ProSpend, the leading unified spend management platform, has launched a new report, Modern Spend and Expense Management: A CFO’s Guide to Financial Transformation.
The report is part of ProSpend’s ‘Start ProSpending’ campaign – addressing a critical challenge in today’s competitive environment: finance teams are losing valuable time and strategic opportunities to manual processes and disconnected systems.
“Many mid-market finance teams are stuck with outdated expense management systems. While businesses adopt digital tools elsewhere, expense processes often lag, tied to legacy methods that drain time and expose organisations to avoidable risks,” says Sharon Nouh, CEO of ProSpend. “For CFOs, these inefficiencies are both operational headaches and strategic disadvantages in an increasingly competitive landscape.”
The report unveils key insights from finance and expense management leaders, including:
- Umair Awan, Tax Consultant and Business Advisor, BSAF Group
- Kerryn Divall, CFO, RSL NSW
- Dhanush Ganglani, CEO, EdenX
- Sujeet Jena, Virtual CFO
- Retief Lampen, CFO, iion
- Andrew Mooney, Fractional CFO
- Jon Morgan, CEO, Venture Smarter
- Morgan Wilson, Founder and Director, Creditte
- Riley Redford, CFO, Xrii
Traditional invoice and expense management is mostly manual, relying on paper receipts, spreadsheets, and approvals. The workflow of submitting, verifying, recording, approving, and reimbursing expenses depends on physical documents and oversight, making it slow and error-prone.
Andrew Mooney, a fractional CFO with experience leading fiances at Sheldon, Asia Pacific Mining Limited and Compass Resources, has watched this struggle persist across the midmarket.
“While electronic processing has mostly replaced paper documents, the process itself has remained essentially unchanged,” he says.
Dhanush Ganglani, Chief Executive Officer of business buying and selling platform EdenX, also sees these pain points.
“Traditional invoice and expense management is predominantly a very manual process and is reliant around paper-based receipts, spreadsheets and manual approvals,” he says. “The workflow includes submitting receipts, verifying expenses, recording them in ledgers, obtaining approvals, and processing reimbursements. These methods often rely on physical documentation and human oversight, which makes them time-consuming and error-prone.
Business risks revealed
The hidden cost of these outdated processes isn’t just time—it’s errors, delays, and the potential risk to business decisions. In some cases, manual processing is said to be taking up to 20 hours per month per employee.
Tax consultant and business advisor Umair Awan emphasises the strategic impact of poor financial transparency and lack of visibility.
“These outdated systems hinder real-time spend analysis and limit access to up-to-date financial information, making strategic decision-making more difficult,” he says. “The inability to integrate seamlessly with modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) or spend management solutions significantly restricts scalability and regulatory compliance.”
Jon Morgan, CEO of US-based business consulting firm Venture Smarter, has observed their impact, even in a market where adoption of unified spend solutions may be more advanced.
“One client I worked with in retail was spending 15-plus hours a week just on invoice approvals,” he says. “That’s a huge waste of time, not to mention the risk of errors. When systems aren’t automated, approvals get delayed, and data gets messy, making it difficult to track spending accurately.”
Sujeet Jena, an experienced CFO with prior financial leadership roles at the National Institute for Dramatic Art and the University of New South Wales, confirms these challenges extend across sectors.
“While my experience is rooted in education and for-purpose, the challenges—and solutions—are highly relevant across the wider commercial sector. Organisations of all sizes and industries are facing the same pain points: fragmented systems, manual workflows, and a lack of real-time visibility,” he says.
Modernising systems
For Riley Redford, CFO of software development and marketing company Xrii, the weight of outdated spend management processes will be particularly cumbersome for professionals managing the finances of multiple companies.
At Xrii, Redford says the company uses an integrated tech stack, using intelligent automation tools powered by AI, that helps them streamline expense management.
“These tools streamline reporting, reduce admin hours, and allow us to focus more on analysis and strategic positioning,” he says.
Improving agile operations to deliver strategic growth
With 60% of CFOs now directly involved in technology strategy, they are taking a more active role in driving change. This shift reflects mounting pressure to improve operations, reduce inefficiencies and deliver growth.
According to Morgan Wilson, Founder and Director of Brisbane-based accounting firm Creditte, agility is often an important concept to consider when looking to improve processes around spend.
“Strategically, CFOs must balance cost control with agility, ensuring they have the right data to make proactive decisions while maintaining compliance and governance,” he says.
Modernising expense management requires balancing technical integration, strategic goals, and organisational change.
“Managing technology spend is a bit like servicing your car,” says Kerryn Divall, CFO for RSL New South Wales. “You know there is something wrong but have no idea how to fix it and so you have to trust that you have a great mechanic that won’t rip you off.
“On the strategy side, it’s all about balancing cost control with growth,” says Retief Lampen, CFO of advertising technology company vision. “The key to tackling these challenges is using real-time, integrated and data-driven expense management tools that improve visibility and control, paired with clear policies that empower teams to spend wisely while keeping the business agile and scalable.”
For more insights on transforming your financial operations, download the complete Modern Spend and Expense Management: A CFO’s Guide to Financial Transformation eBook.
About ProSpend:
ProSpend is Australia’s leading unified business spend management platform, bringing together expense management, AP automation, and virtual cards in one seamless solution. For a decade, we’ve been transforming how Australian businesses manage their spending, serving over 800 customers across Australia and New Zealand. By unifying spend management on one platform, we help businesses take control of every dollar spent and give finance teams back their time for strategic growth.
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