Effective cost management: myth or reality?

The difficult economic situation in the country forces companies to look for new ways to optimize financial flows. Operational budget planning and competent expense management will help solve this issue. In this article, you will learn whether it is possible to make expense management effective and what convenient tool can be used for this purpose. But we will start this article by answering whether it is necessary to do it in principle.

Why optimize the company's expenses?

In conditions of market instability, companies in any sphere are looking for options to maintain stability. There are 2 possible ways to do this:

● increase profitability;

● reduce costs.

It is much easier to resort to the second option because, in every business, there is always a niche that needs to be optimized. It is important to understand that the optimization process is not just about cutting the company's costs. For example, opening a new point in an area with cheap rent will only be profitable for the business in terms of profit if it resides in the target audience of the company.

The business manager must find a way to manage costs in a way that will be beneficial in the current market conditions. The main task is to improve the production process while maintaining the quality of goods and services offered.

The initial stage of cost optimization

In a crisis, many managers panic, trying to reduce costs by laying off staff or buying cheaper materials. Such actions can have negative consequences for the business. The main task of optimization is to maintain the quality of products at lower costs. You need to analyze the company's operations and find and eliminate bottlenecks to achieve this. Here is a rough outline of how to do this:

• Summarize costs. To cut costs, you need to understand their structure initially. All information should be in the company's reporting documentation. You need to examine the past month's cost data for the entire company. If the information is stored in tabular editors or papers, this is the first weak point of the company. A modern business should be automated. Collecting company performance data with an electronic database, CRM system, or Business Wallester's multi-functional platform is much easier.
• Group expenses. It is also convenient to do this with a ready-made expense management platform rather than disparate files in a spreadsheet editor. Costs can be grouped by type, such as "stationery purchase," "hospitality," "travel," "payroll," "rent," etc.
• Segment costs. Costs can be fixed and variable. The first type cannot be affected by external factors and company productivity. These costs include salaries, tax levies, and rent. Variable costs are affected by the company's sales volume. Segmentation of costs shows the overall situation with them in the company and allows you to build a more effective management system. The most difficult thing is to minimize fixed costs, but it is possible. For example, corporate cards from Wallester, will help to minimize business expenses in the company, as it will be much easier to control them and track unauthorized spending.
• Identify major expense items. The most costly expenses are employee salaries and rent of premises. It is difficult to cut them, but there may be options to minimize them. For example, look for a cheaper place to rent or automate staff labor and thus reduce their number.
• Analyze the costs. Study which can be reduced and which can be abandoned altogether.

Detailed analysis will allow you to get a full picture of the financial situation of your business. It, in turn, will help you find ways to manage your expenses effectively. It is always good to do some online research before making any financial decisions. Reading online reviews can be very helpfull as they reveal the pros and cons found by other people.

Ways to reduce expenses

There are several simple mechanisms for optimizing costs. The choice of a particular one depends on the specifics of the company's work. But in general, the following activities will help to minimize the costs of the organization:

• Transferring employees to remote employment. It allows you to save on rent and will expand the choice in the labor market since hiring staff from other cities will be possible. Or starting business in other country to outsource some functions. For example, hire an outside accountant or lawyer to do certain jobs rather than hiring them full-time.
• Change your office. There is no need to rent a huge space in prestigious neighborhoods. Assessing the company's needs and changing the office to a compact space is worthwhile. This way, you can reduce your rental costs.
• Develop a motivation system for your staff. Using a system of bonuses and allowances for the staff motivates them to achieve better results for high profits.

Today's main tools for effective cost management are automated systems that simplify document flow, help plan budgets, control spending, and generate reports. The proprietary platform for issuing payroll cards does not require large implementation costs, but simultaneously provides maximum opportunities for expense management and helps optimize any business's financial processes in the shortest possible time.

Conclusion

With a card program, it becomes much easier to manage the company's finances. It helps to implement all of the above methods of optimizing costs, starting from their structuring and grouping, and ending with cost analysis and cost reduction. Companies receive online spending data thanks to a multifunctional platform for issuing cards and managing the card program. Having up-to-date information about the financial state of a business allows it to quickly respond to market changes and effectively manage expenses.