Manage City Government Expenses and AP More Effectively with Automation
Pop Quiz: What does managing a professional sports team have in common with running a city government?
Challenging travel demands and hectic schedules? Sure.
Too many stars and not enough support staff? Probably.
Most importantly? They both run on money. And in both sports and city government, success often hinges on an organization’s ability to oversee budgets effectively and make dollars go as far as possible.
Even under the best circumstances, managing budgets and spend manually is difficult. Now, with a largely remote workforce, and mailed paper invoices stacking up, the challenges to better manage spend are even greater. To navigate this time, it’s more important than ever for city leaders to have a connected expense and AP system that will control costs, accurately track employee-initiated spend, and make budget management easier.
Here are a few ways that city leaders can manage spend more effectively and get the most from their players and teams.
Empower Your Players
Tracking individual spending behaviors has never been easy. Now, with the rise of new payment tools and technologies, employees have more options than ever when it comes to spending budget dollars. Whether it’s travel to and from public hearings, or the day-to-day use of funds to ensure a city runs smoothly, managers need a good system in place to keep track of it all.
For staff to remain motivated and productive, they need to believe they’re working on their own terms. By introducing technology and automation into your expense and invoice management game, city leaders can provide the tools and autonomy that staff desire, while simultaneously getting visibility into what’s being spent, where, and by whom.
Have a Game Plan
Modern technology offers a new a way to bring efficiency, visibility, and accuracy into your city government’s budget process. One other critical area in which technology can help is strategic planning. From expense reports to travel costs, integrating data, detecting fraud, and processing invoices — automation can help.
SAP Concur solutions deliver the tools needed to help you plan for success, from controlling costs to spotting concerns to helping redirect resources where your city needs them the most. Our technology can capture, manage, and track invoices and expenses in one comprehensive, streamlined platform. We make it easy to see what’s going on with staff spending, and even easier to use that information to make better, more efficient decisions with your city’s budget.
Put Your Players In “The Zone"
If you’re a sports fan, you probably know about “the zone.” That mystical, magical, hard-to-find place in which distractions fade, an athlete goes on autopilot, and they can do no wrong. No second guessing. No errors. No obstacles. Just a Zen-like focus on completing the task at hand.
While managing budgets and sorting through paper invoices may not have the same cachet as professional sports, when you’re talking about taxpayer dollars, the stakes are definitely high. And with a manual, paper-based expense and AP system, you’re not giving your team the equipment they need to win.
By automating expense management, and eliminating paper invoices, you can put your back-office staff in the zone. Automation can increase productivity, help them commit fewer errors, and let them focus their time and energy on more mission-critical work. This is in addition to improving cash flow, forecasting more accurately, improving policy compliance, and reducing the risk of fraud.
Whether on the field or in an office, the best managers give talented players what they need to shine, and then step out of the way so they can get to work. By removing process barriers and giving your team the tools they need to succeed, you’ll see more accuracy, improved compliance, and greater efficiency across your entire organization.
To see how managing spend can ensure your programs benefit citizens effectively, services run efficiently, and more, get our tip sheet. Then check out our infographic and learn how automating and integrating travel, expense, and invoice management can streamline operations and drive compliance across your organization.