A computer programmer auctions off items on a personal website. A young marketer brings from Italy his idea for upscale espresso cafes. A convenience-store operator opens a tropical-themed market aimed at college students. It’s safe to say that as they began what would become empires the founders of eBay, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s had this in common: Not one of them was thinking about expense software.

A survey by Techaisle confirms what most anyone who has been around a small or medium-sized business knows: The focus is on improving the quality of products and processes, improving productivity of the workforce and finding new customers and retaining existing ones. Reducing operational costs, the primary goal of expense software, was way down at No. 8 on survey respondents’ collective priority list. So should an SMB go to the trouble of investigating – and investing in – premium expense software? The answer is an emphatic yes, and here are just three reasons why.

Save time that’s even more precious at an SMB

Small and medium-sized businesses have many of the same pressures of their larger brethren: uncertainty, competition, the search for relevance. But because their organizations are younger, the stakes are higher. Very often personal financial resources are at risk. In these situations, successful entrepreneurs seem to find a way to block out all the noise and focus intensely on only those things that will grow the business. Modern expense software helps eliminate an administrative distraction that most visionaries would rather not deal with in the first place.

Save money that’s needed for business growth

Whether a small business is investor funded or bootstrapped there never seems to be enough money. Every month the business runs in the red is one more month of bad sleep for its founders. Software that lowers expenses by helping to control expenses provides that little extra each month that can be plowed back into the business. And as the business grows, so should the savings.

Protect the organization against fraud

One of the things that makes some small businesses truly special is the feeling that everyone is in it together. That trust and the resulting camaraderie can be crushed, however, when someone gets greedy and decides to try and steal. Expense software makes it plain that accuracy and honesty are priorities across the growing organization.

SureExpense and SureMileage

Even for small organizations, expense and mileage reimbursement represent significant costs. Inefficient systems add to that expense and consume precious time. Automating these processes with SureExpense and SureMileage saves time and money even it reduces risks of fraud.

With SureExpense, managing expense reports and payment processing is made much easier. Managers get a straightforward, multi-level approval process and seamless integration with their existing accounting and payroll systems.

SureMileage takes the guesswork out of mileage expenses with its new approach to mileage tracking.

It not only addresses inflated employee estimates but is an effective tool for supervisors to monitor employee schedules and time management.
Together they let businesses focus on what matters: the work they set out to do.