Implementing any new software system can seem daunting.
Changing costs, internal friction, and migrations from other services can all make it feel like sometimes, it's just not worth the hassle. But, implementing expense management software doesn’t need to be like that.
With the right mindset, approach and understanding, you can seamlessly and easily implement new expense processes and solutions without increasing your workload or stress.
But how’s it done?
In a Hurry?
- Understand why you’re implementing expense management in the first place, so you can prioritise setting up the key aspects that make the biggest impact
- Address employee concerns with adoption early, so you can plan your onboarding around potential pain points and areas of friction
- Work with your service providers onboarding service team to ensure you’re getting everything setup properly. This includes:
- Take advantage of all training materials and opportunities available
- Return to training and education on a regular basis to ensure that the basics aren’t being forgotten – this is relevant to all levels of business
We recently produced a guide on the essential features of expense management software, which we recommend reading if you’re still in the decision stage of your journey.
If you’re not, and you’ve made your choice of provider, the next step is to be very clear on exactly what you’re prioritising in terms of features and functions.
By considering why you’re actually implementing expense management software, you can ensure your setup processes are geared towards the areas of expense management that will really help your business.
For example, if you’re looking to streamline your travel expense processes, then making sure this area of the service is properly integrated before moving on to lower priority processes is going to make a huge difference.
This might sound obvious but, at ExpenseOnDemand, we have over 200 features and functions to support businesses in their expense management. Setting your implementation focus on the tools that matter first, and expanding as your business settles into your new software, helps you fast-track your setup.
According to Forbes, one of the biggest reasons employees resist change in the workplace is due to feeling loss of control within their roles. By reducing the amount of immediate change through focusing on core areas of implementation, you can mitigate any sense of overwhelm that might come with doing too much, too fast.
You can speak to your onboarding team about what’s most important to you and your business, to make sure all your key priorities are addressed.
Now, the topic of employees and resistance to change is one we want to stick with for the time being.
A successful buy-in from your team is utterly essential for smooth implementation of your new expense system.
Addressing problems before they arise is a powerful way of avoiding the dreaded internal resistance movement. Speaking with team members at all levels within your business and understanding what problems they foresee within your implemenation plans, can allow you to design roadmap built around mitigating their fears and anxieties.
As we’ll come to shortly, training and education is really the answer to smooth expense management implementation, so knowing where the perceived gaps are means you can work on a development plan that cuts right to the heart of anticipated problems.
Any good, modern expense management tool – such as ExpenseOnDemand – requires very little actual ‘implementation’ in the traditional sense.
That’s because the software is all cloud-based, so there is no installation to be done, no hardware requirements to be adhered to, and no local servers to manage.
It’s all pre-packaged and available for you pretty much instantaneously via application logins.
Implementation instead becomes more about a system of adaptation and adoption. It’s like moving into a fully-furnished property, you just need to learn about where everything is, and how all the appliances (features) work.
For this, you need a good onboarding team. At ExpenseOnDemand we provide a dedicated onboarding account manager to guide you through everything, start-to-finish.
But what exactly does this side of implementation include?
Many expense management software providers, including ExpenseOnDemand, offer pre-configurations that make implementation even easier than you’d expect. Still, there are some definite areas of consideration within these, that can be optimised to get the most out of your new tool early:
If you have historic digital expense data (we understand not everyone will, especially if you’re coming from paper-based record keeping) then you’ll want to feed this into the system during the implementation process.
Whether using our service or any other platform, your implementation team should work alongside you to verify accuracy of all your imports before going live. This ensures absolutely nothing is lost during system migration, allowing you to move from other expense software without concern over losing years of data and financial information.
One of the most important parts of implementing expense management software is making sure it works seamlessly with the systems you already rely on.
Your setup phase must absolutely include getting all these essential tools connected to your expenses platform of choice.
As highlighted, all this can be supported by your dedicated onboarding manager. They’ll guide you through all these steps through live sessions and follow-up resources. They can even do a lot of the system setup on your behalf when provided with the right level of information.
This is particularly pertinent where custom integrations are involved.
As we’ve already alluded to, a huge part of the implementation process for modern cloud-based software isn’t about the setup phase itself, but instead learning where features live and how to access/use them.
Within this type of ecosystem, the smoothest path to successful implementation is just good and quality training.
For that, it’s best to start by focusing on the basics that every user needs to know when it comes to the expense tool you’re using:
Most providers, including ExpenseOnDemand, offer structured onboarding support. This often includes live training sessions, step-by-step tutorials, and a library of digital resources that employees can revisit at any time.
It’s worth planning different levels of training for different roles: everyday users need clarity on making claims, while managers and finance teams will require deeper knowledge of reporting and approval workflows.
As a final point of consideration, it’s best not to treat training as a one-off event. Encourage regular refreshers so the fundamentals stay front of mind, and make resources easily accessible for new joiners. Ongoing guidance ensures adoption is consistent across the business and prevents bad habits from forming over time.
ExpenseOnDemand has purposefully developed an easy-to-use and adoptable platform for businesses. You can discover more for yourself through our free trial offer, or book a demo if you’d like a clear walkthrough with one of our experts.
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