How State and Local Governments Can Manage Invoices and Expenses in the New Normal
Working in the finance department of a state or local government has always meant working under pressure. But now, when many if not most of your coworkers are working from home, those pressures are greater than ever.
The pandemic has driven down funding sources while the demand for services is climbing. Your constituents need new and different kinds of support as they sort through this new and disrupted reality – yet the income and sales tax revenues which fuel that support are declining at unheard of rates.
To make matters even worse, state and local employment numbers are dwindling. Job losses have topped 1.2 million – nearly twice the amount of jobs lost in the Great Recession.
So there you have it: Less money, fewer people and, just because it’s government, greater scrutiny.
First, a little red tape
Managing spending is difficult even in the best of times, but work-from-home realities, like preserving continuity of operations, timely payment of vendors, and overall financial discipline – not to mention the health and safety of employees – make it even harder.
And every day in government offices across the country, AP teams are sending in shifts of people to do check runs or compile invoices, only to bring them home for manual processing. They’re driving invoices from house to house to get reviews and approvals. And we’ve even heard of a CFO who was printing checks at home, so AP could pick them up, take them to the Post Office, buy stamps, and mail them.
This isn’t safe, it isn’t sensible, and it certainly isn’t how to deliver the sound financial state and local governments need right now.
What’s a government to do?
Automate. Integrate. And digitize. These are significant concepts, yet with the right tools, they’re relatively simple to put to work. And they simplify the process for AP while letting CFOs effectively control costs.
Better yet, they eliminate the need to drive from house to house to pick up checks and get approvals. They save you time while saving you money, and every payment, p-card charge, corporate card charge, cash payment, virtual payment – or any other type of payment – is automated and connected.
Every invoice and each expense report gets routed through simple, configurable, automatic workflows. And you get the critical data you need to see and manage what’s going out the door.
Here's how automation ends traditional trouble spots:
- Exception Handling: Drive down the data-entry errors of paper-based invoices; you’ll see fewer exceptions, and you’ll have the insight you need to deal with those that arise.
- New Spend Categories: When you suddenly have to buy something like PPE, you can quickly adapt to track the costs.
- Late Fees: Automated efficiency eliminates the roadblocks in your process that result in added fees.
- Audits: AI-driven auditing does the hard work for you, checking every expense report against your policies, so you can deliver more oversight in less time.
- Compliance: Real-time visibility allows you to take proactive control of how compliance polices are working and how grant, CARES, or rainy-day funding is being used.
- Forecasting: When you can see what’s spent, what’s pending, and what’s left in your budgets, you can accurately and instantly forecast (and reforecast) as funding sources shift. You’ll also know when budget shortfalls are coming, and you’ll have the insight to make the in-the-moment decisions – so spending goes where you need it most.
This is how government gets back on track
Investing in digital expense and invoice processes isn’t something you have to do, but as state and local governments face a changing and challenging future, it is the best way to gain the adaptability it takes to manage those changes – at lease from a financial perspective.
It’s a much-needed solution that offers immediate value and equips you with both the efficiency and intelligence to manage your budgets for years to come.