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What UK CFOs wish their expense management software could do

For many CFOs, expense management remains a source of ongoing frustration. From compliance complexities to inefficiencies in processes, finance leaders across the UK have been searching for smarter, more effective solutions. At Expend, we’ve made it our mission to address these challenges head-on. “Every feature we’ve developed is grounded in listening to our customers and building tools that genuinely solve their problems,” says Expend CEO Johnny Vowles.

For many CFOs, expense management remains a source of ongoing frustration. From compliance complexities to inefficiencies in processes, finance leaders across the UK have been searching for smarter, more effective solutions. At Expend, we’ve made it our mission to address these challenges head-on.

“Every feature we’ve developed is grounded in listening to our customers and building tools that genuinely solve their problems,” says Johnny Vowles, CEO.

Here are the key challenges CFOs identified – and how we’ve developed innovative solutions to meet their needs.

1. A Single Source of Truth Across All Spending

Some of the most common issues CFOs face are achieving real-time visibility and staying on top of all aspects of company spending. Monitoring credit card purchases across multiple business banking providers, managing subscription payments, tracking down receipts for reimbursements and calculating employee payments for mileage claims – to name a few – is time-consuming and inefficient, and can cause oversight gaps.

We’ve solved this by providing real-time visibility into every aspect of company spending, all consolidated in one intuitive platform. Finance teams can track expenses as they happen, monitor budgets, and access the full picture – eliminating silos and allowing for informed decision-making without delays.

2. Built-In Expense Policy Enforcement

Manually enforcing expense policies is a time-consuming process prone to errors and inconsistencies. CFOs told us they needed automated controls to ensure compliance and reduce unnecessary spending without added complexity for employees. Our expense policy automation embeds company rules directly into the system. Spending limits, approval thresholds, and category controls are automatically applied, minimising policy violations from employees while simplifying the process.

3. Seamless Integration of Card Connect™ Technology

Managing expenses linked to multiple business cards issued by different banks was another significant pain point for CFOs. For example, the C-suite may rely on credit facilities from multiple institutions, requiring finance teams to juggle multiple statements and logins just to track spending. Our Card Connect™ solution resolves this by seamlessly linking any business bank card on the Visa or Mastercard network to Expend. Transactions from all connected cards are centralised within our platform, giving finance teams a unified view of spending. This eliminates the clunky, time-consuming process of reconciling expenses across multiple banks while providing the accuracy and control CFOs need.

4. AI-Powered Fraud Detection

Expense fraud is a growing concern for businesses, and CFOs have told us they need better tools to detect and prevent it. That’s why we’ve integrated AI-powered fraud detection into our platform. The system identifies suspicious transactions and flags them for review, reducing the risk of fraudulent activity slipping through unnoticed. Our AI also simplifies employee submissions by suggesting expense categories based on transaction details, reducing repetitive tasks and improving accuracy.

5. Automated Approval Workflows for Greater Efficiency

Automated approval processes were one of the most requested features we’ve ever developed. CFOs emphasised how manual approvals delayed reimbursements and created bottlenecks for finance teams. Our approval workflows dynamically route claims to the appropriate approvers based on predefined rules, such as expense amounts or departments, or expenses can be automatically approved if they hit criteria set by the business, such as ‘value under £15’.

A Future Built on CFO Feedback

Our journey of innovation is driven by one guiding principle: listening to CFOs and finance teams. Every improvement we’ve made, from AI-driven fraud detection to our fully digital compliance system, has been shaped by the needs of the people who rely on our platform. As our CEO puts it, “By partnering with our customers, we’ve built a platform that empowers finance teams to work smarter – not harder – and delivers measurable value, and we’re committed to improving it every day.

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