8 Key Things to Consider Before Adopting an Expense Solution in 2026

Adopting a new expense tool

If you are considering adopting an expense solution, chances are you are not doing it out of curiosity. 

You are doing it because something in your current process is starting to get in the way of your actual job.  

Maybe volumes have increased. Maybe you are spending too much time chasing receipts. Maybe the back and forth with employees has become constant. 

Whatever triggered the search, one thing is usually clear: the way expenses are handled today no longer fits the way your organisation operates. 

This article walks through what is realistically worth thinking about before and during adoption, helping you avoid the stress and regret that can come from choosing a tool that is not right for your needs. 

Below are 8 critical considerations when choosing an expense solution for 2026  

Number 1: Start by being honest about how manual your process still is

Before looking at alternatives, it is worth taking a clear-eyed look at how things really work today. 

I think people would be surprised by the number of companies that are still working a very very manual process. 

That often means:

• Exchanging files
• Reviewing receipts one by one
• Extracting information manually
• Entering it somewhere else
• And triggering separate processes for control and payment. 

As long as volumes are low, this can feel acceptable. But as soon as spending increases (more employees, more travel, more customer-facing roles) that same process starts to take up a disproportionate amount of time. 

“If your team is spending a large part of its week collecting evidence, fixing formats, or following up on missing information, that is usually the first sign that the process itself has become the problem.  ” 

Number 2: Pay attention to what this is stopping you from doing  

The real cost of manual expense handling is not limited to processing time. 

As a result, finance teams lose valuable time and are pulled away from their actual role, spending it on collecting evidence and checking expenses one by one instead of doing higher-value work. 

When expenses dominate your attention, forecasting, analysis, and forward-looking work get pushed aside. That cost is harder to quantify, but it is often far more significant. 

It also does not stop with finance. 

It’s not finance people are the ones that are probably the most impacted… but it has an impact for people submitting expenses as well, the employees. 

Employees lose time redoing reports, searching for receipts, and responding to corrections, usually during working hours. That friction spreads quietly across the organisation. 

“If you are evaluating a new solution, it helps to think in terms of what work you want to remove, not just what process you want to improve. ” 

Number 3: Recognise the real trigger for adoption

Most finance teams do not adopt an expense solution because they suddenly want something new. They do it when the situation becomes too frustrating to sustain. 

• Choosing the wrong solution
• Introducing complexity
• Or disrupting existing workflows.

It helps to recognise that you are not expected to design a perfect future-state process upfront. You are responding to a concrete problem that already exists. 

Number 4: Keep requirements simple and rooted in reality

One of the most common pitfalls during adoption is overcomplicating the search. 

“I think a waste of time for everybody is a list of requirements that are hundreds of lines” 

Long requirement lists often reflect uncertainty rather than clarity. They rarely lead to better decisions. 

Instead, anchor on the essentials: 

• What types of expenses do you actually reimburse? 
• Do you deal with mileage? 
• Do you manage daily allowances? 
• How complex are your policies in practice? 

Number 5: Think carefully about how expenses connect to the rest of your systems 

Adopting an expense solution in isolation rarely works well. Ask yourself: what tools do I already use, and how will the solution I choose integrate with them? 

In most cases, two systems matter most: accounting and HR. 

If users already exist in your HR system, maintaining them manually elsewhere quickly becomes another source of friction. So you don't have to manually enter or maintain the users I have in both the HR and expense tools. 

This is not about technical elegance. It is about avoiding duplicated work and reducing the risk of errors as your organisation changes. 

Number 6: Use compliance as a learning moment, not a blocker

Compliance is often one of the more uncomfortable parts of expense management, especially when processes are manual. 

Finance teams are expected to enforce rules they did not define and regulations they did not write. 

Adoption can be an opportunity to clarify what actually applies in your country or context, including how long documents and receipts need to be stored and in what form. 

That understanding often reduces uncertainty rather than increasing it. 

Number 7: Be realistic about all-in-one versus specialised tools

There is no universal answer here, and pretending otherwise usually leads to disappointment. If you have basic needs, check what exists already.

For some organisations, existing systems are enough. For others, they are not.