What Does Visibility Look Like for a Growing Business?

“You can’t control what you can’t see.” It’s a motto that applies to virtually every aspect of your business, but there’s no place where visibility makes a bigger impact than spending. Or, more dubiously, invisible spending.

Consider this picture: You’re a global business, expanding into a variety of jurisdictions and regulatory environments. You’ve got a workforce in place (and travelling) all over the world, so it’s likely you may have a few headaches here at home. How can you be confident you’re controlling the budget? How do you manage risk in regions that are largely unknown to you? How can you standardize processes around the globe when you don’t have a clear picture of what protocols are being followed?

It all impacts the dollars, euros, and yen going out the door, and if you can’t see and control those, you can’t effectively channel funds into further growth.

You’ve got to see globally to grow globally

Measured growth requires a single, consolidated view into your spending in real time. This requires tracking and controlling travel and expense spend wherever and whenever it occurs – even before it happens – so every necessary bit of budget can be directed to your growth objectives. When companies see their spend this clearly, they can cut costs and redistribute those funds. They can literally see deeper into their business, spotting trends earlier and acting on growth opportunities faster. And they can accurately forecast their global budget, informing better decisions about where to go next.

Here’s what you’re looking for:

1. A single, clear view into spend. Make sure centralized finance teams are getting integrated travel, expense, and invoice data analytics from every business unit, in every market, all in one place.
2. Interactive, roles-based dashboards and reports. Give leaders across the business a window into their business-unit spending, so they can see what’s been spent, where it’s been spent, and what’s pending – then dive into the details to make any necessary changes.
3. Tools that show budget managers what’s happened and what’s happening next. Offer managers the means to stay ahead of budgets and accurately adjust spending to their changing business needs and priorities.
4. Visibility to take on unique challenges. Tackle everything from VAT reclaim and mobile spending to tax and regulatory requirements that only increase as you expand.
5. Spending alerts. Get real-time email alerts when spend exceeds policy or specific budget thresholds are met, so you can keep controls in place even as your team gets bigger.

These capabilities are crucial to deliberate growth, and they only become more important as both spending and spend data grow in complexity with worldwide expansion. Seeing it all is critical. It’s also possible.

Want to see what intelligent business tools can show you? Watch this video.