Checklist: 7 Ways to Improve Financial Decisions with Data

Best-in-Class companies are 30% faster than All Others at capturing company spend data.

As the global pandemic continues into 2021, companies have been forced to find innovative ways to support their financial decision-making. According to Aberdeen’s recent expense and invoice management survey, top companies are better at managing cash flow, budget tracking / budget management, and auditing for budget compliance. These Best-in-Class companies are seeing a significant increase in productivity — and even profitability — subsequentially making them more resilient during the current economic downturn.

Learn from Best-in-Class companies to help understand how a business continuity plan and resiliency can optimise expense and invoice management. Here are four of the seven activities Aberdeen recommends:

• Capture company spend data with expense / invoice management solutions. Best-in-Class companies around the world are improving data accessibility for capture, which has enabled greater flexibility in understanding company spend. They are 30% better than All Others at capturing company spend data.
• Access data in the necessary timeframe. Best-in-Class companies around the world are 31% faster than All Others at accessing their data when it is needed. Businesses need information and insights faster than ever and with the proper tools in place for automating processes, they can get the most out of their data and employees.
• Manage cash flow by connecting disparate data to create real-time spend insights. Best-in-Class companies around the world are 15% more likely than All Others to leverage spend data to better manage their cash flow. This allows them to improve operations from R&D for future growth to managing debt, which is extremely important during an economic downturn.
• Track / manage budget to forecast for future growth. To ensure future growth, it is top companies are utilising company spend data and focusing on tracking their company spending against their budget for constant verification and validation, which is critical to budget planning and budget forecasting.

Get all 7 activities by downloading the Aberdeen 7 Ways to Improve Financial Decision-Making with Company Spend Data checklist.