We spoke with Sarah Chen, Finance Director at a 300-employee consulting firm, about moving from manual expense approvals to automation.

Interviewer: What was taking so long before?

Sarah: Everything went through email chains. A manager would approve, then it sat in someone's inbox for days before reaching finance. We had 40 to 60 expense reports weekly, and tracking them meant constant follow-ups.

What changed with automation?

We set up approval rules based on amount and category. Expenses under 200 dollars auto-approve if they match policy. Anything higher routes to the right manager automatically, with escalation after 24 hours of no response.

What were the actual results?

Average processing dropped from 5.2 days to under 2 hours for standard expenses. We eliminated about 15 hours of manual routing work per week. The biggest win was visibility. People can see exactly where their expense sits in the queue, so we get 90 percent fewer status emails.