Problem

Expense report volumes hindered spend visibility and employee behavior

Before using AppZen, the organization’s T&E operations were handled by a third party, which was expensive and prone to error. The organization’s Finance Team wanted to streamline operations by bringing them in-house to give them more control over the 25,000 expense reports they processed monthly. In addition, they wanted to reduce high-risk spend, decrease the number of auditor resources needed, and automate the auditing process completely. 

The company also had very little visibility into spend leakages and non-compliant employee behavior. It required a technology solution that could support its explosive growth, fueled by acquiring over 30+ companies in the last 2 years.

Finally, the team needed a T&E solution that could be quickly implemented and seamlessly integrated with their evolving finance technology stack, which included multiple ERPs, procurement systems, and expense management systems. They chose AppZen Expense Audit because it easily met all these conditions.

Solution

100% automation with detailed analytics and reporting

In Expense Audit, the Finance Team found a technology solution that aligned with their organization's vision and goals. Driven by AI, Expense Audit automatically reviewed 100% of their 25,000 monthly expense reports, and identified spend leakages and non-compliant behavior prior to reimbursement. It also helped the company identify unauthorized expenses, especially electronic devices, as one of the highest expense risk areas over the previous 12 months. Managers and auditors could even pinpoint the actual expense reports and receipts that were flagged as high-risk.

As they began to leverage the solution’s robust analytic capabilities, they could monitor, identify, and rein in unnecessary spending and non-compliant behavior. Various built-in dashboards provided information about spend activities, each auditor’s efficiency, employees’ compliant behavior, and benchmarking. Using the Executive dashboard, they could easily view critical metrics, including total spend reduction, out-of-policy expenses, and the percentage of auto-approved reports.

Because the company’s primary business is closely tied to the life sciences industry, it was also imperative that it stay compliant with Health Care Professional (HCP) regulations. Using Expense Audit’s ability to customize AI models, the Finance Team created a unique workflow for their organization that flagged any expense reports missing the sign-in sheets that are required by the Sunshine Act.

 

Result

Proactive action and millions of dollars saved

Expense Audit dramatically changed the way the company audited its monthly expense reports. As a result of integrating Expense Audit within their ecosystem, 100% of expense reports are now audited automatically, with fewer resources and greater accuracy. Low—and medium-risk expenses are automatically approved, so managers can now focus their time on high-risk spending, and employees are reimbursed faster.

Managers can easily identify bad actors and non-compliant behavior using analytics and dashboards, allowing them to take action before it becomes a problem. In addition, the company’s finance leaders can quickly review how T&E spend affects the bottom line. As a result, the company has saved over $1.5M in T&E expenditures and more than 1,272 days of auditor review time.

AppZen enabled the company to achieve its organizational goals, build on its innovation capabilities within the life sciences sector, and evolve its T&E operations to the next level.