10 signs your finance team is overwhelmed by managing expenses

Expense management is supposed to help you keep costs under control.

But as your business grows, more people, more currencies and more payment methods can quickly push manual processes past a breaking point. It's a tricky one to manage.

Even the best laid financial plans can be undone when processes become inefficient – and worsen over time.

Suddenly, you and your finance team are stuck in busywork – chasing receipts, battling spreadsheets and acting as the internal "spend police".

Here are 10 clear signs your current approach to managing expenses is holding your business back, and what you can do about it.

1. You're drowning in manual data entry and endless spreadsheets

It's common for small finance teams to resort to spreadsheets and manual processes as the business grows.

But what starts as simple record-keeping quickly becomes a nightmare of copy-pasting, chasing receipts and reconciling expenses by hand.

These tedious workflows not only sap your productivity, but also lead to mistakes and frustration – especially as headcount, contractors and the number of expenses rise.

How Airwallex can help you

Airwallex replaces manual tasks with automated expense capture, AI-powered categorisation and seamless reconciliation – speeding up your month-end close and freeing you from soul-crushing busywork.

Some comments from customers

• Dovetail: "We saved two to three hours each week chasing receipts."

• Rodd & Gunn: "Airwallex is clearly made for non-finance people… Anyone could get it right."

2. Receipts and reimbursement requests go missing (and tempers flare)

If asking colleagues for missing receipts and expense details feels like a full-time job, you're not alone.

The finance team ends up as the office "nag", with morale suffering as people wait weeks to be reimbursed or scramble to resubmit lost documents.

And that's only if the expense process is intuitive for employees. Often, it isn't, with even the most minor miscategorisation meaning expenses need to be resubmitted.

This constant back-and-forth makes everyone feel like expense management is a hassle – and creates internal friction.

How Airwallex can help you

Employees can snap and submit receipts instantly through Airwallex's mobile app, using OCR (optical character recognition) to extract details automatically.

Custom approval flows make sure expenses reach the right manager the first time, while finance tracks and reimburses from a single platform.

Some comments from customers

• Commission Factory: "Sped up reimbursements up to 10 days faster."

• Pure Group: "Eliminates all out-of-pocket expenses and tedious reimbursement work…"

3. You have no real-time visibility – until it's too late

Many finance teams only discover overspending, errors or policy breaches once the month has ended.

Disconnected systems and slow reconciliation mean cash flow remains a black box, undermining your team's ability to act fast or plan ahead. Budgeting becomes guesswork and strategic decisions are delayed by days or weeks.

How Airwallex can help you

Airwallex unifies all spending – card, employee, supplier – in one dashboard, delivering real-time insights and eliminating delays.

Finance can monitor, forecast and control spending proactively, not just reactively. Airwallex accepts incoming payments, too – checkouts, client payments, subscriptions… but that's another story.

Some comments from customers

• Little Blossom: "Now, we enjoy the convenience of an integrated solution that's really helping us grow our retail business."

4. Approvals are a bottleneck and compliance is hit-or-miss

When approvals depend on email trails or paper forms, requests slip through the cracks and rogue spending escalates.

The finance team spends more time policing, less time enabling growth, and audit headaches become inevitable. Lack of controls means out-of-policy or even fraudulent transactions go undetected.

How Airwallex can help you

Build custom, automated multi-layer approval flows in Airwallex and embed your expense policies directly into the platform.

Set spending limits, block certain merchant categories and get real-time alerts – not "after-the-fact" discoveries.

Some comments from customers

• Qwilr: "Having a card for each department… saves me a day a month in admin."

• Mr Yum: "Issued more than 30 cards with flexible spend controls in just a few clicks, cutting down issuing time from two weeks to five minutes."

5. You're constantly switching between disconnected financial tools

This is such a common problem for start-ups that have collected disparate tech tools over the years.

If your workflow feels like moving between banking portals, accounting software, expense platforms and accounts payable tools, it isn't just you suffering.

Each solution may promise easy integration. But in reality, it means duplicate data entry, fragmented workflows and massive manual effort – especially when preparing board reports or rolling up multi-entity spend.

How Airwallex can help you

Airwallex consolidates expenses, cards, supplier payments and approvals into one platform – cutting out manual exports and the confusion of patchwork systems.

Some comments from customers

• Little Blossom: "Before Airwallex, we juggled between multiple providers... Now, we enjoy the convenience of an integrated solution."

6. Software subscriptions and recurring payments are a black hole

Trying to track which team owns which software subscription, or cancelling unused licences, becomes next to impossible.

When an employee leaves, forgotten "zombie" subscriptions continue to be paid. Finance wastes hours guessing who approved what, and surprise renewal charges pop up with no warning.

How Airwallex can help you

Instantly issue unique virtual cards for each software vendor, with limits and auto-freeze.

See all active subscriptions in one real-time dashboard and stop charges by freezing a card with one click.

Some comments from customers

• Dovetail: "Saved 15% on monthly SaaS spend."

• Auror: "If cards are lost, you simply remove the departing user… Uploading receipts is easy via the app."

7. Paying vendors is slow and error-prone – and costly

This varies from more manual work for the accounts payable team to a risk that your reputation among important suppliers will suffer damage.

Bank portals are clunky, invoices get manually keyed in (often more than once) and a single typo can result in late fees or strained supplier relationships. Paying in foreign currencies? Expect poor FX rates and surprise bank fees.

How Airwallex can help you

Upload or email bills in bulk – AI extracts all the key details. Approvals, scheduled payments and FX at interbank rates are handled seamlessly, with full integration to your accounting stack.

Some comments from customers

• Crockd: "Saves hours each week with batch payments for their payroll and recurring supplier payments."

• Bilue: "Saved 20% in accounting costs by bringing AP needs in-house."

8. International subsidiaries each run their own system

Rolling up spend across several different entities is a huge manual effort. Different branches have their own tools, log-ins and approval rules

There's no way to enforce consistent policy, see all the information together or standardise reporting for monthly business reviews or board meetings.

How Airwallex can help you

Set global policies, custom approval flows by entity or region, and view spend across every subsidiary from a single real-time dashboard – regardless of geography.

Some comments from customers

• Little Blossom: "Found a complete suite of financial tools to centralise their operations and grow their retail business."

9. Managing digital ad spend leads to surprise fees and campaign nightmares

Running ads across Google, Meta, LinkedIn and more?

Using the same card often means FX fees, poor rates and the risk of hitting card limits that pause campaigns. A manual entry error can send costs out of control with a single errant zero.

How Airwallex can help you

Issue dedicated virtual cards for each campaign and pay in the right currency, avoiding conversion fees and setting strict limits. Track spend in real time and prevent overspending with instant alerts.

Some comments from customers

• Kat the Label: "Saving on exchange rates with Airwallex cards on all international paid advertising."

10. Month-end close is a scramble, not a process

If you stay late into the evening to close month's end, this is for you. There's a last-minute dash to reconcile, match receipts, verify approvals and prepare fragmented reports.

Finance works late to meet deadlines, with accuracy and morale suffering – not to mention the risk of errors creeping into year-end accounts.

How Airwallex can help you

Airwallex brings together all your spend workflows – employee expenses, supplier payments, card management – into one platform.

That way, you benefit from real-time data, integrated approvals and easier reconciliations.

You can use all that saved time to prep ahead… or clock off early and go for pizza with the team.

Some comments from customers

• Igloo: "Reduced time spent approving, paying, and reconciling invoices from 10 hours/week to minutes."

Final thoughts

By identifying these signs early, you can set your finance team up for success – and spend less time firefighting and more time driving growth.

Ready for a better way to manage expenses? Discover how Airwallex can help.

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