Automated expense report software is a good investment. In some cases, it can cut the cost of processing expense reports by nearly two-thirds. But there are a lot of options out there, many with similar features and similar costs. Which one do you pick?

One consideration that often gets overlooked is the software and technical support that the company offers with the software product. We like to think of computers on a high level as perfect, number-crunching machines, but in day-to-day use, it’s readily apparent that they were designed and created by error-prone humans.

Even the best designed software will occasionally cause problems or require expert assistance to unlock its full potential. When you purchase or license software, you want to know that its creators will provide support for when things do go wrong.

What To Look For

Software vendors should be willing to dedicate an account support agent to provide personal attention to your company. Calling a toll-free number to talk to a machine is not adequate customer service when software problems are causing a stop in your business’ workflow.

A good software vendor will also be reachable by multiple methods. You should be able to contact your vendor by telephone, email, or web conferencing to ensure that your problem doesn’t stop workflow any longer than necessary.

A corollary to the previous paragraph is that the vendor should be able to promise prompt responses regardless of the contact method. Any workflow interruption, however small, costs your business money. Delayed responses from your vendor are not acceptable.

Make sure that the vendor can provide training to your employees. User guides are a nice reference, but none of your employees has the time to spend learning the software and then spending even more time teaching your other employees. It should be the vendor’s job to provide the training.