SAP Concur's Jonathan Beeby reveals how tracking rejected expenses provides crucial insights for improving policies and reducing audit failures.
What's happening: Finance teams are abandoning traditional manual expense auditing in favour of intelligent, technology-driven processes. The shift involves focusing audit resources on high-risk transactions while automating routine compliance checks, dramatically improving both efficiency and fraud detection capabilities.
Why this matters: Expenses represent one of the largest controllable costs for organisations. Without robust audit controls, businesses face unnecessary financial leakage, fraud risk, and compliance failures that undermine operational efficiency and stakeholder trust. Modern audit approaches deliver measurable improvements in spend management and risk reduction.
Australian finance leaders are discovering that their traditional approach to expense auditing may be doing more harm than good, with manual processes consuming valuable resources while missing the transactions that pose the greatest risk.
The most significant shift involves moving away from reviewing every expense submission toward focusing audit resources on areas carrying the highest risk levels. Many organisations lose valuable time reviewing low-value, low-risk submissions when real vulnerabilities often sit in larger, more complex expense categories.
Finance teams that filter out routine items for periodic post-payment checks and focus their audits on high-risk transactions report far greater impact. This strategic approach allows auditors to spend time on expenses that matter most, using resources proactively rather than reactively.
A deliberate, risk-based framework directs high-value or high-risk claims to auditors while leaving routine, compliant claims to automated processes. Organisations defining thresholds for high-risk transactions, such as cash payments above certain levels or expenses tied to high-risk vendors, significantly improve control effectiveness.
Traditional reliance on manager approvals represents a significant vulnerability in many organisations' expense governance structures.
"Relying solely on manager approvals is a weak spot in many organisations," said Jonathan Beeby, managing director, SAP Concur Australia and New Zealand. "Managers are an essential part of expense governance, though their reviews often lack consistency. Managers with limited training and competing priorities may only check a fraction of receipts, leaving compliance gaps that introduce unnecessary risk."
The solution involves defining clear expectations for manager involvement while combining this with intelligent automation tools and stronger audit processes. This approach reduces exposure and creates a more consistent employee experience across the organisation.
Smart finance leaders are investing in integrated platforms that centralise travel and expense management, eliminating manual errors while streamlining approvals and improving policy enforcement.
"Technology plays a critical role in tightening audit controls," Beeby explained. "Smart finance leaders are investing in integrated platforms that centralise travel and expense management to eliminate manual errors, streamline approvals, and improve policy enforcement."
When expense data flows directly into a single system, businesses gain a complete view of spending patterns and remove inefficiencies that often mask fraud or policy violations. This integration improves compliance and accelerates reporting and reconciliation processes.
Audit trails in corporate expense management require tracking every expense and understanding the detail involved, making centralised systems essential for maintaining financial accountability.
Artificial intelligence has transformed auditing by automating repetitive and error-prone aspects of the process. AI systems can scan receipts, categorise transactions, detect anomalies, and flag unusual behaviour at a scale that human auditors cannot match.
AI technology can eliminate duplicate expenses by matching receipts with expense reports, cards, and invoices, finding duplicates across spend including similar receipts and multiple submissions. This capability provides immediate cost savings while freeing finance teams to focus on investigating exceptions and addressing root causes rather than processing routine claims.
Combining AI with human judgement allows organisations to strike an optimal balance between efficiency and oversight, ensuring comprehensive coverage while maintaining appropriate human involvement in complex decisions.
Automated compliance monitoring strengthens controls by embedding compliance checks directly into the expense reporting process. Employees can see potential issues before submission, while automated alerts flag non-compliant claims, reducing time auditors spend chasing corrections.
Pre-spend approvals take this approach further by aligning expenses with budgets and policies before they are incurred, minimising disputes and surprises after the fact.
Tracking why expense reports are rejected and capturing data on out-of-policy claims provides finance teams with insights needed to adjust policies or improve employee training.
"Visibility into exceptions is another critical factor," Beeby noted. "Tracking why expense reports are rejected and capturing data on out-of-policy claims gives finance teams the insight needed to adjust policies or improve employee training."
If a large portion of rejected expenses results from misclassification, the issue likely stems from unclear reporting categories rather than compliance culture problems. Audit data becomes a feedback loop informing better decision-making and reducing future errors.
Analytics platforms integrating real-time dashboard displays provide clear pictures of where policies are being breached and where spend is trending. This empowers finance leaders to act quickly, whether by tightening rules, targeting audits, or engaging with employees to address specific behaviours.
Robust analytics contribute to building a culture of accountability over time, where compliance is understood and embraced across the workforce rather than seen as an administrative burden.
The result of implementing these strengthened audit controls is an intelligent, efficient, and consistent system that protects resources while strengthening organisational trust. Organisations focusing on high-risk areas, leveraging automation, designing intentional audit rules, and using analytics to inform policy build audit processes delivering measurable improvements in compliance and spend management.
"Choosing the right partners and tools is essential to sustaining long-term improvements in spend compliance," Beeby concluded. "Vendors with proven expertise and scalable solutions provide more than technology; they also offer guidance on best practices and evolving risks."
This creates a stronger financial foundation supporting business growth while reducing unnecessary risk, positioning organisations for sustained success in an increasingly complex regulatory environment.