Whether you are a first-time business owner trying to build a sustainable business or a seasoned entrepreneur looking to scale, it’s safe to say that no one starts a business for the thrill of managing expenses. Yet, like it or not, one of the key responsibilities of running a business is ensuring that bills are paid on time, and ideally, in full.
Business expenses go far beyond just paying salaries and office rent. As a business owner, you will likely experience a wide range of recurring costs, from marketing expenses (Facebook, Instagram, and Google ads) to subscriptions (HR services, cloud servers, email tools) and professional fees (legal services, accountants, and company secretaries). There will also be staff reimbursements to account for such as travel or client entertainment.
While it’s not the most glamorous aspect of running a business, staying on top of these expenses is absolutely critical. However, for many businesses, tracking expenses often takes a back seat to more pressing priorities.
In the early days, it’s common for founding team members to take on the extra duty of keeping tab on expenses and paying the bills each month. At first, when transactions are few and operations are simple, this system might work just fine. But as the company grows, this informal approach becomes increasingly unmanageable.
At DollarsAndSense, we have experienced this firsthand. As our team expanded and daily operations became more complex, we found ourselves spending much more time processing payments and reimbursements each month. The growing number of transactions also led to more mistakes, further complicating our processes.
When your company expands, keeping a close tab on expenses becomes even more critical for two key reasons. First, with more employees and vendors, expenses can quickly spiral out of control without proper oversight, impacting your cash flow and profitability. Second, tracking expenses accurately is essential for budgeting and forecasting, ensuring you have a clear picture of where resources are being allocated and whether they align with the company’s financial goals.
A NewtonX survey commissioned by Airwallex found that 99% of finance leaders face significant challenges in managing global spend, with the majority struggling with inefficient processes, lack of visibility, and inconsistent tools across different countries, potentially leading to increased costs and compliance risks.
Manpower VS Technology
The first solution that often comes to mind is hiring an in-house finance executive. It’s not a bad idea—if you can find the right person and afford it. They can take over this operational part of the business, freeing you up to focus on growth and other key responsibilities.
However, hiring the right person isn’t always easy, nor is it cheap. Even a part-time finance executive could cost you upwards of a thousand dollars or more each month. Also, while this might provide some relief in the short term, the solution isn’t scalable. As your business expands and transaction volumes increase, so does the workload.
Adding more staff to solve the problem doesn’t address the root issue. Even with more people in your finance team on board, manually tracking expenses, processing reimbursements and managing payments will continue to be time-consuming. As your operations grow, without streamlining these financial processes, you are simply moving the bottleneck down the line. Eventually, the friction from inefficient systems will catch up, increasing your costs and slowing down operations as your business scales.
The same survey conducted by NewtonX for Airwallex, polled 200 senior finance leaders at Singapore-headquartered companies, revealed a stark reality: 74% still rely on paper forms for expense submissions, and 73% lack confidence in the accuracy of their financial data. This heavy reliance on manual processes hinders efficiency and increases the risk of errors, highlighting the urgent need for businesses to embrace automation for smoother, more accurate, and ultimately more reliable financial operations.
Finding A More Scalable Solution Through Airwallex Company’s Spend Management
At this stage, your business needs a more structured, scalable solution—one that leverages on technology instead of adding headcount. This is where a digital platform like Airwallex can step in to solve the growing pains of manual financial processes.
Headquartered in Singapore, Airwallex is a global financial platform that supports businesses around the world in managing payments and streamlining financial operations. By providing companies with a suite of powerful spend management tools in combination with their multi-currency capabilities, Airwallex helps companies automate workflows and centralise control, making cross-border financial operations more efficient and less prone to errors.
With Airwallex, businesses can shift from manual processes to a digital-first approach, ensuring smoother day-to-day operations as they scale.
Time-saving Automations, Powered By AI
One key advantage of using Airwallex is its powerful AI-driven automation features. With automatic receipt and bill extraction, the system captures and processes essential details within seconds, eliminating the need for manual data entry. Expenses are also auto-categorised, ensuring that every transaction is accurately logged and tracked.
Furthermore, Airwallex lets you import your company’s chart of accounts, tax rates and other essential financial data directly into its expense management system. This means expenses are not only captured but also coded correctly from the start. This comprehensive solution provides a seamless way of managing expenses while keeping your financial records accurate, up-to-date and fully compliant.
Track Spend And Make Payments On One Platform
Airwallex allows companies to consolidate all their financial activities onto a single platform, streamlining everything from tracking and approving domestic and international expenses to managing multi-currency fund flows.
A standout feature is its integration with your accounting software via bank feeds, which automatically syncs transactions for seamless reconciliation. This eliminates the need for manual reconciliation, ensuring your financial records are always up-to-date in real time.
By combining bank feeds with comprehensive expense management and multi-currency payment capabilities, Airwallex offers a simple, all-in-one solution. It provides real-time visibility into your financial position, making it easier to monitor cash flow, control spending, and execute payments to vendors both in Singapore and internationally.
A Global Solution That Scales When Your Company Grows
In today’s globalised business environment, managing spend across domestic and international operations can be tricky. Airwallex simplifies this by unifying your global spend management, allowing you to make payouts to over 150 countries and issue cards in 40+ markets.
With Airwallex’s Bill Pay feature, you can approve and pay both local and international invoices from your accounting software using money from your Airwallex account. This integration enables businesses to handle invoices efficiently, reducing administrative tasks and ensuring that financial operations remain smooth across borders.
As your business scales, the complexity of managing expenses and payments across multiple countries often increases. However, with Airwallex, the same streamlined processes remain in place, regardless of whether you’re controlling expenses in just one country or across several. By leveraging advanced technology, Airwallex ensures that businesses can manage their financial operations efficiently, without needing to continuously add headcount or manual processes.
The post Growing Pains: Why A Payment Solution To Keep Track Of Your Company Expenses Is Important appeared first on DollarsAndSense.sg.
