preventive controls

Preventive controls act before or at the moment of spending:

• A written expense policy with limits by category
• Pre-approval for travel and large purchases
• Card limits and merchant restrictions
• Budgets by team, project or cost centre

Detective controls

Detective controls catch problems after the fact:

• Receipt matching for every card charge
• Duplicate and split-expense detection
• Manager and finance review of expense reports
• Spend reports by category, vendor and person

Keeping control without slowing people down

Controls that need a person to look at every expense do not scale, and approvers start signing off on totals rather than lines. The better pattern is automatic checks with human attention for exceptions. In Smartbills, policy rules run when an expense is submitted: a hard rule stops it and tells the employee why, a soft rule lets it through to the approver with the verdict attached. Expenses route to an approver by amount, category and cost centre, and budget positions update as transactions clear.