A hot trend--and now a necessity--in business management today is integration between products. That's because when organizations find themselves using disparate, unconnected business products, they also find themselves with inefficient processes that waste time and money.
Instead, organizations are learning the value of software that integrates with the systems they already use, particularly when it comes to time & expense. Because timesheets and expense reports are a major element of any organization, it's essential that the solution is able to integrate with other systems, from accounting and payroll to credit cards and even HR.
Here are just a few of the downsides to not having integration-capable time & expense software:
- Employees are less productive:
When employees waste time moving between systems, they get less done. The employees make the company run, so if they are bogged down with administrative work, they can't complete the job they were actually hired to accomplish in the most efficient way. Manual time and expense processes decrease productivity, but they also can be error-prone.
For example, if an employee is entering their expense reports manually into a spreadsheet, the approver then needs to take that data and enter it into another spreadsheet and then they probably have to enter that data into a system that will reimburse the employee. That means that the same information is being entered two or three additional times. An automated solution requires only one submission: the first one by the employee. This frees up approvers to verify data and move it along the workflow process.
Related Article: How Level 3 Data Is Revolutionizing Expense Reporting
- Systems need to be manually managed:
When your time & expense system won't communicate directly with your other systems, some poor administrator is probably tasked with the cruel job of manually exporting your timesheet and expense report data, manipulating it to be read by a second system, and then importing it into that system.
This is an inefficient, error-prone process. When administrators have to adjust data to make it readable from one system to another, they might accidentally alter the data. They also waste a lot of time making it fit just right so that the second system recognizes the data. An automated solution can connect and communicate with your other systems so that data flows automatically. - Data potential is not maximized:
Data is power. When your systems sit separately, unable to communicate, you aren't using that data to its maximum potential. Each separate system can probably give you data about that system, but then you're left determining what all those reports mean when combined.
Through integrations, you can bring all your systems together for analysis, giving you a higher-level view of your financial status. This gives you the power to make better-informed decisions and to make adjustments as you go. Get more power and more control over your organization through integrations.
Those are all reasons to avoid any system that does not integrate with your already existing systems. With integrations, you'll see benefits like increased efficiency, improved visibility, and streamlined processes. In today's business climate, no organization can afford to waste their precious time and resources on a time and expense system without open data integrations.
For more information on the DATABASICS Time & Expense solutions, contact us, or call (800) 599-0434.
DATABASICS provides cloud-based, next generation Expense Reporting, P-Card Management, Timesheet & Leave Management, and Invoice Processing automation. Specializing in meeting the most rigorous requirements, DATABASICS offers the highest level of service to its customers around the world.
DATABASICS is relied upon by leading organizations representing all the major sectors of the global economy: financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, research, retail, engineering, non-profits/NGOs, technology, federal contractors, and other sectors.
DATABASICS is headquartered in Reston, VA.