Optimize NetSuite expense management software to control spend
Your company’s expense management process may be costing you time and money.
Many businesses rely on paper receipts, spreadsheet templates, and multiple phone calls and emails to track, capture, and verify employee expenses. These manual processes are slow and lack transparency, leaving businesses vulnerable to errors and fraud.
Your company may already use NetSuite ERP to automate financial management and business processes, or you might be considering switching to NetSuite from another ERP. If so, you may consider using NetSuite’s expense management solution to automate employee expense reporting, approvals, and reimbursements.
You may not know, however, that financial automation platforms like Stampli and Stampli Card provide greater control and transparency over your expense management processes. Stampli Cards redefine how your AP teams manage business spend. Seamlessly integrated into your AP workflows, these AP Cards and Expense Cards bring real-time visibility and control to both AP spend and employee expenses. That’s because Stampli’s finance operation platform is centered on AP. Its industry-leading prebuilt integration with NetSuite accurately captures expenses, automates approvals, and streamlines reimbursements. It also synchronizes real-time expense data with NetSuite to give you visibility and control over spending.
Read on to explore NetSuite expense management and discover how integrating a financial automation platform with NetSuite helps optimize expense management. We’ll break out each step of the expense management process, walk through the challenges, and show how an automated solution can solve them.
Let’s jump in.
What is NetSuite expense management software?
NetSuite expense management software is a core feature of the NetSuite ERP. It automates employee expense reporting, approvals, and reimbursements. It also lets businesses create and enforce expense policies, set custom approval workflows, and track spending.
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 delay expense tracking and coding
Employees usually complete expense reports when they return from travel. Sometimes, however, they lose their receipts before they complete and submit 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 not receive the right attachments and information. 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 delay expense verification
Most corporate credit card providers send statements once a month. That means AP teams must wait for the statements to arrive before checking employees’ receipts and expense reports with the statement entries. As a result, the AP teams are busy with work during month-end close and may not have time to review expenses for fraud.
Automate expense management workflows
NetSuite expense management aims to address these challenges by automating and optimizing basic expense reporting and management processes. Companies needing greater visibility and control over expenses should consider a third-party financial automation platform solution.
As we’ll see, integrated automation platforms augment NetSuite’s significant strengths by meeting these challenges and providing benefits beyond NetSuite’s core expense solution. Choosing the right automation platform and integrating it with NetSuite lets your business realize significant savings and gain control over expense budgets.
Let’s take a closer look at each step of the expense management process.
Steps of the expense management workflow
Typically, the expense management workflow in NetSuite follows three steps:
- Employees create and submit expense reports and receipts
- Approvers review and approve expense reports
- Employees are reimbursed for the expenses
The process can differ depending on which expense management products the company is using. For example, if a company issues credit cards to employees, the employee reimbursement step would be replaced by the company paying the balance on the employees’ credit cards.
The expense process begins with an employee making a purchase.
Step 1: Create expense reports and upload receipts
In NetSuite’s manual expense reporting process, employees enter expense reports in the NetSuite Employee Center. They open a new expense report and enter the expense report date and currency. Then, they enter the details for each expense: category, amount, date, and other information their company may require. They can upload copies of the receipts or select receipts from the NetSuite File Cabinet and attach them to the appropriate line item.
After completing the expense report and adding their receipts, the employee saves the expense report and submits it for approval.
How AP automation optimizes expense reporting
Financial automation platforms with expense reporting capabilities allow employees to scan receipts with a mobile app and upload them to a receipt library. Then, when completing their expense report, the employees can select the appropriate receipt image for each expense in the report.
Simple and easy expense reporting with Stampli and Stampli Card
Although many financial automation platforms automate many steps of the expense reporting process, they still rely on employees manually entering purchase details and submitting receipts. Stampli Card goes beyond manual entry and scanning receipts by capturing purchase details when an employee incurs an expense. It eliminates missed expenses and gives finance teams real-time visibility and control over employee purchases.
“I like the Stampli card the most. Being able to track business expenses without having to chase down every employee for physical forms saves a ton of time,” says one Stampli customer. “Stampli is solving credit card expenses. Going from an Excel sheet that needs over 100+ physical forms with signatures is tedious and inefficient.”
For employees not using Stampli Card, the Stampli mobile app simplifies receipt capture and prevents lost receipts. Employees can scan and upload a receipt from their mobile device as they make purchases.
One customer in the transportation industry says the Stampli mobile app has transformed how they track expenses: “Stampli allows me to code and approve multiple invoices in a timely manner. I need to approve or code purchases on average 3-5 times per week. Stampli is much more user friendly than any system I have used in the past. Uploading images of receipts is easy and the camera upload on the mobile version allows receipts to be captured quickly.”
Stampli automatically synchronizes expense reports, receipts, and transaction data with NetSuite to ensure consistency across the organization’s financial records.
Step 2: Approve expenses
After the employee submits the expense report in NetSuite, it enters the queue for approval. If the company uses NetSuite’s Approval Routing feature, the expense report will be routed to the appropriate approver. Otherwise, NetSuite routes the report to the employee’s supervisor for approval.
The approver opens, reviews, and approves the report in the Employee Center. After the report is approved, NetSuite forwards it to Accounting for approval and reimbursement. If the approver rejects the expense report, they leave it in the approval queue and address the issue with the employee.
How expense cards streamline the expense approval process
In spend management platforms such as Stampli Card, the expense process occurs within the expense card or AP card workflow. Managers request an expense card for employee spend. As employees make purchases, they upload the receipts to the Stampli Card platform for review and approval. Customizable controls ensure expenses comply with expense policies and restrictions such as spending limits.
Control expense approvals with Stampli Expense cards
Although automated spend management solutions can streamline the expense approval process, they have limitations. Some platforms lack internal communications features, requiring employees to notify approvers by email when they’ve made an expense card purchase and when they need to upload expense receipts. Others don’t integrate smoothly with NetSuite or other ERPs, forcing finance teams to manually transfer expense data from one platform to another.
Stampli Expense cards give businesses total control over employee expenses. Stampli integrates with NetSuite to automatically sync and update accounts as expenses occur, ensuring card managers always have the up-to-date information they need to control employee spend. Stampli Card Managers can request cards on behalf of any user with Cardholder permission and can view all cards and transactions. The user can suspend or cancel cards at any time.
One customer describes how Stampli Expense card has simplified employee expenses at their business. They say Stampli is a “One stop shop for approvals. The robust organization of the information needed for expense submission keeps the process efficient and tidy. I no longer need to chase down missing information from employees when executing my approvals. With my own expense submissions, the gentle reminders are key to stay on target with submissions as well. Great support!”
Step 3: Payments & reimbursement
Typically, organizations pay for employee expenses in one of two ways.
If an employee incurs expenses with a corporate card, the organization pays off the card balance every month. If the employee paid for the expenses out-of-pocket, the company reimburses them directly through payroll or accounts payable.
To pay corporate card expenses in NetSuite, companies must configure their accounting settings and expense report forms to allow employees to report card purchases. When the expense report is submitted and approved, NetSuite records the purchases to the corporate card account for payment.
Organizations have a couple of options for reimbursing out-of-pocket expenses in NetSuite. If they are using NetSuite’s SuitePeople US Payroll module, they can reimburse the expenses via the employee’s paycheck. If they are using another payroll solution, they can reimburse the employee via NetSuite accounts payable.
How AP automation improves payment & reimbursement
AP automation platforms can incorporate expense payment functionality directly in their solution (such as AP solutions bundled with corporate cards) or integrate with NetSuite or a third-party payment or payroll provider. 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 eliminates the need for employees to pay expenses out of pocket, removes the time intensive expense reporting and reimbursements process, and provides businesses full control over T&E expenditures. With other financial automation platforms, if an employee incurs expenses with a corporate credit card, AP must wait for the monthly card statement to arrive before verifying the line items and paying the card balance. Stampli Card tracks and reports expenditures as they occur, letting AP review and have complete control of expenditures in real time instead of at the end of the month.
Stampli automatically collects transaction data whenever Stampli 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, enabling unprecedented transparency and control over expenses.
“How easy it is to submit credit card reconciliations, approve items, and submit items for reimbursement like gas mileage,” said one customer about how Stampli Card has changed their business. “I have never used another product to compare this to other than Google Sheets, this is 100 times better!
…Ease of approvals for expense management + invoice management. Everything is in one spot and is easy to navigate. It took me a few months to get used to Stampli, but now that have used it often it has increased my productivity!”
Get the most from NetSuite expense management with Stampli
Stampli lets you manage receipts, post transactions, and process expenses on a single platform. Stampli Expenses, built on Stampli’s industry-leading financial automation platform, is centered on AP, and simplifies the processes of submitting receipts, approving expenditures, and coding expenses. It also syncs with NetSuite to share expense data in real time. 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.
One customer says, “Integrating Stampli with Netsuite was much easier than our team could have anticipated. It took a short time to integrate and it has been extremely user friendly. From approvals, messaging options to GL coding and BOT memory, it has exceeded expectations.
Stampli has created efficiencies in uploading invoices, tracking, approvals, and a one stop for messaging within the system. The approvers within our company have been expressing how simple and quick it is to go into an invoice and approve. We do not have to hunt approvers down anymore because Stampli does that job for us. We also do not have to worry about tracking each approval. It has saved a lot of time for our A/P and Finance team.”
Fastest integration with NetSuite
Get up and running with Stampli in days, not months. Stampli offers live end-to-end support during your NetSuite integration.
“Stampli is the solution we’ve been looking for,” said one G2 reviewer. “Easy setup and integration with NetSuite, [and] Support is provided by an account manager that directs your implementation and remains with your account on a permanent basis afterward.
Chat Support with a live human is outstanding. They respond quickly and have been able to resolve every problem that we have had. They were even able to make recommendations for NetSuite configurations to help resolve and ongoing problem that our previous service provider could not even diagnose.
…Processing bills doesn’t get any simpler than Stampli.”
Flexibility for your expense management needs
You can 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 NetSuite infrastructure or AP processes. Stampli’s pre-built integrations support full native functionality for NetSuite and 70+ ERPs. 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 financial 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.
