Given the extent of the government's spending cuts, the need for transparency and control over all aspects of public sector expenditure is more important now than it has ever been, writes Robert Kirby, CEO of Spendvision

Many public sector organisations still rely on disparate, bureaucratic processes designed to tackle specific elements of corporate spending, but the drawback of managing spend categories such as travel, telecoms, training and others separately is that it makes reporting and analysing overall spend very complicated. What's more, the expense claim, purchasing and approval processes become extremely time-consuming for end users and keeps them away from front line responsibilities where they are needed most.

By introducing an adequate system for controlling, approving and monitoring transactions, public sector organisations can optimise spend and reduce the risk of cashflow problems. For instance, integrating all expenses under one roof on a single software platform can drastically simplify expense management processes and enable greater insight into all transactions for government organisations.

However, it's important to note that one of the key factors in the successful implementation of any business system is in the employee experience. Given just one simple interface to work with, employees will find it much easier to log different types of expenses as they accrue, code transactions to the right cost centres and can even photograph and upload receipts via a mobile phone if they're on the move. This simplifies the claims process for the individual, and enables them to forgo the end of the month expenses chore – ultimately giving them more time to focus on the job in hand.

In addition to the savings made through improved policy compliance and process efficiencies, financial directors can take a proactive approach to driving down unnecessary spending. For example, detailed reporting tools can enable procurement managers to compare multiple suppliers, giving them the ammunition they need to support the negotiation of additional discounts and preferential terms, and quickly identify the best options for everything from transport to accommodation. In addition, single platform solutions enable the financial directors to compare expenditure within different departments quickly, allowing them to identify best practice and replicate successes across other departments within the organisation through the implementation and control of spend policies.

For example, Essex County Council recently introduced an online expense management platform specifically to gain better visibility and control over all expenditure on the Council's 400 new purchasing cards. The solution is helping the Council to save a total of £229,800 annually, with savings based on releasing capacity to the front line, VAT reclaims, rebate on spend, reducing the number of new suppliers that need to be added to the council's financial systems, and a reduction of staff required to process invoices.

The University of Sydney has also seen significant benefits, not least the ability to redeploy 12 full time accounts payable staff to other business functions, as they were no longer needed to manually process expenses. The university has seen real process efficiencies in the way it manages the 90 percent of transactions that are below 5,000 AUD and by implementing online, pre-approval processes. For minimal cost the return-on-investment has been significant and has a huge impact on managers across the organisation.

Christchurch City Council in New Zealand found that automation has been invaluable in helping them manage its spend and budgets. "We can summarise spend for a whole unit, compare it with previous time periods and track performance to date against budgets," said Karen Abernethy of Christchurch City Council. The council has also been able to use its data to identify rogue spend and set up new company-wide spend policies to control this.

It has become clear that total transaction management solutions will undoubtedly play a crucial role in helping government organisations to drive down spend as they tackle some out the toughest budget cuts in decades. Expense management is a strategic issue that, if done correctly, can bring efficiency and transparency in spend across the entire public sector.

http://www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp?id=15467