Lessons from a Deep Dive into Spend Management Solutions

What CFOs Need to Know About Spend Management. Learn key lessons from a finance leader's tech stack overhaul. Discover how to select spend management tools that streamline processes, boost visibility, enhance controls and drive financial efficiency for better business decisions.

Sophie Conaghan is the Finance Lead at CharlieHR and runs Finance for Founders, delivering workshops that demystify finance and accounting principles for non-finance professionals.

As the sole in-house finance professional, I collaborate across departments and advise leadership. Our recent tech stack overhaul addressed key issues in spend management. Finance and operations teams struggled with a fragmented stack of tools accumulated from outsourced providers and ad-hoc integrations, leading to inefficiencies and poor support during errors.

On the operations side, tracking staff turnover was challenging. While using Cledara, removing departing employees required manual steps: revoking access, deleting cards, and adjusting permissions across multiple wallets. Enforcing spend policies was complex, and we paid for duplicate features. We needed a unified platform with integrated policy controls.

The leadership team reviewed varying financial reports monthly, so we added an FP&A tool. This shifted how we analyzed business data, gaining management buy-in. However, OpEx visibility was limited until Xero month-end close. We required real-time departmental spend dashboards.

These challenges prompted a full stack review.

The Amazon Memo

Initially, the CEO and COO resisted the overhaul, viewing it as non-strategic for our small team. Time constraints sidelined the idea. I researched via finance networks, LinkedIn, and trends, identifying promising solutions.

Using the 'Amazon memo' approach, I documented our current setup, pain points, and benefits of unification—including strategic gains. I shortlisted options, engaged providers, and secured approval to proceed.

Selecting the Right Platform

Our focus evolved from a single budget dashboard to seamless implementation, user-friendly UI, and employee experience. Discussions revealed needs like support for complex budgets with individual team allowances.

We defined essential criteria:

• Centralized spend visibility
• Reliable card functionality
• Flexible spending controls
• Decentralized management
• Integration capabilities
• Dashboard insights
• Fee transparency
• Security measures
• Google and Apple Pay compatibility

Apple and Google Pay, initially overlooked, proved vital—especially for the CEO—highlighting practical usability.

Data matrix flexibility was crucial: categorizing, filtering, and reporting by individual, team, department, cost center, account code, and budget. Our intersecting budgets demanded multidimensional analysis.

What Does 'Integration' Mean, Anyway?

Conversations with product managers from Moss, Spendesk, Payhawk, and Pleo clarified capabilities without sales pressure.

Spendesk offered only two data dimensions, requiring manual exports for analysis—insufficient for us. Other platforms enabled three dimensions natively.

Payhawk positioned as a budgeting and reporting tool alongside spend management, with an advanced roadmap. We discussed SME pricing improvements.

'Integration' varies: real-time bi-directional sync, one-way push/pull, or CSV? Clarify specifics for ease.

We chose Moss for its three data levels and Google/Apple Pay support, enabling flexible categorization and employee convenience.

Lessons Learned

Key takeaways for selecting spend management solutions:

1. Collaborate across departments

Make it a cross-functional effort. Operations provided input on engagement; finance focused on data needs.

2. Speak directly with product managers

Essential for complex needs. They explain integrations, data structures, and roadmaps aligning with growth. All were receptive.

3. Understand product strategy and company culture

Probe data structures and vision: finance-focused or business-wide? Match to your stack, data evolution, and finance culture. For open-book finance, choose accessible tools democratizing data.