The key to any business is more than just profit – you also need to have a plan to draw in that profit while cutting costs across the board. In other words, your business strategy is the single most important aspect of your success. Developing the right strategy and policies is a must for any company, and that applies to each department within your business. You can use plenty of tools today to help, and when it comes to travelling employees and the expenses they incur while on the go, using good online expense programs can help you create the strongest strategy possible.

The moment you start using online expense programs, you’re already changing your strategy for the better. Since these systems allow you to automate the majority of business operations, you’re able to streamline most of the processes your team has to use to handle expenses. That translates into a better, more efficient way of working.

However, you can also take even more control over your expenses and transform the way your company works. The secret to being able to do so lies in the fact that when you use online expense programs, you’re using a system that stores information throughout its use. That translates into one of the most powerful features offered by these systems – data reporting.

Instead of creating endless filing cabinets filled with receipts and expense claim forms, these programs store everything digitally. It makes it easy to log in to the system and access spending records from the last trip, the last month, the last quarter, the last year, or even over a longer period of time. And you can then narrow down information to look at a single department’s spending, an employee’s spending, and more. In short, you get a total look at how your company and its team members are spending while on the go.

This means that you can look for things like which departments are netting the best ROI, whether or not any employees are spending far more than their peers, and even which specific business trips are working best for your company. You can use the information to change policies and strategies – switching to a different hotel chain, modifying acceptable spending levels, and more.

To move into the future, your company needs the right tools for the job and the right plan. With help from online expense programs you could develop the plan that is best for your team and steer your company towards a better bottom line.