How To Manage Business Expenses Without Slowing Your Team Down

Expense creep doesn’t happen all at once. It builds quietly.

A delayed reimbursement here. A vague charge on a company card. A spreadsheet that no one’s double-checked in weeks. By the time it hits your cash flow, it’s already a pattern.

So ask yourself: are you managing expenses with intention, or reacting when problems show up?

This guide breaks down how to track spending clearly, keep your workflows clean, and give finance the control it needs without slowing the business down. We'll also discuss the Wise Business account. The global account that can help your company with all things cross-border.

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The Hidden Cost of Unstructured Spending

Most expense issues don’t start with a big mistake. They build slowly and surface when the cash runs tight or reports stop adding up.

The policy might exist, but no one’s following it. One team uses a shared card. Another keeps receipts in a drawer. Reimbursements get delayed because no one’s sure who needs to approve them.

As your team grows, so does the friction. What worked with five people starts to fall apart with ten, then again with twenty.

Keeping track of business expenses becomes harder without structure. And without structure, finance spends more time chasing details than making good decisions.

The numbers aren’t always the problem. Often, it’s the process behind them. Fix that, and everything else starts to run more smoothly.

What a Good Expense Management System Looks Like

Before you overhaul how your company handles expenses, it helps to know what a strong system actually looks like.

Here’s what finance teams should aim for when tracking and managing business spend:

Methods to Track Business Expenses
One place to see it all: Centralized visibility keeps teams aligned. Everyone (from accounting to operations) can see where the money is going and why.
Categories that map themselves: Good tools automatically match expenses to your chart of accounts. That means less manual coding, fewer errors, and faster close times.
Rules, not reminders: Budgets and approvals should be built into the system. Set limits by department or vendor, and let the platform handle enforcement.
Spend you can see: Real-time tracking means knowing what’s been spent today, without waiting until the end of the month to find out.
Tied into your finance stack: Look for tools that sync with your accounting software and reimbursement flow. Integration cuts duplicate work and helps keep everything audit-ready.

The best way to keep track of business expenses starts with removing friction. A system that works behind the scenes makes it easier for everyone to spend responsibly.

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Scale Overseas and Save on Expenses with Wise Business

Since 2011, Wise has attracted users all over the world with its effort to eliminate fees on international money transfers. Businesses can use Wise to hold, send, and receive money internationally. Wise offers the mid-market exchange rate which could help your team save when conducting business abroad. Not to mention, Wise Business integrates with accounting software, such as QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, and more.

Wise Business can help you save big time on international payments.

Wise is not a bank, but a Money Services Business (MSB) provider and a smart alternative to banks. The Wise Business account is designed with international business in mind, and makes it easy to send, hold, and manage business funds in 40+ currencies.

Signing up to Wise Business allows access to BatchTransfer which you can use to pay up to 1000 invoices in one go. This is perfect for small businesses that are managing a global team, saving a ton of time and hassle when making payments.

Some key features of Wise Business include:

• Mid-market rate: Get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees on international transfers
• Global Account: Send money to 140+ countries and hold balances in multiple currencies, all in one place. You can also get major currency account details for a one-off fee to receive overseas payments like a local
• Access to BatchTransfer: Pay up to 1000 invoices in one click. Save time, money, and stress when you make 1000 payments in one click with with BatchTransfer payments. Access to BatchTransfer is free with a Wise Business account
• Auto-conversions: Don't like the current currency exchange rate? Set your desired rate, and Wise sends the transfer the moment the rate is met
• Free invoicing tool: Generate and send professional invoices
• No minimum balance requirements and monthly fees: US-based businesses can open an account for free. Learn more about fees here

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How to Manage Business Expenses in 5 Clear Steps

A clear expense management process doesn’t just keep your books clean—it keeps your business moving.

Below are five steps to help your team manage spend with more structure and less confusion.

1. Set Clear Expense Policies

Start with structure. If your policy is vague or buried in a company drive, it’s not protecting your business. Clear guidelines make it easier for employees to stay compliant and for finance teams to enforce rules without consistent follow-up.

• Define what qualifies as a reimbursable expense
• Set clear per diem limits for meals, lodging, and travel
• Require documentation: receipts, mileage logs, or booking confirmations
• Clarify who approves what, and how requests should be submitted

If your policy includes phrases like “use your best judgment,” revisit them. Ambiguity leads to inconsistency, which leads to missed budgets and friction.

Keep your policy short enough to read, and detailed enough to matter. Make it part of onboarding and surface it regularly.

2. Give Teams the Right Tools

A policy is only as strong as the tools that support it. If employees are expected to stay compliant without an easy way to track and submit expenses, the system will fail, no matter how well it’s written.

• Use corporate cards with pre-set limits to eliminate overspending
• Issue virtual cards for specific vendors or recurring charges
• Let teams submit receipts by email, app, or even Slack
• Choose software that integrates with your accounting platform to reduce duplicate work

Tools should support behavior, not create workarounds. According to a report by Coupa, organizations that effectively use business spend management softwarecan achieve up to a 5.8% reduction in their total spend.¹

Choose tools that match how your team already works. If it feels like a chore, it won’t get used correctly.

3. Track Expenses Automatically

Tracking doesn’t need to mean chasing. Modern platforms let you see where money is going without sorting through spreadsheets or waiting for month-end surprises. When set up right, automation does most of the heavy lifting.

• Use tools that auto-categorize expenses by vendor, team, or GL code
• Capture receipts instantly through mobile apps or email forwarding
• Sync expense data with your accounting software in real-time
• Apply tags for client billing, project codes, or departments

The best way to keep track of business expenses is with a system that reduces manual input and makes reporting seamless. Manual entry doesn’t scale, and it leaves room for error.

Visibility shouldn’t depend on when someone files a report. Real-time tracking lets you course-correct before small issues grow.

4. Build in Approval Flows

Approval is where policies meet people. Without a clear workflow, expenses get stalled, missed, or pushed through without review. It creates frustration on both sides and slows down the month-end.

• Set rules for who approves what based on amount, role, or category
• Use auto-approvals for low-value recurring spend to rescue delays
• Trigger alerts for out-of-policy submissions or missing receipts
• Route approvals through the same tools your team already uses

Automating expense approvals saves not just clicks but time as well. According to Planergy, companies that adopted automation cut report completion time by 50% and brought AP processing down from 22 minutes to just 5.²

5. Reconcile Regularly & Review Trends

Tracking is only part of the equation. Reconciliation turns raw expense data into insight. It’s where patterns emerge, errors are caught, and smarter decisions are made.

• Reconcile expenses weekly instead of waiting for the month to close
• Look for subscription creep, unused software, or duplicate vendors
• Flag patterns in categories that consistently go over budget
• Use reports to inform future spend planning and vendor negotiations

When finance has clean data, it becomes a strategic partner. Better reconciliation leads to more proactive decision-making.

Build expense reviews into your regular cadence and don’t treat reconciliation as a clean-up task. It’s a visibility tool that gives you leverage.

Best Practices for Growing Teams

As companies grow, so does the complexity of managing expenses. What worked with a few employees and one shared card can quickly start to break down.

To stay in control, mid-sized businesses are putting clearer systems in place without adding unnecessary admin.

Here are a few of the most effective ways finance teams are keeping things on track.

List of Best Practices for Managing Expenses	Description
Set Monthly Spend Limits by Department	Setting clear budgets helps teams stay aligned without needing constant approvals. Monthly limits by department give budget owners control and let finance track spending more easily. This approach also helps reduce overspending and makes monthly reporting more predictable.
Run Vendor Audits Every Quarter	As tools and subscriptions add up, costs can slip through unnoticed. Running a simple audit every few months helps teams spot duplicate tools, unused software, or services that can be consolidated. Many teams use a shared list to track contracts and review renewal dates.
Connect Approvals to Slack	Waiting on approvals slows everyone down. Some companies are using Slack integrations to send spend requests straight to managers, making it easier to approve quickly and creating a clear record without extra admin.
Tag Expenses to Clients or Projects	Tagging spend helps businesses see where money is going. For project-based teams or those billing back to clients, it’s a simple way to keep records clean. It also helps with forecasting and budget reviews later on.
Pre-Approve Common Expenses	Travel, subscriptions, and team training often follow set patterns. Pre-approving these categories speeds up the process and lets the finance team focus on more complex or unexpected items.

These habits are useful whether you’re managing a small business or a fast-growing team. If you’re looking at how to track expenses or a small business, this is a good place to start. A few simple systems go a long way.

Common Expense Tracking Mistakes to Avoid

Even with a policy in place, small gaps in your process can cause bigger problems down the line.

These are the most common issues finance teams run into when tracking business spend, especially during periods of growth:

• Using manual spreadsheets: Without version control or automation, it’s easy to lose track of entries or introduce errors.
• Approving reimbursements without receipts: This creates risk and makes month-end reconciliation harder.
• Delaying approvals: When managers are slow to review expenses, employees wait longer for reimbursement and may stop following the process altogether.
• Sharing a company card: One card for multiple people means no clear ownership and no clean data trail.
• Not tagging expenses: Without tags for teams, clients, or categories, it’s harder to analyze spend or match it to budgets.

Getting the basics right can make a big difference. A few small changes now can save hours of admin later.

How to Audit & Improve Your Current Setup

Once a process is in place, it’s easy to assume it’s working.

However, finance teams that review their expense systems regularly tend to find small gaps that add up over time.

Here are a few questions to guide your next internal review:

• Is every expense being tracked? Check for one-off purchases, team subscriptions, or card changes that may not flow through your main system.
• Are categories mapped to the right GL codes? Mislabelled expenses make reporting less reliable and can affect budgets later on.
• Is the approval process clear? If approvals vary by manager or team, it may be time to introduce more structure.
• Are reports being used or just stored? Review how often finance, leadership, or team leads reference expense data to guide decisions.

A short audit can go a long way. Even small tweaks can lead to better visibility and fewer surprises at month-end.

Final Thoughts

Every business spends money. It’s just that the smart ones know where it’s going.

If your system feels scattered, that’s a good reason to pause and fix it. Not with more complexity, just with clearer steps and tools your team will actually use.

When your expense system runs cleanly, it stops being a burden and starts being a tool, one that saves time, earns trust, and gives your team the clarity to move faster.

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Sources:

1. The 2024 Total Spend Management Benchmark Report | Coupa
2. The Benefits of Expense Management Automation | Planergy