Organizations often struggle with managing expenses due to the manual, time-consuming, and prone to delays, errors, and misuse. In a recent podcast, Susie Shyatt, Business Development Executive at B4B Payments, and Hugh Thomas, Lead Commercial Payments Analyst at Javelin Strategy & Research, discussed common challenges businesses face in managing expenses and how embedded payments can help streamline this inefficient process. One of the most common issues in the expense management process is employees being required to use their own funds to cover company expenses. This requires sufficient funds, which can be challenging for costly business trips involving airfare and hotel stays. Additionally, once the employee returns, they must provide documentation for their expenses, which then needs to be manually processed, leading to delays or errors in reimbursement. There is also the risk of abuse in the process, which has been inadvertently encouraged by management. Embedded payments technology can help organizations reduce the amount of time finance personnel spend processing expense documentation, freeing them up to focus on more strategic tasks. It also gives organizations greater control over how funds are being spent, as there is often a lack of transparency into how and where those funds are sourced when using personal funds to cover expenses. Removing the inertia barrier is crucial for organizations to adopt embedded payments in the expense management process. The first step for these organizations is to take a deep dive into their expense management process from end to end. They should talk to their accounts payable and payroll staff, as well as any employee who regularly participates in the expense reimbursement program, and identify the true pain points in their current process. Once the organization has identified its needs, it can begin to address the inefficiencies in this critical function. Knowing exactly what you need not only helps with efficiencies within your company but also helps with cost savings as well.