Managing the balance between Empowerment and Control with automated spending policies

Bujeti Inc
4 min readMay 15, 2023

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Finding the right balance between empowerment and control is a significant business challenge. On the one hand, we want to give our teams more autonomy, allowing them to make decisions and manage their processes and budgets. On the other hand, we need to be able to verify and control decentralized initiatives.

This balance between freedom and control is particularly delicate regarding budget management. However, the powerful combination of finance and technology has brought us the perfect solution: Spending Policies by Bujeti.

Did you say Spending Policy?

A spending policy is your secret weapon for financial success. It is a set of guidelines that businesses use to manage their finances effectively by setting clear spending rules and communicating priorities to stakeholders.

For example, imagine a company implementing a travel and expense spending policy. This policy outlines the guidelines for employees to follow when incurring travel and expense costs, including the types of expenses covered, the maximum limits for each expense category, and the approval process for reimbursing expenses.

But a spending policy is more than just a tool for managing finances. It’s a powerful way to create transparency and accountability within your organisation and to communicate your financial priorities and expectations to your teams.

The Challenge

For many businesses, implementing spending policies can be a daunting task that results in three main challenges.

  1. Some companies simply choose not to define spending policies, either validating or rejecting expenses on a case-by-case basis.
  2. For others, the challenge comes from a lack of effective tools to monitor compliance with spending policies.
  3. Finally, many businesses choose to centralize spending with their accountant or financial manager to ensure compliance with their spending policies.

From the Cause to Effect

Establishing and enforcing effective spending policies can have serious consequences for your business.

  • Overspending: Without spending policies in place, it can be challenging to control your expenses, leading to overspending, which in turn, can cause cash flow problems and affect your ability to invest in other business areas.
  • Fraud: Without proper controls and monitoring, there is a risk of fraud and abuse of company funds.
  • Non-compliance: Failure to comply with regulations related to spending can lead to legal penalties, fines, and reputational damage.
  • Lack of Accountability & Transparency: Poorly defined or opaque spending policies can erode trust and transparency within the organization, leading to a negative workplace culture.
  • Reduced Productivity: The lack of clear guidelines and approval processes can lead to delays and reduced productivity, causing missed opportunities and reduced competitiveness.

Revamp your spending policies with Bujeti for a competitive edge

✔️ Gain Time: Setting spending policies allows you to automate the expense approval process, saving you and your team valuable time. You no longer need to manually review each expense report or worry about delays in approval.

✔️ Save Money: Spending policies help you control your expenses and prevent overspending, which can lead to significant cost savings for your business. You can limit spending on specific departments, projects, or vendors, preventing unnecessary expenses.

✔️ Transparency: With spending policies, you can ensure transparency in the spending process, making it easy to track expenses and identify areas where spending may be out of control or unnecessary. You can monitor spending against set limits and identify any deviations.

✔️ Reduce Fraud and Error: By setting spending policies, you can prevent fraudulent or erroneous expenses from being approved or reimbursed. The policies act as a safeguard against unauthorized expenses or incorrect amounts.

✔️ Empower your employees: Spending policies help you balance freedom and control. You can set limits while still allowing your employees to make the necessary purchases to keep the business running smoothly.

✔️ Monitoring: Spending policies allow you to monitor expenses in real-time, giving you greater visibility and control over your finances. You can make data-driven decisions, identify trends, and adjust policies to optimize spending.

Take your finances to the next level

Our cutting-edge platform empowers your team to make informed decisions while providing you with the oversight and control you need to ensure compliance. With Spending Policies, you can strike the perfect balance between autonomy and accountability, easily achieving financial success.

Don’t let budget management hold you back. Choose Spending Policies by Bujeti and take your financial strategy to the next level.

You can sign up to Bujeti today to start issuing cards to your employees, manage reimbursement requests and set up spending limits and restrictions.

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Bujeti Inc
Bujeti Inc

Written by Bujeti Inc

Budgeting and expense management tools built by africans for your African realities

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