DATABASICS: Business Expense Management Simplified

It’s unrealistic to rely upon reviewers to know all of a company’s policies and exceptions, to know what everything ought to cost and to have the expertise of a fraud examiner

So reviewers—with the right expense reporting solution—do not have to worry about receipts. Instead, they can focus on the legitimacy and classification of the reported transactions. Are they reasonable? Do they comply with policy? Are they possibly fraudulent? An expense reporting system with an automated rules engine that has the flexibility and power to validate transactions against real-world policies can make things much easier for the reviewer. He does not have to know that Business Class airfare is allowed for Project A but not for Project B except for Phase 2. If the system does not flag the transaction, he can assume that it is good. What does he do though, when he sees a coach charge for $1,235.00 for a flight to Cleveland? Is that a lot or a good deal? Here, the reviewer would need a rules engine with a link to an external data source with benchmark rates.

And how would he detect a pattern of fraud where an employee is making up his own cab receipts? Syriani says, “It’s unrealistic to rely upon reviewers to know all of a company’s policies and exceptions, to know what everything ought to cost and to have the expertise of a fraud examiner.”

The real break-through in transaction review will come from AI, Syriani claims. “Reviewers will not be empowered so much as eliminated from the process. Reviews will be thorough, objective and most importantly, adaptive. Patterns at all levels will be detectable, and rules will be refined to single out exceptional transactions. All of this will happen without direct human participation. We’re not there yet, but reviewers should take heart that in not so long, they won’t have to look at another expense report.”