You know the drill. A new expense policy is announced. Suddenly, employees worry about more rules, more approvals and more administration. It looks like a control issue. In practice, it is often a friction issue.
TL;DRA stricter expense policy does not have to mean more resistance. Start by removing the friction employees already experience: make the purpose clear, move control closer to the expense and automate frustrating processes such as receipts, manual data entry and approvals.
You may recognise the situation: You present a stricter expense policy, and the mood in the room changes.
Not necessarily because employees and managers disagree with the need for tighter control. But because they are already imagining the consequences: more forms, more explanations, more rejections and more administration.
Resistance to cost savings and increased control is rarely just about a lack of willingness. It is often about everyday friction, a feeling of reduced autonomy and a genuine concern that new rules will make work more complicated.
That is why a stricter expense policy should not begin with more manual controls. It should begin by removing the things that already frustrate the organisation.
Here are three methods that can make tighter controls easier to implement – without the finance team spending the rest of the year putting out fires:
Resistance often arises when employees experience uncertainty, a lack of influence or unclear expectations.
That is why an expense policy should be easy to explain without lengthy presentations and financial terminology.
Not simply as:
“We need to save money.”
But rather:
“We need better control over expenses so we can avoid broad cost reductions in the areas that create value.”
That difference matters. Cost-cutting creates noise and can shift focus away from core responsibilities. Clear priorities, on the other hand, make it easier for managers to support the change – and for employees to understand what is expected of them.
The policy should therefore answer questions such as:
The less room there is for interpretation, the fewer discussions will arise afterwards.
The same frustrations appear in many organisations: long administration times, paper receipts, missing documentation, late registrations and approval processes that drag on.
In a survey among Acubiz customers, 76.6% stated that excessive administration time was a challenge before implementing their solution. 65.9% highlighted physical receipts, 53.2% pointed to lost receipts and documentation, and 46.8% identified complicated approval flows as a challenge.
This shows that the problem is rarely just the rules themselves. Just as often, it is the way those rules have to be followed.
The key is to register the expense while it is still fresh in the employee’s memory. For example, employees can take a photo of the receipt on their mobile phone while the card transaction is automatically imported into the system.
That way, month-end close does not become a hunt for missing receipts and unclear purchases.
It is simply easier to allocate, document and control an expense when it happens than when it has to be reconstructed several weeks later.
The goal is therefore not primarily to introduce a new tool. It is to create a process where employees can follow the rules without unnecessary hassle.
A stricter policy is rarely accepted simply because the numbers make sense.
It is accepted when employees experience that the new process is actually easier than the old one.
At BDO Denmark, employees previously had to keep their receipts and manually scan them into the expense system afterwards. Today, they can take a photo of the receipt and complete the expense claim immediately, while the closest manager can approve it digitally.
As Nina Hjorthmose, Senior Consultant in Accounting at BDO, explains:
“Now they can easily take a picture of their receipt and complete the expense claim immediately.”
This does not necessarily change the documentation requirements. But it removes a significant amount of friction.
At SCANGRIP, travel expenses were previously handled by sales employees handing in piles of physical receipts, which the finance team then had to match with the month’s card transactions. The process became even more complicated when foreign receipts were involved.
With a digital process, receipts became available electronically, the approval procedure became more transparent and documentation easier to review. Sales employees could scan receipts on their phones and complete the process immediately instead of collecting documents until the end of the month.
The two examples highlight an important point: More consistent control does not have to mean more administration.
On the contrary, it can be experienced as an improvement when registration, documentation and approval become a natural part of the workflow.
If you want the organisation to support a stricter expense policy, start where frustration already exists.
For many companies, this is the handling of receipts, expenses and approvals.
When expenses are managed continuously from registration to accounting, the finance team gets more consistent data, fewer errors and less noise at month-end close. At the same time, employees and managers spend less time on administration.
With a digital and automated process, companies can potentially reduce administration time related to expense management by up to 80%, depending on their existing processes and system setup.
The best expense policy is not necessarily the strictest one.
It is the one that is followed in practice because the rules are clear, the controls are reasonable and the process is easy to use.
So connect the change to what employees already care about: less wasted time, fewer frustrations and less unnecessary hassle.
Start with the receipts. The rest usually becomes easier.
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